Insights from Point Zero Forum 2024 -
The Future of Digital Finance

This year’s Point Zero Forum centred around the industry trends, implementation strategies, opportunities, and challenges in the realm of AI, ESG, and most importantly Digital Money & Payment.

CFTE as a Professional Development Partner at the Point Zero Forum, shared insights and thought leadership in roundtables, held dialogues on the initiatives taken by the private, and public sector in digital payment.

"Keynote Address by Ravi Menon, Ambassador for Climate Action, Singapore shed light on three main pillars that are transforming the future of finance: Asset tokenisation, Artificial Intelligence and Quantum Computing."

1. Artificial Intelligence

“To realise the potential of AI, we must get not just the technology right but also the governance right”.
Ravi Menon Tweet

With Generative AI replicating human intelligence in various tasks, different AI tools have been increasingly deployed in the finance industry. To harness the global risks posed by AI technology, there is an important need for a uniform international framework that is similar to the EU AI Act, which harmonises regulations across its member countries preventing market fragmentation.

Ensures a secure environment

by addressing both beneficial and harmful uses of AI technology

Establishing clear guidelines

to establish AI developments that align with ethical principles

2. Quantum Computing Race

Quantum computing, as a new topic of discussion in the forum accounts for nearly $1.3 trillion by 2035, and has two approaches to revolutionising financial services.

Quantum technology with its immense technology also poses substantial risks, through compromising the encryption protocols that safeguard financial data, potentially undermining the fundamental pillars of finance – trust and stability raising the awareness to harness the risks it brings.

Quantum optimisation

optimising complex financial processes like portfolio management and fraud detection

Quantum simulation

simulate complex financial systems and models more accurately than classical computers

Harnessing the risk

the encryption protocols that safeguard financial data potentially can undermine the trust and stability

3. Asset Tokenisation

Blockchain technology being one of the major transformative drives in the payment sector, is based on Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) enabling exchanges without a central trusted party. The success of tokenised money on DLT depends on having open and interoperable digital asset networks that can harmonise regulations from different regions.

The Bank of International Settlement (BIS)

the concept of the “Finternet” where multiple financial ecosystems can interconnect with one another through unified ledgers

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS)

with industry partners has announced the successful completion of the first phase of the Global Layer One (GL1) initiative

Recent initiatives addressing these barriers include:

The Bank of International Settlement (BIS), proposed the concept of the “Finternet” where multiple financial ecosystems can interconnect with one another through unified ledgers, similar to the Internet. This recent initiative is currently in a visionary stage where it includes leveraging technologies such as tokenisation and smart contracts.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), together with industry partners has announced the successful completion of the first phase of the Global Layer One (GL1) initiative, where international standards are set from the collaboration with policymakers, central banks, and regulators. The next step is the GL1 Org, exploring the establishment with non-profit organisations to complement the future establishment of independent operating companies.

4. Integrating Fintech in ESG Reporting

Finance integrates ESG factors into decisions to create long-term value and address sustainability challenges. This is by aggregating data from sources like utility bills and supply chain records providing a full view of a company’s environmental footprint. This data helps set sustainability targets and track progress, aiding stakeholders in evaluating sustainability ratings.

ESG reporting faces challenges due to the lack of standardised frameworks, leading to data gaps and inconsistencies. Data interoperability issues also arise from the varied data formats and the absence of a robust ESG data infrastructure.

Finance in ESG integration

Data aggregation and analysis to assess companies' environmental impact and set sustainability targets

ESG Reporting Challenges

Lack of standardisation creating data gaps and inconsistencies to harmonise data among the companies

Data Interoperability Issues

Various data formats hindering effective ESG reporting and analysis

4. Industry Collaboration in the Future of Payment

As a professional development partner, our Co-Founders reconnected with industry leaders, policymakers and regulators from central banks and jurisdictions around the world.

We were pleased to exchange insights with the public sector, dialogues with the policymakers for us at CFTE to join and gain much more knowledge for our own research and innovation hub leveraging the knowledge to provide skills framework and supporting lifelong-learning.

Our Co-Founder, Tram Anh Nguyen was invited to attend the roundtable on “Rearchitecting the Financial System: Digital Payments” with Lauren Belive, Daranee Saeju, Ron Morrow, Dr Rhys Bollen, Simon K. Basler, Naveen Mallela moderated by Claus Mortensen.

Key Discussion Points were highlited:

The current state of the global payments infrastructure and its evolution
The need for interoperability between various forms of digital money
Solutions to enhance digital payments in both international and national levels

With the intersection of traditional and digital finance in developing digital asset and payment systems, it is crucial to know use cases and the latest insights directly from the industry leaders. Join us on the ”Rearchitecting the Financial System” course co-developed with Elevandi, directly from our industry experts and senior leaders, and embark on the journey of future payment!