This piece is posted at Intelligent CIO and is basically a brief interview summary of a fintech CIO on the topic of tech transformation in today’s ever changing landscape. In this case the CIO represents a Luxembourg-based, fully licensed bank that provides BaaS services to other financial institutions and payments companies, with an emphasis on x-border. We covered the need for banks to embrace digital transformation in recent member research as well. In an era of fintech innovation and various challenges on the revenue margin side, many FIs are reviewing their technology approaches to determine how best to fit into the picture during the next decade. This challenge generally applies to all industries, and CIOs are at the forefront of tackling the issue.
‘To be a CIO you must be curious and strive to learn new things about both technology and the business you are working for. This has always been a requirement for the role but as the world becomes increasingly dominated by tech, it can be difficult to stay on top of….A lot has changed in the past five years. Just take the pandemic as an example – it has undoubtedly accelerated Digital Transformation and changed the way we interact in business and society for good. From running a company, to keeping connected to friends and family, we have all been forced to adopt digital tools – and they aren’t going anywhere.’
The questions go on to discuss various things that CIOs are grappling with today and a clear need to shift infrastructure to the cloud in some way, shape or form. We have also been pointing this out in various research, including the 2021 Outlook from Q4 2020. While larger institutions have the scale to deal with dramatic change, that is not always the case with smaller asset institutions, so they must look to creative approaches that allow for rapid employment of latest gen tech to satisfy the client base’s expectations.
‘Technology is constantly evolving which means so is the role of the CIO. Indeed, there is a whole host of new technology to learn about. For example, in financial services, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) have the power to totally transform the industry. We are already making major inroads, especially when it comes to fighting money laundering and fraud – whereby AI dramatically increases rules precision, highlighting patterns the naked human eye could never spot. It’s the job of the CIO to tap into new trends and stay ahead of the curve….Embracing emerging tech is one piece of the puzzle, another relates to navigating a permanent shift to hybrid working. With teams separated by geography at least some of the time, soft skills such as communication, mentoring and leadership will be even more critical than before. Not only do soft skills help manage a team effectively, but they also help instil a large degree of trust across the whole organisation, from board level to interns. This is crucial because as a CIO you’re making decisions that keep the company running and you need to reassure people that you’re making the right choices.’
Overview by Steve Murphy, Director, Commercial and Enterprise Payments Advisory Service at Mercator Advisory Group
