Should we still be banking on the blockchain?

Psigma’s Head of Investment Strategy, Rory Mcpherson, will give an overview of some of the key themes in markets.

He will discuss the current environment and share some of Psigma’s thoughts on where they believe are the best opportunities to add value at this stage in the cycle. This will include a tour of asset classes as well as some of the favoured fund picks the team are employing.

Playing around with the idea of introducing Blockchain to your business? Not sure how to make it an operational part of your organisation?

Join this panel session where experts will discuss:

-Industry use cases
-Scaling opportunities for blockchain businesses
-Emerging trends in ICOs
-Common challenges with integration and how to overcome them

Mobile technology has created distributed networks that allow us to interact with one another in entirely new ways.

Blockchain brings trust and security to these networks and allows the world to connect and exchange value without intermediaries like we've never done before.

From payments to identity and infrastructure, join this webinar to learn how the worlds of mobile and blockchain meet and what it means for our future.

The title smart contracts is used to refer to a number of arrangements in which relationships are governed by a pre-determined digitalised arrangement, so that coded instructions execute on the occurrence of an event.

These often use Blockchain or distributed ledger technology to record and execute transactions. In their purest sense, the code – once agreed – becomes self-executing and self-governing and thus (it is argued) replaces the need for a wider contract or checks and balances.

Whilst their common name is arguably a misnomer (they are not necessarily contracts in the traditional legal sense), their implementation can enable transparency in supply chains and the reduction of frictional and intermediary costs.

This panel will examine how the concepts of smart contracts, utilising blockchain technology, can co-exist with existing legal concepts to include a review of:

· The distinction between traditional legal prose/code and programming code.

· Application of traditional principles (to include the three f-words: frustration, fraud and force majeure)

· The allocation of responsibility and liability.

· Practical steps and perspectives on the future.

Regulation has been considered an obstacle when it comes to the adoption of blockchain technology. But many have taken on the challenge and have actively started to take blockchain and DLT as both a challenge and an opportunity.

Join this panel where we will discuss:

-ICOs, Self regulation of ICO, status of tokens in an ICO
-How blockchain will affect existing market regulations
-Which new regulations can we expect to respond to the ecosystem that blockchain has created?
-How would the governance structure be determined?
-How can the obstacle of a cross-border environment be tackled?

Much has been written about the power and scope of Smart Ledgers and Mutual Distributed Ledgers (MDLs, aka blockchains). Amidst the rush to find new applications for this versatile, ‘trustless’ technology, people overlook the challenge of governing Smart Ledger networks. Governance provides the mechanisms required to balance accountability of the governing body and its duty of meeting the specific objectives of the organisation.

Effective governance of Smart Ledgers should answer four critical questions - How are rules created for the ledger and who oversees their application? What happens in the case of dispute? Who is allowed to change the software application and the data? How are security, risk and performance managed and reported?

One approach is to embed these questions in existing legal structures, another to try to remain outside, but a third is to explore the appropriate role of arbitration, mediation, and expert determination, as far as possible avoiding enmeshing novel identity, document, and agreement exchanges within traditional legal structures.

In this webinar, Professor Michael Mainelli will share research from the Mattereum initiative as well as Long Finance research sponsored by the Cardano Foundation. He will conclude that, while there is nothing new under the sun, Smart Ledgers may need to shift the balance of power from law, to code, to human wisdom.

Bitcoin is all the rage right now. But many question the security behind this popular cryptocurrency.

Join this session where Anupam's agenda will include:

-Brief intro
-Anonymity Vs. Pseudonymity
-Bitcoin working mechanics and cryptography involved
-Forensics
-Transaction conduct and types
-Wallets and types
-Blockchain explorer
-Bitcoin artifacts
-Conclusion

Listen to expert panellists discuss:
- Today’s landscape of security, authentication and digital identity
- Issues and the future of security, authentication and digital identity
- How is blockchain being applied in this industry?
- How could blockchain do more in this industry?

Still confused about this whole Blockchain thing? Interested in investing in digital currencies, but not sure where to start? Want to get a better idea of the threats and opportunities?

David Siegel is a Blockchain, decentralization and business agility expert who has been a high-level management & strategy consultant to companies like Sony, Hewlett Packard, Amazon, NASA, Intel, and many start-ups. David has been praised for being able to explain Blockchain in the most simple and interesting way.

What you will learn:
-What is Bitcoin?
-What is the blockchain?
-What is Ethereum? What is Ether?
-What is a distributed application?
-What is a smart contract?
-What is a triple ledger?
-What about identity and security?
-What business models are at risk?
-What are the opportunities?
-What should we do?

Are we going to see digital central bank currencies in the future? Who will be the next country to introduce its own digital currency?

All these and more will be tackled by our panel, so get your questions ready.

