The evolution of the financial and banking world in the world, the impact of digitization, the ecological footprint and the adaptation and innovation of human resources to the new skills required by the system. They are the themes at the center of the Global Banking Forum, a new appointment organized by Eccellenze d'Impresa, the laboratory of ideas and innovation for Italian SMEs, promoted by GEA, Harvard Business Review and Arca Fondi SGR.
This is a wide-ranging reflection on the challenges facing the world of credit in the light of technological innovation, the process of grouping institutions, but above all the post-pandemic economic recovery.
The Forum has as scientific partners Prometeia e ASSBB, the Association for the Development of Banking and Stock Exchange Studies of theCatholic University of Sacred Heart and the patronage of the Italian Stock Exchange and the European Commission.
To open the dance Patrizia Grieco president of MPS which supported the possibility, but above all the need, for the bank to become an enabling factor of the environmental and sustainable transition, accompanying the supply chains linked to fossil fuels towards a just transition.
For financial intermediaries, however, it is important to identify more sensitive supply chains that can function as models, also commenting on the role of the National recovery and resilience plan, very important because it identifies investment and innovation chains that can be supported by banks to increase awareness also on the issues of risk management and sustainability.
For Giuliano Cicioni, partner and head of Banking at KPMG, the challenge over the next few years will be to reconcile the presence of the traditional banking system with the elements of innovation and technology that arise outside the banking system and contribute to changing the relationship between bank and customer.
He intervened on the problem of the profitability gap between Italian and European banks Giuseppe Lusignani vice president of Prometeia, according to which the reaction to the crisis generated by the pandemic will play out on the double track of the diversification of services and the reduction of costs, also through a greater rationalization of the distribution network. The main problem, however, remains investments in technology which in Italy account for 3/5% of the intermediation margin, while in the best European performers it is equal to three times. The banks inclined to invest the most, according to Lusignani, are the larger ones while the smaller ones are still concentrated on guaranteeing the security of the remote channels.
Giovanni Sabatini, general manager of ABI, underlined the need to start a shared path at the European level which allows to strengthen the international role of the euro and study a possible future digital currency.
The second session had reflection as its central theme onlimpact of digital transformation, with its opportunities and difficulties linked above all to the adaptation of internal processes. Going to analyze the relationship with the customer, how it has changed and strengthened thanks to digital channels.
According to the CEO of Credimi, Ignazio Rocco, digitization impacts on the improvement of profitability: the sectors with the highest use of e-commerce generally have better ratings and grow more.
The last session took a look beyond the crisis, analyzing the best financial instruments to support development. Could not miss a mention of the theme ofdigital euro which must be seen as an opportunity. As has been mentioned, the banking system has already faced innovations that were considered harmful to the very stability and profitability of banks (such as the 1991 law on SIMs and managed savings). All innovations which in turn constituted a stimulus for the growth of banks. And so it must be this time too. The problem is not to do it, whoever does it first will take a share of the market.
THEItaly is a country that does not grow, with an economy blocked for two decades: 5.000 billion euros of private wealth, of which 1.800 deposited in current accounts that do not give any returns. This is the picture of the country outlined by Ugo Loeser CEO of Arca Fondi SGR and chairman of the final session of the Global Banking Forum.
For Ugo Loeser, the CEO of Arca SGR, in Italy there are two contrasting visions: on the one hand, an extremely dangerous frugal one which sees Italy unable to grow, unlike the public debt which continues to increase, and a dynamic, Mediterranean vision which instead looks at this situation as an opportunity: with an economic lever financed by the ECB at negative rates, to use the public debt lever.
Loeser concluded by supporting the need to create an institutional infrastructure conducive to the connection of financial investments and the real economy, acknowledging the paradigm shift in the financial industry.
The first edition of the Global Banking Forum certainly allowed for a deep and constructive discussion on the great challenges that await the banking system e financial in the coming years, during the recovery phase from the health emergency. After illustrating and discussing the risks associated with a phase of reconstruction of the country, the awareness emerged that there are great opportunities (for the banks above all) that we must know how to seize in order to relaunch the country.
