While Sibos provides the opportunity to catch up with peers and developments in their own specific field, our series of three Big Issue Debates also helps delegates to focus on the big picture. Nothing less than the future of the industry is at stake: uncertainty hangs of the security, safety and services of banks. At a time of intense regulatory scrutiny, banks face both threats and opportunities that they have never had to deal with before. Operating within the new boundaries set by governments and regulators, can banks reach out to new customers in remote and under-developed regions, while also protecting themselves and their customers from the increasingly sophisticated techniques of the cyber-criminal?</p> It is against this backdrop that we have selected cyber security, regulation, and financial inclusion as our Big Issue Debates for Sibos 2014. Some topics may be more familiar than others, but our moderators and panelists are well equipped to offer new insights and surprising perspectives on even the most high-profile of themes.</p> Perhaps the most well-rehearsed arguments of recent years have centered on the viability and desirability of the many reforms imposed on banks and the wider financial markets in the aftermath of the financial crisis. But few have followed developments as closely as Gillian Tett, assistant editor, Financial Times, and author of books on both the genesis and aftermath of the financial crisis. On Wednesday, Tett will steer an all-female panel representing banks, their clients and their advisors, through an analysis of recent regulatory output and provide an assessment the adequacy and suitability of the rules and regulations.</p> Some regulatory changes are set in stone, others are subject to further drafting, while others are still on the drawing board. And the combined impact of so many rule-changes at once is almost impossible to predict. As such, this debate provides an ideal opportunity for delegates to catch up on a fast-moving topic and appraise their own bank’s position.</p> Panellists including Sylvie Matherat, global head of risk and regulation, Deutsche Bank, and Barbara Novick, vice chairman, BlackRock, will give their thoughts on how specific pieces of legislation have addressed and identified problems, as well as commenting on measures that have not yet been enacted – but should.</p> If the safety of the financial system is still open to question, so too is its security from attack by cyber-criminals. Tuesday’s Big Issue Debate will highlight the magnitude and frequency of cyber-attacks, and ask whether governments and banks are on the right track in their efforts to protect the financial information and identity of their customers. Panellists Kris Lovejoy, general manager, IBM Security Services Division, and David Wagner, president of Entrust, believe there is much that banks can do to improve cyber-security. “Organisations must take human error out of the process,” Lovejoy told Sibos Issues earlier this year. “Attackers may go to great lengths to remain anonymous to scoop IDs or IP addresses, but what they’re not hiding is their behaviour,” noted Wagner.</p> Service provision to the unbanked provides no lesser challenge for banks than post-crisis regulation and cyber-security, but it also offers a clearer upside.</p> As part of an ongoing commitment to increase access to financial services among the world’s poor, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation supported a four-year project (2010-2013), Gateway to Financial Innovations for Savings (GAFIS). The project engaged five commercial banks operating in different continents in a quest to understand the factors that i) encourage or inhibit poor savers; ii) affect institutional capacity to serve them and; iii) contribute to a sustainable business model. The banks involved in the project aggressively tested new approaches to attract and better serve poor savers.</p> David Porteous, managing director & CEO of Bankable Frontier Associates – the organisation that ran the project – will moderate Thursday’s Big Issue Debate, in concert with a number of the banks that participated in it. How can banks adapt their services to meet the needs of the unbanked? What role can technology play and what kind of sustainable revenues can be generated? Find out how the experiences of the ‘GAFIS banks’ differed according to the realities they faced on the ground.</p> To learn more:</p> The cyber wars escalate</strong>Tuesday 30 September, 11:00-12:15</p> Rating regulatory reform: an assessment</strong>Wednesday 1 October, 11:00-12:15</p> Financial Inclusion: big banks & small savers</strong>Thursday 2 October, 11:00-12:15</p>