September 20208 IT innovation is currently having one of its golden ages. Many technologies such as Blockchain, AI, Data Analytics, Robotics, OCR, etc., made significant progress in the last 2 to 5 years, triggering interest in the banking community to try to apply these technologies individually or in a combined manner in business activities. The trade finance world, with all the paper-based and manual processes, is a suitable area to leverage these new technologies in order to offer better user experiences, significantly improve the efficiency of operational processes, and be more agile in bringing new products to the market. My personal innovation journey started almost four years ago with Blockchain. That period of time was probably the "peak of inflated expectation" as described in the Gartner's Hype cycle: no business problem would survive the new technology onslaught and the disintermediation threat aimed at the banks had never been so high. Since then, banks have frenetically gone into internal or external Proofs of Concept (POC). Some banks chose to become partners with Fintech companies, as they assessed the relevance of the technology in a wide range of use cases to build hands-on expertise and to use innovation as a communications tool. Several banking groups went as far as investing directly into Fintech companies to support their strategies.Now, while some significant achievements have been reached, the market has started to realize that the Blockchain journey will be longer than expected. Still, the accumulated experience through try-outs, successes, set-backs and challenges in implementing Blockchain solutions allows the industry to approach the topic with a more level head and focus on what is fully aligned with their strategy. Here are a few lessons that I learned in driving innovation projects within BNP Paribas.From competitors to partnersTen years ago, the general approach for big banking groups was to differentiate themselves through proprietary platforms, and Fintechs were seen more as competitors. The new innovation hype and the rise of Fintech firms was presented as a disruption threat for the incumbents and a risk of disintermediation. While there has been Fintech success, notably in payments, the paradigm between Banks and Fintechs has changed over the last years with more collaboration and partnerships, leveraging the openness and nimbleness of the Fintechs with HOW RECENT TECH DEVELOPMENTS AND TRANSFORMATIONS IN FINTECH HAVE IMPACTED YOUR BUSINESS ENVIRONMENTBY GUILLAUME WONG-SO, DIRECTOR OF TRADE & TREASURY SOLUTIONS ­ PRODUCT MANAGEMENT AMERICAS, BNP PARIBAS (EURONEXT: BNP)IN MY V EW
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