Microsoft at Sibos 2023: Showcasing Microsoft Cloud for Financial Services
For financial services professionals who attended the Sibos 2023 conference on September 18 to 21, 2023, in Toronto, Microsoft was delighted to showcase innovation in AI, share our insights and learning, and highlight the progress of our partners and customers. Some attendees may have found it hard to believe that it has not even been two years since Microsoft Cloud for Financial Services arrived in the marketplace. We’ve come a long way in a short time.
From the start, financial services organizations responded positively to our cloud offering, which is designed to help them unlock business value and deepen customer relationships. Built on the broad and integrated capabilities of the Microsoft Cloud, we provide a unique set of industry-specific solutions, components, and AI models that are optimized to ease interoperability and unify data. Solutions built on our cloud have helped financial services organizations improve employee productivity, operational efficiency, and customer experience, all while maintaining security and compliance.
Customer interest soared after November 2022, when the era of generative AI began with OpenAI’s release of ChatGPT and, soon after, the availability of Azure OpenAI Service. And in the past six months, many of our customers have taken promising early steps to start harnessing the power of generative AI to transform their operations and value propositions. This will be central to our participation at Sibos.
Microsoft at Sibos: A focus on payments in the era of AI
Sibos is a key event that brings together industry executives, decision makers, and thought leaders to debate and collaborate on areas such as payments, securities, cash management, and trade. The theme at this year’s event, “Collaborative finance in a fragmented world,” resonates with the work we’re doing across the industry, as it touches on inclusion, risk management, sustainability, and the balance of technology and trust.
Our focus at Sibos was the future of payments in the era of AI. Beyond a complete set of sessions and presentations from experts across our business, we will demonstrate how the latest AI innovations of the Microsoft Cloud, together with solutions from our global partner community, can help commercial and corporate banking customers build new solutions and find new efficiencies.
Among our innovations, we demonstrated an integrated copilot experience for asset management as a new user journey across analytics, workplace services, and data intelligence. We also illustrated the power of AI with new workflow approaches that leverage Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Power BI, and our data solutions.
Partner innovation is central to our cloud
We were especially proud to showcase the contributions of our growing Microsoft partner ecosystem at Sibos. Our global partners comprise a unique community of leading technology providers who help banks, capital markets firms, insurance providers, investment firms, and other organizations efficiently engage as an ecosystem to create products and services, solve specific business problems, and achieve their business goals.
Our strategic partners build solutions on Microsoft Cloud for Financial Services that accelerate the delivery of value to customers. We partner with independent software vendors (ISVs) such as ASC Technologies, Backbase, Finastra, LSEG, Moody’s, and Symphony AI, as well as global systems integrators (GSIs) like Accenture/Avanade, EY, and PwC, to create, implement, and enhance solutions that are tailored to the unique needs and requirements of financial services organizations.
“Our LSEG-Microsoft partnership will innovate in a way that will have a significant impact, disrupt the status quo, and make a real difference to the way our financial services customers discover data, create models, make informed decisions, and create unique insights.”
—Satvinder Singh, Group Head of Data and Analytics, LSEG.
During the conference, there were exciting announcements regarding generative AI investments from Intellect Design and Trade Ledger that will provide deeper insights into our joint efforts.
Microsoft at Sibos 2023
- Matthew Kerner, Corporate Vice President, Microsoft, and Dmitri Sedov, Group Head, Data Intelligence, LSEG had a special session, “Unleashing Capital Markets Generative AI Insights.” They discussed their progress and vision for the future of global financial services solutions built on Microsoft Cloud and AI capabilities powered by LSEG data and analytics.
- The Sibos audience also heard from several Microsoft experts on topics such as the following:
- Beyond the Buzzwords: Understanding the Reality of AI’s Reach—Jacqueline O’Flanagan, General Manager Financial Services, Microsoft Canada.
- Instant Treasury: Everything, Everywhere, All at Once—Anita Mehra, Corporate Vice President, Global Treasury and Financial Services.
- Cloud Sovereignty: Defining the Best Approach and Actions—Sean Foley, Chief Technology Officer Worldwide Financial Services.
- Embracing ISO 20022: Assessing Opportunities and Overcoming Challenges for Third Parties, and Modernizing Correspondent Banking in a Fragmented World—Peter Hazou, Director of Business Strategy, Worldwide Financial Services.
- Embracing Global Connectivity to Unlock the Future of Finance—Chris Barry, Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Canada.
- Finally, on the Microsoft booth, Microsoft’s Rosie Mastrandrea, Senior Director of Product Marketing, Regulated Industries, hosted the Women in FSI panel, featuring Microsoft executives Willayna Banner, Senior Director and Head of Web3/Blockchain, Banking, Insurance and Trust, and Karen Del Vescovo, Corporate Vice President, Financial Services, together with our partners Dubie Cunningham, Banking Group President, Zafin, and Kalliope Chioti, Chief Marketing and ESG Officer, Temenos.
Providing a foundation of trust for financial services
The wide range of solutions we shared at Sibos 2023 highlighted how Microsoft Cloud for Financial Services is generating new value for customers and deepening their customer relationships. Across this broad spectrum, customers are realizing specific benefits in these areas:
- Better customer experiences. Using tools, data, and AI to deliver more relevant and personalized interactions, infused with deeper client insights, which results in greater profitability and customer loyalty.
- Empowering employees. Using automation, collaboration, and communications to advance employee productivity, enhance process efficiencies, and alleviate administrative burden.
- Managing risk and compliance. Optimizing operational risk management with technology solutions and programmatic support to help deliver risk insights, comply with regulatory requirements, secure identities, and manage sensitive data against threats.
- Modernizing payments and core banking. Facilitating secure cloud migration of essential core systems and data without compromising control, compliance, or business continuity, which empowers customers to innovate while also reducing costs.
- Creating a sustainable future. Working to help meet environmental, social, and governance (ESG) standards with Microsoft Cloud benefits that both improve the bottom line and better support the planet.
On the horizon for Microsoft Cloud for Financial Services
Moving forward in the new era of AI, we will continue to build on our innovations and learnings, working with our financial services customers to identify and prioritize use cases, enable copilots and plugins for value-add experiences, and explore the new frontiers of generative AI and LLMs. We will continue to invest in flexibility and extensibility with Microsoft Cloud for Financial Services to enable a broader partner ecosystem.
It’s an amazing time to be involved in the financial services industry. Our commitment continues to be empowering our customers to deliver first-class customer experiences, transform their operations, and open new opportunities.
Stay tuned for upcoming blog posts that will explore the impact of generative AI in the financial services industry.
