Michael attended SIBOS in Geneva again, but this time, in addition to four presentations and two television interviews in two days, they decided to stitch him up as a panellist on "A Question of Finance"; the Sibos quiz show. It was billed as:

“Following its great success at Sibos Singapore in 2015, the second annual Sibos quiz show partners university academics with financial industry professionals for a battle of wits. The quiz will feature two teams of experts answering questions on their own areas of expertise, as well as other areas where they may not be so well versed. Each team will be led by a captain of academia, with two supporting "stars" from the financial industry. Just how smart are academics and financial industry professionals? Come along and find out!”

The 45 minute format is similar to the famous UK University Challenge. On Michael’s team were Damian Petit, Head of Payments Operations, RBS and Brian Bonar, Head of Payments, Industry & Risk, ANZ. They faced off against Bruce Weber, Dean, and Professor of Business Administration, Lerner College of Business & Economics, University of Delaware, Michael Cole-Fontayn, EVP & Chairman of Europe, Middle East & Africa, BNY Mellon, and Jette Simson, Head of EURO1/STEP1 Service Maintenance, EBA Group. The quiz was moderated by friend of Z/Yen by day and stand-up comedienne by night Julia Streets, Founder & CEO of Streets Consulting Ltd.

Those of you who know Michael will be surprised, as he is so uncompetitive (what?!? - Ed), that he appeared to have hair trigger responses on the buttons and questioned the moderator’s answer at one point. Z/Yen staff were on the edge of their seats through 10 rounds, but relaxed at the end. He was going to be in a good mood as his team won 64 to 48 and took home a chunk of glass. Whew. But it would be good in future if they didn’t flub questions such as “what does SIBOS stand for?” and “what does SWIFT stand for?” [SWIFT International Banking Operations Seminar, Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication] Click here if you’d like to see SIBOS TV interviewing the winners (starts at 02:00) - you really couldn’t bear watching the quiz.