Last chance to join the Club this year …

If you haven’t yet attended the Financial Services Club, you may be interested in details of our final events of 2009.

The Financial Services Club was created in 2004 as a private networking club for financial professionals that focuses on the future of financial services. We meet regularly for debates, commentary, ideas and discussions and provide a platform for practitioners, regulators and industry leaders to meet, network and discuss the future of our industry.

Since our humble origins almost six years ago, we now have regular meetings in London, Edinburgh, Dublin and Vienna.

Here are details of our final meetings for 2009:

Thursday 19th November 2009, London

“IT governance – getting the business and technology functions and structures to work in harmony for maximum ROI”

This meeting will be a discussion chaired by Nick Kalisteras, Director of Intellect, and an esteemed panel comprising:

• Andy Watkin-Child, Deputy General Manager, Operations Risk Control Group, Mizuho Corporate Bank
• Michael Baume, Chief Risk Officer, Allied Irish Bank
• Vikram Lund, Banking & Financial Markets Leader - North East Europe at IBM
• Sunil Rajappan, Director – Financial Services UK&I, HCL
• Martin Bulley, Chair of the IT governance group for the Fixed Income business, BNP Paribas

Getting IT and Business to work together has always been difficult and now so more than ever. This is why IT governance - a subset of Corporate Governance focused on IT systems and their performance and risk management - has been gaining rising interest due to compliance initiatives, such as Basel II, as well as the acknowledgment that IT projects can easily get out of control and profoundly affect the performance of a financial institution.

This is why IT decisions can no longer be made by IT on their own as effective IT governance implies a system in which all stakeholders, including the board, internal customers, and in particular departments such as finance, have the necessary input into the decision making process. This is to ensure that the critical support of IT is made as a joint decision such that IT cannot be later held solely responsible for poor decisions. It also prevents critical users from later finding that the system does not behave or perform as expected ... or does it? This critical meeting of the technology trends group will look at the best practices in IT governance today with an esteemed panel.

This is part of a series of joint events on Technology Trends between the Financial Services Club and Intellect, sponsored by Speechly Bircham, which will take place at Speechly Bircham's Conference offices at 6 New Street Square, London EC4A 3LX from 6.00 p.m. until 8.30 p.m.

Thursday 26th November 2009, London

“The future of Bank-led mobile payments” with Thomas Bostrøm Jørgensen, Chief Executive Officer of Luup

Can Bank-led mobile payments succeed in equal measure in both developing and developed countries? This presentation will give first hand insights from a leading mobile payment solutions provider, London based Luup, on the differentiating drivers, inherent challenges and opportunities. The contrasting business models of a Bank-led approach versus other more complex partnership models that include mobile service providers will be outlined, with special focus on developing countries. A blueprint for future Bank-led roll-outs of mobile payment infrastructure will be showcased in the form of a case study from the UAE.

Since joining Luup as CEO in 2006, Thomas has transformed Luup from a European-based mobile payments service, into a worldwide mobile payment network. His ambition has been to set the industry standard for mobile payments, based on a collaborative business model that brings together banks, merchants and customers, in an open and independent network.

This meeting will be held from 18.00 until 20.30 at The City IOD, New Broad Street House, 35 New Broad Street, London, EC2M 1NH.

Tuesday, 01 December 2009, Vienna

“Risks and Opportunities for Financial Firms Operating in Central & Eastern Europe”

An esteemed panel of speakers have been selected to discuss the subject including:

• John McFall, Chairman of the House of Commons Treasury Committee (or 'Treasury Select Committee')
• Johann Strobl, Chief Risk Officer and member of the Managing Board, RZB Group
• Franz Reif, Head of Strategic Risk Management , Volksbank Group
• Istvan Lengyel , Head of the Banking Association for Central and Eastern Europe
• Lutz Schiermeyer, EMEA Head of Banking Risk BD, Global Risk Team, SAS institute

As we approach 2010, the importance of building innovation and assessing realistic performance, increases The Financial Crisis has produced a more conservative outlook focusing on a new evaluation of risk as a key component of banking success. But defending against risks is not enough without seeking out opportunities. A trend emerging is the noticeable recruitment of risk specialists to the CEO level demanding not just balancing risk but also the creation of opportunities.

• What's been the history of risk policy in the CEE?
• What the key success factors for developing opportunities in a risk-aversive environment?
• What are the challenges in transitioning form an opportunistic banking culture to one tempered by risk?
• What are the risks in too much risk emphasis?
• Is the CEE too risky for further development?
• How does our panel see the new leader of Risk as an influencer?

The evening is sponsored by SAS and will be moderated by Lydia Goutas and Thomas Labenbacher, Co-Chairs of the Financial Service Club CEE. This meeting will be held from 18.00 until 20.30 at The British Embassy.

Tuesday 8th December 2009, Dublin

“The Future and Cloud Computing” with David Trafford, Managing Director – Europe for nGenera, and Richard Moore, Business Group Leader at Microsoft.

The subject of cloud computing is one which heralds major change to both business and banking models in the future. What is the Cloud, how does it work and what will it mean for Financial Services in the future? How will it affect customers and the way business is transacted and how will it evolve going forward?

These and many other questions will be answered by our two experts in the field and should appeal to anyone interested in products, payments, channels, market strategy, operations, technology and customer innovation.

This meeting will be held from 17.30 until 20.30 at Royal Dublin Society, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4.

Wednesday 9th December 2009, London

“What is innovative in banking?” with Darren Armitage, Head of Innovation, HSBC Bank plc, and Christophe Langlois, Financial Social Media Expert, Visible-Banking.com

Innovation is used around the banking industry in many quarters and yet, from an observer’s viewpoint, banks are hardly innovative. Some still use systems that process payments in pounds, shillings and pence, and many seem to want to avoid investing in anything new at all costs. Then there are the few who were really innovative and what was the result? A credit crisis. Nevertheless, there are some things that are innovative in banking. For example, step into any branch of HSBC and you will find a different look and feel to most high street banks due to their radical technology program for self-service. Equally, look at banks such as Caja Navarro, BBVA, Wells Fargo and Tokyo-Mitsubishi, to name just a few, and you can find some banks pushing the envelope of change. In this special end of season meeting, Darren Armitage, the Head of Innovation for HSBC and Christophe Langlois, author of the Visible-Banking blog and former manager of innovation for Lloyds Banking Group, will discuss how banks can innovate, the nature of innovation, where innovation is taking them in the future and how innovation should be viewed by a bank.

Oh yes, and as it is Christmas, we also have something fairly exceptional to announce. Attendance is mandatory if you want to find out what the Financial Services Club and Gordon Brown have in common!

There are also several events announced for 2009 including:

12th January 2010

The Latest on European Financial Directives and Legislation
David Doyle, Advisor to the European Commission

26th January 2010

"Is SEPA happening and does it matter?"

A panel discussion with:

• Gilbert Lichter, CEO, EBA
• Marion King, CEO, VocaLink (tbc)
• Paul Smee, CEO, the Payments Administration
• Simon Bailey, Director, Logica

and chaired by Bob Lyddon, Managing Director, IBOS Association.

To join these meetings, email us or go to our new website: www.fsclub.net and register with the appropriate group.