By Hirander Misra, Chairman and CEO of GMEX Group

  • What will be the key capital markets trends in 2021 leveraging future Fintech?
  • How will capital markets go from analogue to digital harnessing the true power of blockchain and digital assets?
  • Will there be a convergence of blockchain and Artificial Intelligence (AI), with smart contracts getting smarter?
  • How will capital markets fragmentation be addressed in traditional finance and new digital finance given the need for traditional infrastructure and multiple blockchains to coexist?
  • How will centralised and decentralised finance (DeFI) intersect?
  • How is ESG is being utilised effectively in investment management leveraging Fintech?
  • How will we move from the 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR) to ‘Society 5.0’?

These are some of the key topics I look forward to discussing with the esteemed panellists when I moderate the panel on Capital markets, Digital Assets and ESG with 4IR, Blockchain and Society 5.0 at 15:45 GMT on 9 December at the Open Business Council Summit. The cutting edge global virtual event aims to strengthen businesses, startups and government, with strategies and action plans, to deal with the challenges arising from COVID-19.

The summit will explore how the impact of COVID-19 can be addressed by harnessing the 4th Industrial Revolution underpinned by AI and Blockchain to build better solutions for digital transformation, resulting in the emergence of Society 5.0. Wisdom will be shared through a showcase of 20 Governments and 100+ Global Industry Speakers from over 30 countries with a direct reach of 10.000 participants and an indirect reach digital streaming in social media that reaches around 10 million people on the 9, 10 and 11 December 2020.

 

Capital Markets Future Fintech
Capital markets will go from analogue to digital harnessing the true power of blockchain and digital assets. The key challenge is how organisations grapple with this change in a way that preserves traditional business but also creates new digital business opportunities. With this backdrop we see B2B and B2C business models converging, which is demonstrated both by the DBS Bank move into launching digital custody and a digital assets exchange in Singapore, as well as PayPal offering cryptocurrencies to its client base.

The real challenge is to optimise retail and wholesale activity in capital markets using the best facets of both centralised and decentralised technology and services. Banks are increasingly taking up digital assets, both on the wholesale and retail side, as well as developing digital custodial services with cryptocurrencies gaining the most traction and security tokens predicted to follow. Digital currencies and alternative forms of digital assets, with seamless smart contract driven cross border exchange between them and their exchange with goods and services, will result in less frictional cost and more efficiency. This presents opportunities to unlock the value of new asset classes in a way that democratises their access to the general public on equal terms to institutional investors.

 

4IR and Society 5.0
The advent of new technologies, including Blockchain, AI, Internet of Things (IoT) and Quantum computing, is greater than ever before enabled by an increase in cloud computing. There will be greater convergence of these technologies – for example, blockchain smart contracts driven by data and AI – to foster the 4IR and a transition to Society 5.0. This will lead to greater opportunities not just for governments and institutions, but also for the individual, fuelling an Internet of People (IoP) rather than merely an IoT.

New technologies, ensuring user control over their information and data, will give governments and their citizens’ ownership over the digital information they create and the economic value that derives from it. This will help achieve Society 5.0’s goals for the use of technology to lead to a better society aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs).  Positive social impact will ensue in Infrastructure, Fintech -including blockchain-, Healthcare, Logistics and AI.

 

Democratised Social Impact
Many old-world solutions are being passed off as game changing blockchain enabled digital asset plays. As those in the market who could really benefit get increasingly savvy, the hype that is being marketed by some will see the cold light of reality. This presents an opportunity for those that can truly harness the power of blockchain enabled digital assets to create tomorrow’s unicorns like the internet revolution did for some firms, but with a wider degree of democratisation beyond just corporate benefit.

 

This approach will not only be the Fintech future of financial markets, but will also be as positively disruptive as the internet was overall, but in a capital markets context which has wider social impact and financial inclusion.