Welcome to 2024! I hope you all enjoyed some respite from work commitments over the festive period and are recharged and ready for a productive New Year! Our popular webinar programme will be returning for the year on, Monday, 8 January, tackling the crucial topic of Future Security, Resources, And Prosperity for the UK and allied Western countries. On a lighter note, in February we are hosting a Tour Of The Historic Pubs Of The City Of London and if January is looking a bit quiet for you why not delve into our backlog of diverse and thought-provoking webinars on YouTube. Here’s to a secure and prosperous year ahead for all!
Charlotte Dawber-Ashley (Manager, FS Club) & The Team at Z/Yen

Knowledge Miles: The 695th Lord Mayor's Lectures

Z/Yen Group are delighted that our Chairman, Alderman Professor Michael Mainelli, is serving as the 695th Lord Mayor of the City of London for the year 2023/2024. As part of Michael’s working theme, we are running Knowledge Miles: The 695th Lord Mayor's Lecture Series, an online webinar series exploring the connections of the Square Mile and its role as "The World's Coffeehouse" addressing diverse global challenges. Please see the table below for January's lectures and contact Jacopo Moratto if you and your organisation would like to get involved:

Computational Medicine and Digital Twins Improving Medical Care, Friday, 12 January 2024

The Future Of Building Foundations In The City: Energy Generating Assets, Thursday, 18 January 2024

Beware The Techno-Fixes Draped In Sickly Green!, Thursday, 25 January 2024

Featured Past Lectures

Nick Wise & Dr Giles Richardson:
Ending The Destruction Of Our Undersea Cultural Heritage

Find our entire library of lectures and webinars on YouTube

Dr Tom P Davis:
The State Of Play In Fusion

Events & WebinarsEvents

A Tour Of The Historic Pubs Of The City Of London, Wednesday, 21 February 2024

Webinars

Resources, Security and Prosperity, Monday, 08 January 2024

Financial Centres Of The World 2024: Focus On Milan, Thursday, 11 January 2024

How Effective Competition Can Improve Value For Money In Public Procurement, Wednesday, 31 January 2024

All Forthcoming EventsAll Past Events

If you enjoy our webinars and events, and would like to contribute to our content, we would very much welcome your support as a corporate sponsor, please contact Charlotte_Dawber-Ashley@zyen.com to discuss the various opportunities available.

The Esop Centre’s newspad, is a monthly publication providing in-depth coverage of the main international news in the field of employee share ownership. Read this month’s newspad in full.

Esop Sofa: Hot Topics In Employee Share Ownership – Newspad Review VIII, Tuesday, 16 January 2024

Public Reports

Z/Yen publishes reports on its three leading indices: the Global Financial Centres Index, the Global Green Finance Index, and the Smart Centres Index. In addition to this, reports on topics of special interest are also regularly published by Z/Yen.

Mike Wardle, Professor Michael Mainelli:The Smart Centres Index 8
Mike Wardle, Professor Michael Mainelli:The Global Green Finance Index 12

FS Club News

Financial Services Comission Mauritius: Mauritius as a premier investment hub: Mauritius emerges as a leading financial services hub in Africa, showcasing an attractive blend of benefits. Located at the crossroads of three major trade areas between Asia, Europe and Africa, Mauritius offers a conducive regulatory environment, fostering a range of financial services such as banking, cross-border investment, insurance, wealth and asset management. With a strong emphasis on regulatory compliance and international best practices, Mauritius ensures investor confidence and credibility. Moreover, its skilled bilingual workforce, political stability, and a network of Investment Promotion and Protection Agreements make it an ideal destination for financial institutions seeking growth and expansion. The country's scenic beauty and high quality of life further make Mauritius an appealing destination for both business and living.

Bridgeworks: Bridgeworks, based in Lymington, Hampshire, UK, was invited last month to present their award-winning AI technologies to U.S. government and industry leaders to highlight the best in British technology. A key aim was to spotlight the support of the U.K. Government’s Department of Defence and Security Exports, (Department for International Trade), and share insights as an Export Champion. British Ambassador to the United States, Dame Karen Pierce was present to facilitate valuable engagement with the U.S. Federal agencies and U.K. technology partners. David Trossell, CEO and CTO of Bridgeworks, explains: “We invited our customers, OEM Partners, such as Dell Technology and IBM, Spectra Logic and our North American Resellers and System Integrators to share their successes implementing our systems.” Trossell explains: “We were able to present solutions and deliverables and translate those to future business benefits for end users.” Eykyn commends Trossell: “I am not a technical man, but I have always been interested in new technology. With Bridgeworks our WAN and data acceleration products, our CEO and CTO David Trossell, brought all his extensive skills in the storage world to bear, strongly supported by the IBM R&D Storage Establishment at Hursley, who confirmed the need for the AI and machine learning based products David developed and which we now know as PortRockIT and WANRockIT." See their full news item here.

