As a global company, we attend events around the globe. This past week Ivy Luu, Director, Cash and Liquidity Solutions, and Kevin Hillgren, Managing Director, Treasurer, were in San Diego attending the BAFT Global Annual Meeting. In this short blog, they share their insights and learnings from the event.

Q: How did this event compare to similar conferences you’ve attended?

Ivy: This was one of the better events I’ve attended. There were plenty of engaging and insightful presentations, but also a lot of great meetings. It’s rare to have such a large gathering of bankers from around the industry, so the opportunity to connect and network was unparalleled. The opportunity to meet potential partners was also terrific; weeks, or even months worth of meetings can be accomplished in just a couple of days.

Q: What were your highlights from the event?

Ivy: The EVP of Innovation for Wells Fargo, Lisa Frazier, was a particularly memorable speaker. She was on a panel discussing “Banking 2030- evolution of disruption” and this panel gave me a clear depiction of where the banking industry is going and I found her both eloquent and forward thinking.

Another great panel was “Competition among cross-border payment networks” with panelists from Swift, Visa, Ripple, and PNC Bank, all discussing the different avenues of payments both today and in the future. Very insightful.

Q: Any surprises at the event?

Ivy: The amount of relevant, engaging, and perceptive content really surprised me. While this may not sound surprising, I don’t often leave a conference feeling inspired and energized!

Q: What generated the most buzz around nanopay and its products?

Ivy: I quickly realized that there is nobody out there like nanopay. BAFT is typically a bank-heavy event, and while it does attract a few fintechs, nobody like nanopay, and nobody who offers a product like ours. There are competitors who may be able to offer aspects of what we offer, but nothing all encompassing- cryptographic security, scalability, impressive throughput, centralized, and fiat backed. Banks were shocked to hear about our product’s capabilities.

Q: What were your top industry learnings or insights?

Ivy:

1. Financial institutions are often thought of as slow moving, but these organizations are capable of innovating and pivoting very quickly. Still, the industry is not yet where it needs to be. Faster payments have arrived, but real-time rails are still lagging behind.
2. Banks know about distributed ledgers and cryptocurrencies, because they are discussed in the media so much, but they are unaware that there are really good alternative solutions, like nanopay’s Liquid product.
3. Banks are threatened by tech’s “Big 4” (Amazon, Google, Facebook, and Apple) even more than fintechs, due to their size, potential to disrupt, and global reach. As one of the speakers said, “Big tech is a sleeping giant, but what will happen when they wake?”