Agenda points will include:

-Is there going to be a Bitcoin crash?
-What are some of the adoption issues for digital currencies?
-The sustainability of blockchain and cryptocurrencies for making and processing payments
-Assessment of risks
-Introducing cryptocurrencies in the mobile world

Cybersecurity is a booming sector with plenty of implications for the FinTech industry. This webinar will look at the latest trends and emerging synergies in an increasingly complicated digital landscape.

Digital transformation is a promise that many have been skeptical of. Join this panel where industry experts will tackle all the tough questions and provide new and thought-provoking insights.

Among others, they will discuss:

-Can the banks switch to making money from enabling customers’ healthy financial behaviour, rather than from continuing to exploit ongoing financial self-harm?

-Traditional banking is on the verge of major disruption, so digital transformation had better deliver *actual* transformation. Tinkering is expensively pointless

-Continuing to exploit inertia-driven customer behaviour – and thus coining excess profits - will be seriously challenged by Open Banking

Panelists:
Moderator: Dr. Louise Beaumont, Head of Open Bank at Publicis.Sapient
Aleksi Grym, Head of Digitalisation at Bank of Finland
Bharat Bhushan, Industry Technical Leader, Banking and Financial Markets at IBM

Digital transformation is increasingly becoming a major strategic issue for banks. They increasingly understand that digital is not just another distribution channel but a major change in their business models, functioning, cultures themselves with major impacts and demanding change programs across the whole business and value chains.

We will assess how these transformations are taking place, how do they impact the financial services sector, how the implementation of technologies such as blockchain are accelerating the transformation, where are the convergence and in particular how best startups and incumbents can work together.

Moderator: Jean-stephane Gourevitch
Panelists:
Alexa Fernandez, Head of FinTech Partnerships at BBVA
Christoffer Hernaes, Chief Digital Officer at Skandiabanken
Arthur Leung, Product Lead at Curve
Laurence Leyden, General Manager for Financial Services at SAP

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The use of mobile banking apps has doubled in 2 years. How can banks and fintechs capitalise on this and where what are the cool new innovations we can count on seeing next?

Join this session where the panel will discuss:

-The Payment Services Directive 2 (PSD2) is just around the corner. How will this change the banking landscape?

-What kind of exciting solutions will appear in the next years?

-What are the most exciting apps/new functionalities that you have seen/expect to come out of PSD2?

-What are some of the most important customer benefits/use cases you see emerging – apart from a better user experience?

-How will mobile banking and personal finance apps change user behaviour? Will approaches such as gamification have a lasting effect on the spending habits/financial literacy of future generations?

-In the past 24 months a considerable number of challenger banks received a banking license from their local regulators. How will these banks change the game for their competitors

-Millennials are at the moment the main target group of challenger banks. Will those new banks be able to successfully acquire a broader customer group?

-What are the major trends that will shape the mobile banking industry in the next 3 to 5 years? API? AI?

Is it too late for incumbent banks to try and still win at the Relationship game, wow the consumer with addictive experience and become beloved brands? If we believe only new players will be able to do the above and many banks will become pipes - do they have a back-up business plan in place for that alternative?

Attend this panel debate where the speakers will discuss all this and more:

- What will banking look like in a post-PSD2 Europe and once Open banking models start to emerge? When will that be?
- Is banking culture one of the inhibitors of change and what can we do to change that?
- Define what "Invisible Banking" means to you and the consumer
- What role will Platforms play in this new world over the next few years?

Banking is changing! The emergence of digital technologies and fintech are supporting changes in the way consumers use these products/services, particularly millennials.

These new style banking services are becoming much more than simply a way to look at one's bank account, or to pay. They are becoming truly financial cockpits and watchtowers that consumers can use for a wide range of usages whenever, wherever whether it is to manage better their finance, pay and order on mobile commerce, transfer money between them, etc.

We will discuss the way they are transforming personal finance, how consumers change their usage patterns, what are the impacts, how startups innovate, how incumbents and new players are interacting, where are the truly disruptive services, etc.

This panel of speakers from both VC's and start-ups will discuss:

-How to understanding the unit economics of digital banking and why some VCs get things wrong
-Where the digital banking market is going
-Should legacy banks follow suit? Should they wait and see who will turn a profit/shut down?
-What are some of the mistakes that digital banks are making that makes VC's hesitant to invest?

While the launch of PSD2 is approaching fast, there is still some ground to cover to turn this regulation into reality.What are the challenges and opportunities and what is required to make PSD2 work?

Marijke Koninckx, Product Marketing Manager at FIS, discusses how PSD2 transforms the relation between banks and their customers into a new 3-way relationship.

How should banks manage this new 3 way relationship?
What are the implications and what functional and technical issues need to be addressed to be successful?