In this episode of FRT, we welcome Russell Wald, Deputy Director of the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI), to discuss important developments and various projects being advanced within the Institute as a leading voice on the future of AI. These topics include the findings of the 2023 AI Index Report, the case for a …

Digital Money and Future Scenarios for High-Value FlowsDevelopments in tokenization and distributed ledger technology (DLT) are opening up new fronts in the evolution of digital money. High-value transactions—including large transfers between banks, payments by big corporations, and multi-billion dollar investments by companies, asset managers, and…

In this episode of FRT, Morten Bech, Head of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Innovation Hub’s Swiss Centre, discusses Project Tourbillon, a recently completed project that developed two prototypes studying the trade-offs between privacy, security, and scalability for retail CBDCs, and how one might succeed at all three. Achieving this …

In this episode of FRT, Julia Sterling, Vice President in Business Development for Big Data & Advanced Analytics at Commerzbank, discusses artificial intelligence, the EU’s AI Act, and the connection to data policies – particularly cross-border policies.

In this episode of FRT, Ana Maria Prieto, Director of Payments System at the Central Bank of Colombia (Banco de la República), discusses the new payments infrastructure being built in Colombia, key objectives of the new system such as interoperability and security, and the timeline envisioned for this project. Ana Maria also provides insights on ho…

In this episode of FRT, Ronit Ghose, Global Head of the Future of Finance think tank at Citi Global Insights, discusses the future of money, tokens, and games. Each year, Ronit’s team publishes the “Citi GPS: Global Perspectives and Solutions” report exploring trends in digital money. This year’s report, subtitled “Blockchain’s Next Billion Users a…

In this episode of FRT, Fabian Astic, Managing Director and Global Head of Decentralized Finance and Digital Assets at Moody’s Investors Service, asks critical questions like “Why do we need digital currencies?” and “What is their value?” Fabian analyzes the use cases for various types of digital currency, from cyptoassets to stablecoins to deposit…

In this episode of FRT, Tom Mutton, Director of Fintech at the Bank of England, discusses the Bank’s joint consultative report with HM Treasury, titled “The digital pound: a new form of money for households and businesses?” Tom additionally comments on the future of financial infrastructure, addressing privacy, interoperability, public vs. private …

In this episode of FRT, Yue Hong Zhang of Boston Consulting Group (Hong Kong) and Daniel Wu of Amazon Web Services (APAC) discuss emerging technologies and the future of financial infrastructure, including the development of cloud, artificial intelligence, digital assets, blockchain technology, and the policy environment shaping the adoption of the…

This episode of FRT reflects on the role of cloud computing in the future of finance, and the recent US Treasury Report on the topic, with Howard Boville, Head of IBM Cloud Platform & Technology Lifecycle Services. Cloud computing is an essential tool for the digital transformation of financial services, but its rise has been accompanied by a globa…

Episode 132 of FRT provides an update on digital transformation in the public sector with Sopnendu Mohanty, Chief Fintech Officer at the Monetary Authority of Singapore. The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) held their Innovation Summit 21-22 March where they convened Central Banks and representatives of the financial services industry to ex…

In this episode of FRT, Silvia Attanasio, Head of Innovation at the Italian Banking Association (ABI) and President of ABI Lab, discusses interbank reconciliation using distributed ledger technology (DLT) and work the Italian banks have undertaken in support of research into a Digital Euro. Silvia is a member of the ECB Digital Euro Market Advisory…

Data is at the core of today’s economy and the future of finance, so the stakes are high as governments create the frameworks to regulate and control its use. In this episode of FRT, Jessica Renier and Conan French share some of the different vectors where the IIF sees the new developments in the policy debate as well as the key takeaways on data g…

In this episode of FRT, Jennifer Lassiter, Executive Director of the Digital Dollar Project (DDP), discusses the global development of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) and the DDP’s recent White Paper 2.0, titled “Revisiting the Digital Dollar Project’s exploration of a U.S. central bank digital currency.”…

In this episode of FRT, Jesse McWaters, Senior Vice President and Global Head of Regulatory Advocacy at Mastercard, and former Financial Innovation Lead at the World Economic Forum, gives us a look into the 2023 WEF Annual Meeting and emerging digital trends on the horizon. In its first winter being held in Davos since the start of COVID-19, Jesse …

