Should we still be banking on the blockchain?

10 years ago the UK market moved to Faster Payments - and the fraud landscape has never been the same since. What did we learn from UK Faster Payments? How did the industry adapt to the need to catch fraud in seconds rather than days? We'll discuss the cybercrime vs. defense lines dynamics, highlight the most current threats, and walk through important lessons learned.

Sun Tzu in the Art of war wisely said
“Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night, and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt.”
Regardless of what we do or where we are in our life cycle. We need a plan.
Otherwise one day we will look up at the clock and wonder where our life has gone and sadly reflect on what might have been and utter those saddest of words, if only!
Panacea adviser and Glassagh Consulting in their next bright talk session will look at why every one of us needs a battle plan for life and business.
In this informative session we will look at:
•Why a plan can work for everyone
•Why going through life without a plan is a struggle that we can all avoid
•7 simple actions that can energize your life and career
Make sure you book your place on Monday the 24th of April at 1pm
And remember the words of Sun Tzu
“Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win”
Let us help you be a winner!

Join this session where a panel of experts will discuss both practical and strategic solutions for challenges and opportunities brought about by PSD2.

Topics up for discussion include:
-What are the options for PSD2 compliance at a bank?
-What are the best ways to monetize your PSD2 API?
-Will banks all have different APIs?
-Which API should I support?
-What are the business models/strategies people can adopt as we move towards the open API economy?
-How to build an ecosystem that will add value to the organisation and to your customers and what are the things to consider? (degree of openness, platform curation, etc.)
-What will be the new rules of competition and competitive threats, and how banking and non-banking institutions can respond to the new developments.

Panacea Adviser has teamed up with BrightTalk and Brooks Macdonald for a free webcast to support and educate Financial Advisers.

Time: 11.00-11.45am
Date: 13th April 2017

This 45 minute webcast will cover:

- the recent market and economic environment
- potential issues of the current volatility in world markets
- opportunities that can exist as a result

It will then detail some of the vehicles that can be used to dampen the impact of volatile markets.

The webcast will be led by Edward Park. Edward is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and manages bespoke discretionary portfolios on behalf of a number of Brooks Macdonald clients. He also assists in the formulation of the Brooks Macdonald investment process as a member of both their Asset Allocation and Investment Committees.

This in-depth, thought provoking session will be of real value to you and your firm and not one to be missed!

Fund Manager Guy Davis explores the process of income investing, looking at how a focus on quality can lead to lower volatility.

Psigma’s Head of Investment Strategy Rory Mcpherson will be discussing the current market environment and considering what this means for economies and investors alike. In particular, he will address:

· The state of the global economy: what are the challenges and where are the opportunities
· What are policy makers doing / what are they likely to do
· How healthy is the investment opportunity set?
o What are valuations like?
o What are earnings like?
· How bullish / bearish are investors and is now the time to be buying?
· How do we at Psigma believe one should be positioned in this market
· To finish with closing comments and questions

In this webcast summit we will cover why there is reason for optimism in the Emerging Markets Fixed Income (EMFI) asset class. We will share insights into:
- How attractive is EMFI under President Trump
- Compelling reasons to invest in this asset class and why now is a good time

Value investing outperforms in emerging markets is the foundation of Eastspring’s investment philosophy. Sam Bentley, Client Portfolio Manager, will introduce you to capturing this value opportunity in emerging markets over time. He will describe Eastspring’s team structure and process, which have been designed to exploit the enduring opportunity created by behavioural biases hard-wired into individuals’ investment decisions.

Together with an introduction to our GEM Dynamic Fund, Sam will explain our focused, best ideas strategy targeting those names with significant valuation signals and potential capital growth. You will see how our approach has performed and how it differs to our GEM peers. Sam will discuss how the strategy is positioned to take advantage of the huge valuation anomalies we still find today in GEM equities.

What is this Blockchain thing? What can you do with it? Where do you go from here?

David Siegel, Blockchain and Decentralization expert, is a web pioneer, author, and serial entrepreneur. He is the world’s first web designer, started one of the world’s first web-design agencies, and sold it to KPMG.

Tune in to this session where David will answer all of your Blockchain-related questions from the most basic, to the more complex.

2017 is shaping up to be the year in which RegTech catches up with FinTech and the sector is brimming with innovative ideas that can help regulated firms address regulatory requirements in an efficient and cost effective way.

But how good is this technology, really? Can everything that is promised be delivered? At it’s best, RegTech can help firms to price and quantify the risks around a firm having a poor culture, and technology can solve problems of capturing qualitative concepts, such as behaviour and culture, and embedding these in to a firm's operational/conduct risk model.

In this discussion, Jane Walshe of Enforcd is joined by other RegTech pioneers to discuss what RegTech can do, and also possible pitfalls to be avoided in its use.

In the lead up to the Innovate Finance Global Summit 2017, FinTech leaders will come together to discuss the implications of several global events on the development of the FinTech ecosystem.

Host:
Lawrence Wintermeyer, CEO, Innovate Finance

Speakers:

Saalim Chowdhury, Entrepreneur in Residence, 500 Startups
Marta Krupinska, GM & Co-Founder at Azimo
Spiros Margaris, Venture Capitalist and Senior Advisor
Dan Morgan, Director of Policy and Regulation, Innovate Finance
Jackson Mueller, Associate Director, FinTech Program, Center for Financial Markets at Milken Institute
Lucian Morris, Head of UK FinTech, Deloitte
Niels Turfboer, Managing Director Benelux & UK, Spotcap
Simon Taylor, 11FS

The phrase 'Open Bank’ means nothing to consumers and small businesses - and probably never will.

But the whole Open Bank endeavour will enable innovative new services, delivered by more competitive suppliers - meaning that customers will have access to services that are actually relevant to them and which work in today's (and tomorrow's) world.

We'll discuss how to encourage consumers and small businesses to explore and embrace the new Open Bank world.

As the ETF market int he US continues to mature, new and existing issuers are still finding new or underserved niches.

Find out what's been attracting investment dollars and what hasn't been working, where the growth is, what is new and what is coming.

We'll focus on smart beta and thematic investing, as well as many factors driving demand and supply, such as ETF costs, regulation, innovation and fintech.