Unlock the secret to navigating the digitized financial world with Roy Kirby, the mastermind behind SIX Financial Information's core products. This episode is a must-listen for anyone keen on understanding the seismic shift in wealth management and the critical importance of data in the financial sector's evolution. Roy offers a rare glimpse into SIX's innovative approaches to cater to a new generation of tech-savvy clients, emphasizing the need for speed, accessibility, and quality in financial services. Moreover, he shares insights into the integration of AI in their operations, highlighting how this tech is revolutionizing the industry.
Sustainability isn't just a buzzword for SIX; it's a corporate ethos woven into every facet of their business, and Roy Kirby brings this to light in our conversation. Discover how SIX is launching new climate data and practising what it preaches by instituting sustainable habits within its company culture. From eschewing air travel for events to fostering a workplace that prioritizes environmental responsibility, SIX is setting the bar high. Tune in for an enlightening discussion that marries the financial world's demands with a commitment to ecological mindfulness.
Thank you for tuning into our podcast about global trends in the FinTech industry.
Check out our podcast channel.
Learn more about The Connector.
Follow us on LinkedIn.
Cheers
Koen Vanderhoydonk
koen.vanderhoydonk@jointheconnector.com
#FinTech #RegTech #Scaleup #WealthTech
Unlock the secret to navigating the digitized financial world with Roy Kirby, the mastermind behind SIX Financial Information's core products. This episode is a must-listen for anyone keen on understanding the seismic shift in wealth management and the critical importance of data in the financial sector's evolution. Roy offers a rare glimpse into SIX's innovative approaches to cater to a new generation of tech-savvy clients, emphasizing the need for speed, accessibility, and quality in financial services. Moreover, he shares insights into the integration of AI in their operations, highlighting how this tech is revolutionizing the industry.
Sustainability isn't just a buzzword for SIX; it's a corporate ethos woven into every facet of their business, and Roy Kirby brings this to light in our conversation. Discover how SIX is launching new climate data and practising what it preaches by instituting sustainable habits within its company culture. From eschewing air travel for events to fostering a workplace that prioritizes environmental responsibility, SIX is setting the bar high. Tune in for an enlightening discussion that marries the financial world's demands with a commitment to ecological mindfulness.
Thank you for tuning into our podcast about global trends in the FinTech industry.
Check out our podcast channel.
Learn more about The Connector.
Follow us on LinkedIn.
Cheers
Koen Vanderhoydonk
koen.vanderhoydonk@jointheconnector.com
#FinTech #RegTech #Scaleup #WealthTech
Welcome to the Connector podcast, an ongoing conversation connecting fintechs, banks and regulators worldwide. Join CEO and founder Koen van der Hoidon as you learn more about the latest available trends and solutions in the markets.
Koen Vanderhoydonk:Welcome to another podcast episode today streaming from Swiss World Tech Live, and I've got with me Roy Kirby, head of Core Product 6, financial information. Welcome. Who are you and what do you do?
Roy Kirby:Hi there and thanks for the invite to talk to you today. So my name, as you said, is Roy Kirby. I work for Six Financial Information and I'm a product manager. I head our core products and I look after things like price data for financial instruments. I look after reference data for financial instruments and corporate actions for financial instruments. So we run a global business here at Six. I'm here at the conference today to talk about what we've done with AI and what we've learned so far.
Koen Vanderhoydonk:And can you tell us a little bit more about the Six Group as well?
Roy Kirby:I can, yes, so the Six Group is. It's got four business lines. It's probably most well known for running its exchange business, so we run here in Switzerland Swiss Stock Exchange. In Spain we run the BME exchange and we run a digital exchange as well. As well as the exchange group, we also have another group which does security services, so things like custodian services. We also have a banking services team who do a lot in the payment space. So we're well known in the payment space here in Switzerland and across Europe and I work in the financial information part of the business where it does what it says on the tin. We provide financial information globally, be that what I look after or things like ESG data as well Interesting.
