As it does every year, Sibos 2023 brought the finance and banking world together for an explosion of conversations, panels, and presentations, exploring what is next for the industry. Given IntellectEU’s areas of innovation, our observations naturally gravitate towards the role of emerging and distributed ledger technologies in the future financial landscape. The following are the key insights we walked away with. 

1. Interoperability is center-stage

In terms of distributed ledger technologies, no word came up more at Sibos than Interoperability. Financial institutions are the major force behind the tokenization of real-world assets, and their need to communicate with applications from other companies is driving this need for interoperability. A clear consensus is forming that the future is multi-chain. Therefore, interoperability needs to be both cross-chain and between DLT solutions and traditional financial infrastructures. 

“It's all about creating a seamless bridge between these two worlds — the potential is enormous,” explains Javier Garcia, Digital Assets & Tokenization Lead at IntellectEU. With financial market infrastructures driving the charge towards widespread DLT adoption, he notes, their commitment to innovation is setting the stage for exciting developments.

2. Blockchain is no longer ‘a solution looking for a problem’

For a long time, critics of blockchain and associated technologies argued that it lacked a clear business case. Experts at Sibos 2023 emphatically disagreed. There is a move towards viewing blockchain as the best technological fit to various challenges in the financial world, and away from its old label as a ‘technical solution looking for a problem’.

“As many of these solutions mature, the issue is no longer the DLT aspect, but rather how we can develop new operating models without disrupting old ones,” explains Chris Kelly, Head of Americas at IntellectEU. This, he notes, requires seamlessly plugging new DLT-based solutions into core back-office systems at financial institutions. 

3. Cross-border payments enter a new age

Another major talking point during Sibos was the transformative transition to ISO 20022. The emerging standard for electronic data interchange is fostering greater alignment between institutions. It will also enable a host of new capabilities like pre-validation of payments, drive increased automation, and reduce operational costs for global banking networks.

“Interestingly, emerging technologies, such as DLT, chart similar journeys to what I encountered when I began championing the value and benefits of IS0 20022 as far back as 2008,” observes Omar Rodriguez, Head of Digital Services at IntellectEU. He notes that it is only recently, in 2023, that this standard has finally broken through. 

IntellectEU: Ready for the Next Wave

Working with a huge range of complementary and even competing technologies, IntellectEU specialists know better than most the necessity and challenge of bringing these solutions together harmoniously. That is why it was so compelling to see Sibos presentations repeatedly underscoring the message of interoperability. 

The integration of business applications and systems is more essential than ever for the flourishing of the financial sector. Emerging payment technologies, combined with upgraded legacy payment systems, demonstrate that the financial landscape is bristling with innovation and opportunities. But our most critical take-away is the need to remain – as always – curious, agile, and excited about the next wave of financial innovation.