Blockchain, cognitive computing and cloud are some of the technologies that will shape the finance industry in the digital age, banking and technology CEs told a financial conference on Monday.
IBM president and CE Ginni Rometty said cognitive computing, or computer systems that could mimic the way the human brain works, would be the "ultimate way" finance firms would be more competitive. "I think the advantage is going to go to who has the best insights," he said of artificial intelligence (AI).
Over the past few years, financial institutions have been struggling to take advantage of vast amounts of data they store and which is held unevenly across numerous databases.
"We all have mounds and mounds of data, but getting data to produce insight — that is the holy grail," Bank of America chief operations and technology officer Cathy Bessant said on the sidelines of the Fintech Ideas Festival in San Francisco.
Financial institutions have also been ramping up investment into developing blockchain technology, the distributed database system that first emerged as the software underpinning bitcoin.
"Blockchain is so profound, it will do for trusted transactions what the internet did for information," Rometty said, describing it as one of the most transformative finance technologies.
Biometrics and cloud computing were also among the technologies cited as having the most impact for the sector.
Wells Fargo CE Tim Sloan said the bank was moving away from passwords and adopting technology such as voice recognition to identify customers.
He also called for greater adoption of cloud technology to "test projects through, much more quickly".
Sloan took over as head of Wells Fargo in October, in the wake of a $185m settlement between the bank, regulatory authorities and a Los Angeles prosecutor over its staff opening as many as 2-million accounts without customers’ knowledge.
"Innovation plays a very important role for me as the new CEO of Wells Fargo as we rebuild trust," he said.
While expanded use of digital technologies in finance presents opportunities, executives said it increases the threat of cyber security risk.
"The idea of having up to 50-billion connected devices in the next few years is exciting. I also think it’s scary. The scary part of it is the cyber security," said MasterCard president and CE Ajay Banga.
Reuters
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