Koen Vanderhoydonk:If I may, what do you see as being the biggest challenges today within your space?
Roy Kirby:So I think the biggest challenges and we were talking about it a bit earlier at the conference today is particularly in wealth tech. Here you look at the way that the wealth is shifting from older generations to younger generations. Those younger generations use very modern tools, very modern software tools, very modern processes, and they want their investments and their wealth profile looked after by the banks that we serve to change and to be updated so that they're really targeted at that newer, younger, more tech-savvy end user. So some of those things that used to be on paper, used to be quite hard to do, should be on a new technology on your device with quicker interaction. People want information more quickly, more readily available, same quality as we've always had, but more readily available to answer more questions, because they have a lot more questions than the previous generation had.
Koen Vanderhoydonk:And oil to the engine is data. Exactly, that's it, yeah. And in the data space itself you mentioned sustainability. I mean a lot of challenges today, not only in Europe but the rest of the world. So how are you coping with these challenges? I was talking to one of your colleagues earlier and I mentioned an analogy like baking a bread. You're responsible to bake a bread and you know that people that eat it can have allergies, but you don't necessarily know what is in the ingredients, so it's a very tough job.
Roy Kirby:So here's that. And I think, if you look at that sustainability, what are we doing? We're obviously creating data products, so data products around sustainability. So, for example, we've just launched some new climate data that can be distributed to our end customers. So there's the data element of it, which is obviously important. But we also look internally at sustainability as well. So things like making sure we're a sustainable company in the way that we deal with employees, but also in the way that we do things like traveling for events. So, for example, this event here today, nobody has flown to this event from six, you know. So we have the data, we're producing the data, but we're also trying to live this model internally as well, because I think, culturally, there's a bit of a cultural shift that organizations need to have as well, so we're trying to embed that in a lot of our staff.
Koen Vanderhoydonk:That's nice. Do you have any like other examples? I mean, they're not flowing in. It's like, obviously you're in the building, which is, by the way, a nice building, and, yes, we suggest everyone to go to the museum really nice.
Roy Kirby:Yeah, well, even things like that, you know, even things like the buildings that we have. So we, for example, have a Paris office and within that Paris office, because of the working Set up that people now have, that they typically work from home two days a week We've taken the opportunity to close that office on a Friday and say let's close the office, let's save some energy around that office. No, we still need office space, but we don't. We don't have to force anybody to go in on a Friday. Let's you know that most like 20% of the week that you're saving energy in that location. So things like that are really practical examples.
Koen Vanderhoydonk:Mm-hmm. Well, thanks for sharing. It's a good advice for everyone. You already also said the six has a different elements, different departments. One of them is a very well known as six, digital. And then the obvious word comes its blockchain. So is it literally using emerging technology or is there any other implicate or Applications that are being used within the six group or within your own domain even?
Roy Kirby:Yeah, so Um technology wise I. I was talking at the conference earlier and I was talking about what we've done with AI, so artificial intelligence, and particularly around what we've done with large language models interesting and what we see?
Roy Kirby:there is large language models and probably the most famous one that people will know is something called chat GPT. Mm-hmm Is how do you take that and how do you get the efficiencies in your organization that a tool like that brings, but Without making your data exposed globally to everybody? Because if you use chat GPT on your Google search engine, you'll notice that the actually where the data has come from is hidden from you, and that's because a lot of people want to hide where their data comes from. We don't want to hide where our data comes from because we're a quality data source, but how can we internally in our own private cloud with our own private networks, bolt on At all like chat, chat GPT to expose our data in a nice, easy to use, friendly to use way that gives people efficiencies? So, if I can, I showed a small demo earlier, which very simple somebody looking for the five biggest gainers of Stock exchange in the last five years.
Roy Kirby:Now you can do that on what's called a market data terminal. You can do that, somebody can do that. We timed our expert user of that terminal. He took about a minute to be able to do that.
