Countdown begins to the World Federation of Exchanges’ Technology Conference 2019

London, Wednesday 19 June 2019 – The World Federation of Exchanges (“WFE”), the global industry group for exchanges and CCPs, will be co-hosting its bi-annual global technology conference at Umeå University in Sweden from 30 June to 2 July 2019.

The event will bring together industry leaders, stakeholders and academics for two days of stimulating debate and discussion. The meeting seeks to capture and discuss the latest trends and innovation in technology, their impact on financial markets, and thefundamental technological developments that underpin the finance sector and will determine the future direction of capital markets.

The topics that will be discussed include: machine intelligence; blockchain; the technological future for exchanges and CCPs; and the market structure around crypto-currencies, crypto-assets and tokens. Speakers include: Brad Peterson, Executive Vice President, Chief Technology & Chief Information Officer, Nasdaq; Mark Morrison, Senior Vice President & Chief Information Security Officer, The Options Clearing Corporation (OCC); Thomas Koch, Chief Security Officer/Head Corporate Security, SIX Group Services Ltd; Virginia Dignum, Professor of Social & Ethical Artificial Intelligence, Umeå University; Dr. Pinar Emirdag, Senior Vice President, Head of Digital Product Development and Innovation, State Street; Gari Singh, Chief Technology Officer, IBM Blockchain; and Simon Zammit, Chief Executive Officer, Malta Stock Exchange.

Nandini Sukumar, Chief Executive Officer, WFE said: “The convergence of finance and technology is moving ever faster, with both sectors shaping the other. Technology is a key driver in the engine of global capital markets. New ideas in technology, and the way it is changing the shape of market structure and society at large, sit at the heart of our industry’s thinking and strategy.”

The WFE’s work on technology spans three of its member working groups: the Cyber Security Working Group, which connects Information Security leadership amongst the world’s leading financial exchanges and CCPs; the Enterprise Risk Working Group, which brings together heads of risk (enterprise and operational); and the FinTech Working Group. Each working group has a mandate to share information on regulatory and technological developments in each topic area, and to provide technical support to the WFE’s Policy Committee as it engages with policy makers and develops WFE policy positions on related matters.

The WFE’s advocacy publications and position papers on technology span a range of topics including: the WFE & McKinsey’s Fintech Decodedreport; the WFE’s response to the Financial Action Task Force - Mitigating Risks from Virtual Assets; the WFE’s response to the Financial Conduct Authority - Guidance on Cryptoassets; and a WFE whitepaper entitled FinTech in the Market Infrastructure Space.

Hans Adolfsson, Vice-Chancellor, Umeå University, added: “We are delighted to host the WFE’s bi-annual Technology Conference this year. Umeå is well known for its cross-disciplinary innovative and ground-breaking research, so hosting a conference focused on both finance and technology is a natural fit for our expertise. As the intersection between these two sectors narrows and overlaps, we hope to pinpoint how increased collaboration between industry-leaders and the research community can create a financial ecosystem that is robust and resilient in the face of a fast-moving and constantly developing modern world.”

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