Rising institutional interest in crypto-currencies could herald the greatest change in financial markets for centuries 

There are many reasons why established financial institutions are starting to trade and invest in crypto-currencies but their interest is certainly driving the development of services which match what they expect to find in the traditional foreign exchange (FX) and securities markets. Substitutes for the traditional means by which counterparty credit and settlement risk are mitigated are already in use. Service providers are seeking regulated status, and commercial law is catching up with day-to-day market realities. Traditional providers need to start thinking about how they can best adapt their existing services to what might turn out to be an epochal form of change.

We have seen the future of securities and it is tokenised

Security tokens are coming. In fact, they are here already, and have been for a while. Though most of the security token offerings (STOs) in the last three years were hard to distinguish from Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs), several corporates and banks (Banco Santander, Bank of China, BBV, Daimler, Deutsche Bank, Société Générale) have tokenised bonds or loans on public as well as private blockchain networks...

Article by Dominic Hobson

Using blockchain as it was intended to make debt issuance more efficient

As blockchain technology emerges from the Trough of Disillusionment (© Gartner) and ascends the Slope of Enlightenment (© Gartner) the original promise of what it can deliver once it reaches the Plateau of Productivity (© Gartner) is being rediscovered. Capexmove, a London-based business applying blockchain initially to the debt markets, emphasises the savings in external and internal reconciliation, internal controls, internal audit and .,...

Payments innovation has failed to live up to the hype

Article by Dominic Hobson

Payments is widely applauded as one of principal theatres of game-changing innovation in financial services. The essential nature of the business, and the high volume of transactions, have certainly attracted a lot of entrepreneurs and venture capital and made some high-profile figures extremely rich. But in reality 20 years of innovation have changed nothing fundamental, and done next to nothing in terms of creating value for consumers. Dominic Hobson asks why.......

Future of finance has one overriding goal. It is to host meetings (at the moment virtual meetings) that bring together long established members of the financial services industry (banks, brokers, asset managers, insurers, financial market infrastructures) with entrepreneurs (challenger banks, technology companies and FinTechs) and market authorities (central banks, regulators and policymakers) to explore how the financial services industry can grow faster by being more open, more innovative and more trustworthy.

WHAT WE DO

We organise meetings and discussions at which to meet the people shaping change and dictating outcomes in the financial services industry - and become one of them.
A platform to encounter new ideas and fresh ways of thinking about old problems and new challenges.
Access to senior financial services industry practitioners and professionals, regulators, public policy makers, technologists and academics.
Constant opportunities to contribute to an independent information platform whose members share a passion for innovation.7