Koen Vanderhoydonk:To find the top five, which is not bad, by the way, it's not bad, by the way, which is quite good.
Roy Kirby:We put chat, chat GPT onto the front of that interface. It took ten seconds to do exactly the same thing. So for a non expert user for a non expert user are saved 40 seconds. You, you multiply that 40 seconds up by how many times you do that sort of query, and Particularly here for the wealth industry. Instead of focusing on those routine tasks that you need to do and taking 40 seconds or a minute, they take 10 seconds, and then you can focus on what you should be doing. And what you should be doing is having that relationship with your end customer, because that's where your value is. So it's. How do you use those tools to make that sort of thing happen is what we're looking at at the moment.
Koen Vanderhoydonk:It is a market trend at the moment that a lot of us do RPA, but it seems that now, indeed, with chat, gpt, the next level of RPAs are coming, where AI is used to also do those little things as well. So it makes sense.
Roy Kirby:Yeah, and what we're not saying? What we're saying is still there is a human involved. The human makes the decision. The machine does not make the decision. The human makes the decision. What the machine can do is expose to you all of the information quickly and efficiently so you can make that decision. And we all know that in routine tasks we sometimes skip a step. A machine doesn't skip a step. It always gives you all of the information that it can find. You skip the step because you don't think it's important, but sometimes it is important, so it's always nice to have that on the screen in front of you.
Koen Vanderhoydonk:I guess it's the whole discussion like who is most right, because also humans make errors. But I think if you have a second pair of eyes, if I may say, it also sort of allows the hallucination not to occur to the end client, because at the end of the day, to date the model still hallucinate, which is can be tricky anyway. Well, since we are in a financial environment and six being at the core of that many, many different ways, we cannot avoid to talk about regulation. So how does your team, how does the group, actually navigate within this complex regulatory environment?
Roy Kirby:Well, very interesting question actually links into the one you just asked me. Internally here at six in financial information, we have a team that looks at regulatory documents. So they are subject matter experts. They've had years and years in that world, but they were getting overwhelmed with the amount of regulatory documents that are out there. So what they did was they built themselves a tool using AI to actually search through these documents for them sweet flag things that they should look at and they've used that internally now for about a year, and what we're doing in just 18 days time is releasing that as a product to sell to our customers. So we're going to call it our Reg Risk Tool, so regulatory risk tool. But it's basically an AI based document engine that allows you to again scan more regulation. Focus your subject matter experts on the regulation that impacts you, take away some of the grunt work, some of the boring work. But, yeah, we've used it internally as a tool and we're going to launch it externally now.
Koen Vanderhoydonk:Congratulations. It's really exciting. Yeah, it is.
Roy Kirby:Yeah, thank you.
Koen Vanderhoydonk:Especially coming from a market infrastructure, saying that you are so quick with go to market. It's brilliant. And maybe that brings me to my last question. I mean, you are a market infrastructure and FMI. What would you give as advice to a new entrance to the financial industry A startup if you want?
Roy Kirby:Yeah, good question. What advice would I give? I would probably give the same to any company. I would say know your strengths, what is it that you're really good at? What is it that you bring to the financial markets if you're a fintech? But what is it you're really good at, and not is it just what you're really good at? But what is the end use case that you're solving for? Again, there's a room full of about 100 people there at the WealthTech conference. They're interested about solving problems and use cases. So how do you help with that? That's the most important piece of advice I could give.
Koen Vanderhoydonk:Thank, you so much. Right last question. I'm sure people want to continue this conversation. How do they come to you? How do they come to your team?
Roy Kirby:So probably the easiest way is I think most people use LinkedIn, so contact us over LinkedIn. My name is Roy Kirby, so search for Roy Kirby and six or six group Ping us on LinkedIn. We're always interested to meet new interesting people.
Koen Vanderhoydonk:Thank you so much, and thank you also to the audience for staying tuned, and we're going to get more life from this event, so stay tuned. Thank you very much. Bye-bye.