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Introduction

The first SIBOS event was hosted by SWIFT in 1978 in Brussels, five years after the society was founded. There were just 300 participants. In 2012, the last time the conference was held in Asia, over 6,000 delegates travelled to Osaka in Japan. Back in Asia this year, Singapore is a perfect venue for the conference as the country celebrates 50 years of independence.

Much has happened in that time and Singapore has been rated by the World Bank as the easiest place in the world to do business; an impressive accolade indeed. That theme of making it easier to transact transcends all of the streams at this year’s SIBOS event as banks, vendors and corporates come together to discuss ways to do exactly that.

Against this backdrop, the Treasury Today Group’s SIBOS supplement analyses five key agenda items for corporates and the wider banking community to be thinking about throughout the conference season and into 2016, namely:

• SWIFT for Corporates: increasing accessibility 

  SWIFT has been handling financial messaging since 1977 yet it took another 24 years to announce the availability of corporate access. Find out about the various access options now available.

• Disruptive banking technologies and new entrants

  We are hearing much about FinTech but what does it all mean in practice for treasurers? Is the banking industry as we know it being reshaped by technology, or is it more a case of evolution than revolution?

• Navigating the APAC payments market

  Do you know your FAST from your IMPS in the payments space? How about NPP in Australia and CIPS in China? Turn to page 24 to discover more.

• Innovations in trade

  Paper documentation has been the mainstay in the trade space for a very long time. But in recent years, the conversion to digital formats of some trade elements has gradually taken place, so is paper really on its way out?

• RMB developments

  As the Chinese authorities take bigger and bigger steps to internationalise the renminbi, we ask: where next for the redback? And what do developments in this space really mean for corporates trading in and with China, against a backdrop of stock market volatility?

This year’s conference again included a Corporate Forum on 14^th-15^th October entitled ‘Shaping the future of treasury and trade’ and it picked up on many of the above themes, as well as looking at emerging treasury models and centralisation practices in Asia – a session moderated by Treasury Today Group’s Managing Director, Richard Parkinson.