The events of the first day of the business programme of the Forum of Innovative Financial Technologies FINOPOLIS 2018 concluded on 18 October. The Forum programme kicked off with the 5-km FinTech morning race along the embankment of Sochi Olympic Park in which more than 100 people took part.
The Forum’s business programme opened with an address from Chairwoman of the Bank of Russia Elvira Nabiullina. Speaking to the participants, she noted the importance of interaction between business and the regulator in developing approaches to managing the financial sector: «The Central Bank, as a regulator, faces major challenges in the process of supporting financial technologies. We have to pass between Scylla and Charybdis: avoid stifling financial technologies as they are tenderly embraced by regulation, on the one hand, and, on the other, not to overlook risks that could create problems for citizens and businesses. That’s why it is very important for us to develop approaches to regulation together with business».
The first plenary discussion — ‘New Competitors and New Alliances. Fintech as a Driver for Developing a Competitive Market’ — was attended by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Maxim Akimov, Chairman of the Board of Directors of AlfaStrakhovanie and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Alfa Bank Petr Aven, President and Chairman of the Board of Sberbank Herman Gref, Founder and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Tinkoff Bank Oleg Tinkov, and Principal Research Scientist with the MIT Sloan Initiative on the Digital Economy George Westerman.
The participants discussed interaction between the government and business in creating new technological services and the role of financial technologies in the development of a competitive market. Akimov noted that the creation of internal skills within the government for the development of digital applications will have a positive impact on the market. «We are currently thinking about revising the concept of ordering digital services and applications and switching from the outsourcing model to an in-house model by creating skills from the inside», he said.
During the second plenary discussion — ‘Data — The New Oil?’ — participants discussed the value and opportunities of big data and the rules of the game in the battle for big data as well as the security of the processing, storage, and transmission of data and the capabilities of artificial intelligence.
The thematic sections of the first day were devoted to rapid payment systems, the transparency and security of the banking system, and the threats and opportunities of artificial intelligence, among other issues.
On the sidelines of the Forum, the winners of the Youth Day FinTech were awarded and pitch sessions by the finalists of the Fintech startup competition were held.
George Westerman and Professor at the Stern School of Business and the Center for Data Science at New York University Vasant Dhar gave open lectures during the first day of the Forum.
