What's Next in the Digital Transformation of Financial Industry?

Abstract

The recent report on FinTech to the European Commission by the Expert Group on Regulatory Obstacles to Financial Innovation (ROFIEG), of which the author was a member, noted that just 19 of the 161 largest retail and commercial businesses globally are implementing digital transformation at scale. 3 However, over the next 10 years, Europe will grow its FinTech market with existing and new players deploying Al, DLT, smart contracts, and quantum computing at scale. Al will radically transform the front, middle, and back offices of banks. However, as I conclude elsewhere,' the industry will have to manage its information architectures better if it is to fully leverage the potential of an Al to take data analytics to the next level or reduce the burgeoning costs of regulatory compliance. Significantly, innovations in smart contracts and DLT will transform the payment marketplace as they will enable crypt° assets of all types to be traded at all levels across markets. I expect that disruptive digital innovations based on the trading of cryptoassets will transform monetary and fi nancial systems. However, quantum computing with its potential to make strong Al a reality, and at a practical level to perform complex tasks, such as optimizing investment portfolios, identifying arbitrage opportunities, performing accurate credit and risks scoring, and so on, will be the fi nal step in the digital transformation of the industry. It is clear from the forgoing that no one technology is a silver ballet in digital transformation of financial institutions.