In this episode of FRT, Jessica Renier, Managing Director of Digital Finance at the Institute of International Finance, discusses geopolitical and institutional frameworks as we close out 2022 and look forward to 2023. The environment in which financial institutions operate shapes priorities, and in turn, the workplans of global standard setting bo…

In this episode of FRT, Ryan Moore, Managing Director of Financial Services at EY, discusses trends in Machine Learning adoption in financial services and key insights in the upcoming IIF-EY Report on ML for Credit Risk and Anti-Money Laundering. Ryan will join Conan French from IIF's Digital Finance department to discuss the state of development a…

In this episode of FRT, Doug Elliott, Partner and Head of the Oliver Wyman Forum's Future of Money Initiative, discusses trends impacting global economics, the importance of designing CBDCs with a workable business model in mind, and the outlook for Crypto Winter.

The global trend of new privacy regulation that is both rushed and expansive is creating challenges for international financial services firms trying to operate amid increasing and fragmented regulation. Liz Roberts, IIF General Counsel, joins us on this episode to discuss the latest draft of the American Data Privacy and Protection Act which has g…

In this episode of FRT, Iota Nassr, Economist at the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), discusses decentralized finance (DeFi), why it matters, its institutionalization, and the implications of volatility in the market.

In this episode of FRT, Jessica Renier, Managing Director of Digital Finance at the Institute of International Finance discusses the IIF's responses to the Federal Reserve Bank and European Commission consultations on a central bank digital currency. The IIF commends the Fed and EC for taking this step forward in considering this momentous issue.…

In this episode of FRT, Ronit Ghose, Global Head of Banking, Fintech and Digital Assets for Citi Global Insights discusses the future of finance, exploring potential benefits and likely challenges of Decentralized Finance (DeFi), Web 3.0, and the Metaverse.

Leading supervisors and financial service firms are increasingly considering conduct and culture alongside the more established risk management areas. This episode explores the emerging trends surrounding conduct and culture and analyzes new solutions employing behavioral science and technology to deal with the scale and speed of the challenge.…

In this episode of FRT, Tommaso Mancini-Griffoli, Division Chief in the Monetary and Capital Markets Department, and Gabriel Soderberg, Financial Sector Expert, of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) discuss Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), including design choices and interoperability, risks and opportunities in implementation, and how the …

DeFi (Decentralized Finance) and blockchain technology are driving innovation in products and services including NFTs (Non Fungible Tokens), DAOs (Decentralized Autonomous Organizations), and DID (Decentralized Identifiers). They are also attracting regulatory scrutiny as the sector grows, risks become clearer, and these new kinds of organizations …

In this episode of FRT, Carole House, Director of Cybersecurity and Secure Digital Innovation at the White House National Security Council, and Christopher Giancarlo, former Chairman of the U.S. Commodities Futures Trading Commission and founder of the Digital Dollar Foundation, discuss the Biden Administration’s Executive Order on Ensuring Respons…

In this episode of FRT, Caroline Malcolm, Head of International Public Policy and Research for blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis, answers questions regarding cryptocurrency’s potential for use in sanctions evasion and humanitarian relief. Amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine prompting rapid and unprecedented actions from the international communit…

In this episode of FRT, we hear from Greg Wolfond, Chair and CEO at the fintech SecureKey Technologies, Toronto; and Angus McFadyen, Partner at the law firm Pinsent Masons, London. Greg and Angus were among a team of experts and IIF members who developed and finalized the Principles for Digital Trust Networks as part of the Open Digital Trust Initi…

In this episode of FRT, we hear from Andy Woolnough, Executive VP of Global Advocacy, and Sonja Kelly, Director of Research and Advocacy, from Women’s World Banking, discussing digital solutions for financial inclusion and innovation. Focused on enabling women’s financial stability and resilience, Women’s World Banking pursues research and programs…

We start off a new year of podcasts with the IIF’s new Managing Director for Digital Finance, Jessica Renier. Jessica shares her views on developments in digital finance, how she came to focus on this work, and discusses some of the key issues that will drive debate in 2022.

Chester Chua, Head of Government Affairs & Public Policy at Google Cloud, joins us on this episode of FRT to share key findings from two studies commissioned by Google Cloud on the regulation and adoption of cloud in financial services.

