The rise of potential fintech disruptors and the challenge for incumbent banks of digitalizing their businesses and staying abreast of these innovators – while still keeping their ageing operating systems running – has changed the job of chief technology officers.
It comes with higher pressure and more scrutiny, but greater excitement.
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Fabian Vandenreydt, |
“There are two jobs in banking that I see as particularly interesting,” says Fabian Vandenreydt, executive chairman of B-Hive, a Brussels-based member association that promotes cooperation between large incumbent insurance companies and banks – such as ING, BNP Paribas, KBC – and fintechs.
“First, architects today in charge of, say, payment engines or risk-management systems at banks are rarely just buying and monitoring a single, large solution. Rather, they want to ensure that they can integrate new components that may be coming in all the time from different recent and maturing start-ups. That’s very cutting edge.
“And the second exciting job is that of partner manager inside the bank for these fintech providers.”
Vandenreydt was head of capital markets and innovation at Swift for more than 10 years before joining B-Hive, and before that a consultant, after previously working at JPMorgan.
