In last night's Expert Briefing at the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management, Prof. Philipp Sandner, Frankfurt School Blockchain Center; Beate Murray, Western Union International Bank and Magda Rokosz, Geopolitical Intelligence Services (GIS), shared valuable insights on The Future of Finance in a Changing World.
In the first of a three-tiered presentation, Prof. Sandner described the nature of blockchain technology and its immense potential for the future. Unlike the Internet's function as an information transfer, blockchain is a framework of various technologies intended for value transfer. Germany is well positioned in this new technology along with the Baltic states, Liechtenstein, Switzerland and Malta.
Ms. Murray depicted new trends in the financial sector, FinTechs being the big competitor of traditional banks due to the absence of regulation. As such, cooperation would be a win-win situation. She expressed the need for new strategies in the traditional banking sector; for instance, by concentrating on certain areas such as Western Union's focus on risk management. She sees future banking staff rather being technology experts from startups rather than from traditional banking areas.
Finally, Ms. Rokosz explained how the globalization process has resulted in parallel systems of traditional banks and private money transfer solutions, with the state loosing more and more influence in the latter. GIS' home venue of Liechtenstein is taking the leap into the future and is supportive of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. At the same time, it is trying to cope with risks by setting clear rules to counter abuse in the application of this technology.
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