Jersey has the infrastructure and ambition to be a leader in the fintech space.
However, it must move at pace and work collaboratively if it is to seize the opportunities digital technologies offer, according to speakers at Jersey Finance’s inaugural FINx event.
Held last week at the Radisson Blu, the event brought together around 200 finance professionals, digital innovators and representatives from the regulator and Government, with the aim of discussing emerging technologies, regulatory shifts and the strategic developments shaping global finance.
In a keynote entitled ‘Surviving and Thriving in the Age of AI – Key Lessons for Jersey’, Professor Alan Brown emphasised how transformational AI will be for financial services businesses, with a subsequent panel reiterating that, in Jersey, financial services was the industry that stood to be impacted most by AI. Panellists argued that, with AI technology moving at such a pace, it is difficult for anyone to be absolutely sure what the future holds – but what is clear is that doing nothing poses the biggest risk. An agile and joined-up approach to AI adoption, panellists agreed, will be critical to Jersey’s competitiveness and future success as an international finance centre (IFC).
In a further keynote looking at digital skills, Gregg Hutchings, Programme Director at the Financial Services Skills Commission, maintained this narrative, explaining that embedding a digitally-driven change mindset across the workforce and focusing on reskilling and upskilling was absolutely critical in ensuring future success in financial services.
Away from AI, and in another keynote entitled ‘Stablecoins and the Future of Finance: Opportunities and Challenges for Institutions’, Chief Technology Officer Andrew Morfill explained that the narrative around stablecoins was maturing and that use cases for stablecoins were evolving rapidly, standing to provide considerable cost, efficiency and transparency benefits in areas such as trade finance, tokenised money market funds and cross border finance – areas where Jersey could take a lead.
In a further panel session focused on tokenisation, panellists discussed how Jersey had a proposition in this area, having first issued guidance around virtual assets almost ten years ago and with updated guidance around stablecoin issuance and the tokenisation of real-world assets being published last year. Regulatory clarity, panellists said, continued to be vital as tokenisation continued to evolve internationally – and that Jersey needed to maintain momentum as other IFCs ramped up efforts in this space too.
Commenting after the event, Amy Bryant, Deputy CEO, Jersey Finance said: “Our first ever FINx event provided a great opportunity to bring thought leaders from across our financial services and digital sectors together to really get to grips with where the digital opportunities and risks are and where we need to collectively focus our efforts in order to realise our ambition of being a truly digitally-driven IFC.
“Our digital capabilities will undoubtedly be a key factor in our competitiveness in the years ahead – but what this event really highlighted was just how rapidly the fintech space is evolving and it’s important we maintain pace. Other IFCs are already pressing ahead in integrating AI within their frameworks and adapting their models to maximise the opportunities in areas such as tokenisation, blockchain and stablecoins. We must do likewise.
“The good news is we absolutely have the intellectual capacity, the drive and the frameworks to be successful by embracing fintech and the potential of AI – but we must maintain momentum, we must collaborate and we must invest in homegrown digital skills. This is where our focus is.”