GFT Financial Ltd: GFT partners with Engine by Starling to help banks rapidly modernise: The partnership will leverage GFT’s deep engineering skills, global reach and strategic focus on modern banking platforms. GFT will be providing design, integration and implementation services for banks that adopt the Engine platform. Read our press release in full here. GFT among Europe’s leaders in latest ISG rankings: ISG Provider Lens™ Google Cloud Partner ecosystem recognises GFT as a leader on Data analytics and Machine learning. This recognition highlights GFT's expanding expertise and innovative solutions in artificial intelligence (AI), particularly with the recent launch of the GFT AI.DA Marketplace. Discover more here. Download our ‘Taking Murex to the cloud’ eBook. Start your business journey and enable enterprise-wide cloud fluency with migration to Murex MX.3 with GFT. Download our ‘Taking Murex to the cloud’ eBook to discover discover our seven key insights for project success. Download here. Latest Banking Disruption index receives extensive media coverage. The latest GFT Banking Disruption Index, which focuses on digital banking crime and fraud, has achieved media coverage across several major outlets. The new data highlights that younger generations are increasingly becoming victims of fraud and our insight has been picked up by several publications. These include Business Money, FF News | Fintech Finance, Payment Expert, Birmingham Mail, MSN and The Fintech Times. Download your copy here. Our latest blogs:
Digital currency – a catalyst for digital asset adoption by Ruth Chambers – LINK.
The state of security in digital banking by Richard Kalas - LINK.

AFME: Upcoming Events: To view AFME’s upcoming events calendar, click here.

i2 Group: i2 Group is a world leader in intelligence analysis software. For more than 30 years we have empowered intelligence analysts and investigators to discover, create, and exploit actionable intelligence to identify the perpetrators of criminal activity. This blog demonstrates how i2’s iBase product was used to manage supplier risk for a Billion-Euro Construction Project. iBase was used to prevent and identify potential issues with subcontractors, ensuring timely project completion, high quality standards, and cost savings. The tool is used regularly in risk assessments to help prevent money laundering activities and to classify risks for ongoing projects. Read the article in full here.

Ocorian: Succession and estate planning in the Middle East: five questions, nine trends: MEA Finance spoke to Leevyn Isabel, Business Development Director, Private Client from Ocorian's award winning team about the dynamic landscape of succession and estate planning in the Middle East. Technical insights: diversity & inclusion in the financial sector: On the 25th of September, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) released Consultation Paper CP23/20 which outlined their continued efforts towards achieving a set of minimum standards for diversity and inclusion (D&I) within the UK’s financial services industry. The FCA believe that greater diversity and inclusion can create better outcomes for both consumers and markets and by understanding diverse consumer needs, firms can create healthier working cultures. 7 key factors to consider when navigating trust administration: In the intricate world of trust administration, poor management can have serious consequences. When contemplating the establishment of a trust or the replacement of an existing trustee, there are crucial questions to pose to a prospective trustee. Paul Buckle, Director of Private Client Services, and Tracey Neuman, Private Client Executive, provide their wealth of knowledge and offer invaluable insights to ensure that mismanagement doesn’t come back to create problems for settlors and beneficiaries. Luxembourg’s fund industry adapts and thrives in challenging times: insights from Ocorian’s experts: Global fundraising for private equity funds has seen a slowdown in the past 12-18 months, impacting the industry worldwide. However, Luxembourg has proven to be resilient and adaptable. Ocorian's Peter Corry, Head of Fund Services – Luxembourg, and Paul Spendiff, Global Head – Fund Sales discuss Luxembourg's funds industry.

Sponsorship Opportunities

We currently have opportunities available to partner with Z/Yen as a sponsor for our ongoing research into the development of financial centres. If you may be interested in sponsorship of the Global Green Finance Index or Smart Centres Index, please get in touch with Mike Wardle.

Z/Yen Launches Ethical AI Course with CISIRegister Here

The Chartered Institute For Securities & Investment, in collaboration with Z/Yen Group and The Rt Hon The Lord Mayor Professor Michael Mainelli, have launched a Certificate in Ethical Artificial Intelligence.

The short online course deals with the core definitions and global developments in the field of AI, associated ethical dilemmas, and the implications for financial services.

Find Out More

Pamphleteers Blog

The Pamphleteers Blog features considered thoughts – somewhere between a knee-jerk editorial and a full-blown piece of research. "Write for today and not for tomorrow."

Made Me Think
Gill Ringland & Ed Steinmueller:
National Resilience And Threats From Software Failure

Of Great Interest
Patricia Lustig and Gill Ringland:

Reasons for Optimism in 2023

Read More

FS Club Bulletins - Keep Track Of Your Commercial Interests

FS Club provides up to 1,000 weekly bulletins on a variety of topics from Inflation, to Inter-Bank Lending, to the war in Ukraine and its effects on Financial Services. Register here.

Bond Market

Emerging Markets

Best Of The Finanser

Stirred My Thoughts:

Looking back at 2023

Grabbed My Attention:
Are banks and fintechs partners, competitors or suppliers?

Read More

Membership & Sponsorship

FS Club is the premier global executive knowledge network for technology and finance professionals. Great events, research, and social functions build a buzz for Members and a valuable partnership for Sponsors. Membership of the FS Club is a great way to enhance your professional development, grow your network and profile, and get backing for your ideas, contact: Charlotte_Dawber-Ashley@zyen.com