Linda Jeng, Georgetown University, and Andres Wolberg-Stok, Citi, join us on this episode of FRT to discuss Linda’s recently published book, “Open Banking”, which features chapters written by Andres and the IIF’s Brad Carr. A multifaceted and interdisciplinary topic, the book covers aspects from economics of data to consumer rights and decentralize…

FRT continues its 3-year tradition, partnering with Professor Chris Brummer on CQ Roll Call’s FinTech Beat podcast as we discuss key themes and developments from the recent IIF, IMF, World Bank, and DC Fintech Week conferences.

Gail Hodges, Executive Director of the OpenID Foundation, and Elizabeth Garber, VP of Digital Products at Santander, share their insights on digital identity following the recent publication of the GAIN Paper, an outgrowth from the IIF and OpenID Foundation’s Open Digital Trust initiative. GAIN outlines how an open network can encourage different p…

The dramatic growth of Mobile Money in Sub-Saharan African markets presents some interesting learnings for bank strategies and partnerships with FinTech firms, and with some fascinating scenarios ahead as app-based payment platforms enter the market.

Mindset shift for digital transformation and supporting the next wave of African entrepreneurs and their tech driven innovations are the topics for this episode.

This episode dives into the landscape of bigtech platforms, their market advantages in a data driven economy, and the regulatory response in China, UK, EU and the US with new privacy, data regulation and competition moves.

Having been spotlighted in the IIF’s new series on inclusion, Amin Khairy from CIB Egypt and Chad Harper from the Visa Economic Empowerment Institute join us on FRT to discuss their work in promoting inclusion through digitalization, with Amin’s work focusing on reaching the unbanked through device-driven banking, and Chad discussing VEEI’s latest …

NAB’s Jade Haar and UnionBank of the Philippines’s David Hardoon discuss key areas of focus for the ethical handling of customer data, including the importance of a governance framework, data control, challenges around algorithmic decision-making systems, and the importance of knowledge sharing and training. One of the key focal areas of the discus…

Wells Fargo’s Agus Sudjianto discusses approaches for ‘Explainability’, one of the key focal areas of the US agencies’ recent Request for Information on Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.

President Biden signed his new Executive Order on ‘Promoting Competition in the American Economy’ on July 9. A particularly wide-ranging and comprehensive Order, it includes 72 initiatives and recommendations for actions by 12 agencies, with key focus areas in technology and financial services, in addition to others in healthcare, agriculture, tran…

Scotiabank CRO Daniel Moore, FRT’s first guest, returns to discuss how data and innovation are supporting transformation of the Risk function, and some ground-breaking applications of Machine Learning technology to support customers, promote inclusion, and combat human trafficking.

Axel Weber, Chairman of the IIF and UBS Group AG, discusses the future of the financial services industry, amidst digitalization, changes in cost economics, the rise of tech platforms, and a growing need for cross-border coordination in data and tech policies.

We speak with Dr. Eva Hüpkes, Head of Regulatory and Supervisory Policies and Alex Stervinou, Member of Secretariat, both at the Financial Stability Board, Basel. Eva and Alex unpack the FSB consultation on targets for enhancing cross-border payments, and progress on regulation, supervision and oversight of global stablecoin arrangements, such as F…

Prof. Doug Arner of Hong Kong University discusses the experiences with China’s FinTech platforms, and some of the key learnings for policymakers and incumbent financial firms across the rest of the world.

New developments in CBDC, what they mean for market participants, forecast of format wars, and the need for interoperability are the topics of the day as we speak with Ronit Ghose, Global Head of Banks and Co-Head of Global FinTech at Citi Research who is the author of a new report “Future of Money: Crypto, CBDCs and 21st Century Cash”.…

FRT captures highlights from the 2021 IIF Asia Summit, with C-suite executives and central bank governors discussing the big strategic issues, including international digital co-operation and support for SME businesses in transitioning in an eCommerce economy.

Shameek Kundu surveys the landscape of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning across the financial services sector, observing the industry’s maturity with the technology, how the ecosystem of players is evolving, and the role played by regulators.

Norway’s BankID has been a leader in the use of secure bank credentials for accessing commercial and government services online. Vipps International’s Katinka Jussie Brurberg and Jessica Broström share the successes of this initiative, and the growing interest in --and opportunities for --applying this approach around the world.…

Bank of England’s Oliver Thew and Mohammed Gharbawi join us on FRT to discuss their recent Bank article on the impact of COVID-19 on the use of machine learning and data science in UK banking, and more widely key challenges around the use of AI and ML in finance.