On Tuesday, July 2nd, central bankers, policymakers, finance, Fintech leaders, technologists, and investors gathered at the annual Point Zero Forum at The Circle in Zurich to discuss the future of finance through the lens of responsible AI adoption, quantum technology, digital assets, and payment frameworks. Europe’s regulatory challenges, the integration of AI and quantum technologies in finance, and the push for sustainable investments in emerging markets dominated discussions at the Forum on day two.
At 9 AM, Dr. Axel Weber, Advisory Council Chair, Visa Economic Empowerment Institute, and Navin Suri, Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Percipient, Advisor to Board of Directors, Elevandi, discussed Europe’s lag behind the U.S. in GDP and innovation due to regulatory fragmentation. They emphasized the need to invest in emerging markets to drive sustainability. You can view the session recording here.
There was a specific focus on AI and Quantum Technology, with some of the key takeaways from sessions listed below.
Artificial Intelligence
- Session – Masterclass on Ethical AI: Unleashing potential and managing pitfalls
Speaker – Dr. Rumman Chowdhury, CEO of Humane Intelligence
Takeaway – Strong product development and a clear ethics mission are the building blocks for responsible AI
Session recording here.
- Session – Global policymakers’ dialogue: Harmonising global guardrails for AI
Moderator: Joasia E. Popowicz, Associate Editor, Central Banking Publications
Speakers – Daniela Schackis, Deputy Director General, European Central Bank; Denis Beau, First Deputy Governor, Banque de France; Steven Maijoor, Executive Board Member, De Nederlandsche Bank
Takeaway – AI promises significant productivity growth and innovation acceleration. However, it also poses risks such as biases, data protection issues, and the concentration of AI services among a few providers. The EU AI Act aims to address these concerns by ensuring human oversight and accountability in AI decisions, although there is recognition that regulation must evolve alongside rapidly advancing technology. International cooperation and coordination are crucial to effectively regulate AI and avoid regulatory arbitrage.
Session recording here.
Quantum Technology
- Session – Tokenisation, Artificial Intelligence, and Quantum Computing
Speaker – Ravi Menon, Ambassador for Climate Action and Senior Adviser to the National Climate Change Secretariat, Singapore
Takeaway – Quantum computing, while still emerging, holds revolutionary potential for fraud detection, portfolio optimization, and complex system modeling. However, it also poses significant risks to financial data encryption, necessitating urgent upgrades to quantum-safe standards. Project Leap by BIS is dedicated to enhancing cryptography to secure the financial system against these future threats.
Session recording here.
- Session – Masterclass on quantum technologies: Decoding the future of computing
Moderator: Sopnendu Mohanty, Chief FinTech Officer, Monetary Authority of Singapore & Chair of the Board of Directors , Elevandi
Speaker – Dr Alessandro Curioni, IBM Fellow, Vice President, Europe & Africa and Director, IBM Research – Zurich IBM; Kelly Richdale, Venture Partner, Amadeus Capital Partners & Senior Advisor, SandboxAQ; Dr Philip Intallura, Head of Quantum Technologies, HSBC
Takeaway – Quantum computing has progressed significantly and offers transformative potential for solving complex problems, optimizing systems, and advancing AI. However, it comes with high error rates and significant risks, particularly regarding data security and cryptography. Addressing these challenges requires substantial investment, algorithmic improvements, and industry-wide cooperation on cryptographic standards.
Session recording here.
Digital Assets and Payments
- Panel – Panel dialogue: Impact of digital assets on financial services
Moderator – Sopnendu Mohanty, Chief FinTech Officer, Monetary Authority of Singapore & Chair of the Board of Directors , Elevandi
Speaker – David Newns, Head, SIX Digital Exchange; Dr Johnna Powell, Managing Director, Head of Technology Research and Innovation, Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC); Pradyumna Agrawal, Managing Director, Investment (Blockchain), Temasek; Umar Farooq, Co-Head of Global Payment Sales, J.P. Morgan & Chief Executive Officer, Onyx by J.P. Morgan
Takeaway – Despite regulatory and infrastructure challenges, significant progress has been made, with countries like Switzerland leading the way in integrating digital assets with traditional systems. Collaboration between banks, regulators, and customers is essential to navigate legal, accountability, and interoperability issues, ensuring these technologies are disruptive rather than being disrupted. The future will see a mix of public and private blockchain networks working together, with a focus on building scalable, interoperable, and accountable systems.
Session recording here.
Point Zero Forum played host to public-private roundtables, deep dive workshops, and multiple networking events, and tomorrow will see an extended focus on digital assets as well as ESG and climate tech. Please find more on tomorrow’s sessions in the event programme located here.
Additionally, several announcements were made at the Forum both yesterday and today by the Asian Institute of Digital Finance, FailSafe, Global Ledger, Zühlke, Giesecke+Devrient, Ethlas, and Zodia Custody. You can see details on each of these announcements in the media hub here.
About Point Zero Forum
The Point Zero Forum is an initiative of Elevandi and the Swiss State Secretariat for International Finance to promote a policy and technology dialogue in Financial Services. Held annually in Zurich, Switzerland, the Forum convenes central bankers, regulators, policymakers, and industry leaders to address the latest developments in financial technology and the future of finance. Through a series of leadership dialogues, public-private roundtables, deep-dive workshops and networking events, the Forum aims to drive confidence, adoption and growth of transformative technology and assess and promote the appropriate governance and risk frameworks.
About Elevandi
Elevandi, established by the Monetary Authority of Singapore, is a not-for-profit organisation that engages with leaders from government, businesses, academia, and civil society to foster international collaborations with our members on innovation, application and adoption of technology.
Elevandi’s initiatives have convened over 420,000 people since 2016 through events, closed-door roundtables, investor programmes, educational initiatives, and research. SFF is the organisation’s flagship product; other known platforms under its wing include the Point Zero Forum, Elevandi Insights, Japan FinTech Festival, Inclusive FinTech Forum, 3i Africa, The Capital Meets Policy Dialogue and The Founders Peak with many more coming soon.
About Swiss State Secretariat for International Finance
The State Secretariat for International Finance represents Switzerland’s interests in financial, monetary and tax matters not only vis-à-vis partner countries but also in the competent international bodies. It is committed to good framework conditions to ensure that Switzerland can have an innovative, interconnected and sustainable financial centre and business location that is among the world leaders. The State Secretariat is responsible for implementing the financial market policy of the Swiss Government.
