SET Training - Banking and Fintech

  In an era of relentless disruption, the very definition of corporate survival is being rewritten in real time. For decades, business continuity was a back-office discipline of checklists and recovery plans. But a new, more dynamic vision of resilience is emerging from the fog of technological change and geopolitical uncertainty, and it demands a radical shift in our thinking. The Business Continuity Institute (BCI), a leading global authority, has pierced through the noise with its "Resilience Vision 2030 Report." Drawing on insights from over 200 professionals, this analysis is not another predictable forecast. It uncovers a series of surprising, counter-intuitive trends that will redefine what it means for any business to be built to last. The report’s core message is that the future of resilience is less about rigid plans and more about adaptive cultures; less about technical fixes and more about strategic influence. Here are the five most critical takeaways that will s...

A video overview charting the evolution of globalisation. Spanning the hyper-globalisation of the 1990s to the current era of “Slowbalisation”. This video from The Economist tracks shifts in trade flows, geopolitics , and popular discontent. It provides an unparalleled understanding of the forces driving deglobalisation, exploring how economic integration is being undone by political backlash and geopolitical tensions.

By Stanley Epstein -  Introduction: The Promise of Stability The financial world is buzzing with talk of stablecoins. It’s no longer a niche topic; major players like Citi, Visa, Stripe, and a growing number of large US banks are actively building platforms and exploring issuing their own. This isn't just experimental—the scale of the ambition is immense. Citi's CEO, Jane Fraser, recently forecasted that stablecoin issuance could surge to an astonishing $3.7 trillion by the end of the decade. At its core, the promise of a stablecoin is simple: to create a cryptocurrency with a stable price by pegging it to a real-world asset, most commonly the US dollar. This is meant to offer the benefits of digital currency—speed, accessibility, and transparency—without the wild price swings associated with assets like bitcoin. But beneath this straightforward promise lies a far more complex and surprising reality with profound consequences for the global financial system. The rapid growth of...

- By Stanley Epstein -  In 2024, the global banking sector achieved something unprecedented: it generated $1.2 trillion in profits, the highest total ever recorded for any industry. Return on Equity (ROE) hit a 20-year high. By all conventional measures, it was a banner year. Yet, beneath the surface of these record-breaking figures, capital markets are sending a clear message of deep scepticism. This scepticism is starkly visible in a massive valuation gap. Today, the banking sector is valued nearly 70 percent lower than the average of all other industries. Investors believe the recent profit surge was driven by temporary tailwinds and is fundamentally unsustainable. They see an industry struggling to find a new business model for the leaner years ahead. This profound disconnect between record performance and market pessimism signals that massive, underlying shifts are underway. A recent McKinsey report, the "Global Banking Annual Review 2025," digs into this paradox and unc...

- By Stanley Epstein - Why escalating cyberattacks, ICT vulnerabilities, and sophisticated fraud are now at the core of operational risk management across Europe’s financial sector. Introduction European banks have entered a new era of operational risk exposure — one dominated not by rogue traders or faulty models, but by invisible adversaries in cyberspace. As digitalisation accelerates and financial institutions migrate core processes to the cloud, operational resilience has become the defining risk management challenge of the decade. The European Banking Authority (EBA) now consistently identifies cyber and ICT (Information and Communication Technology systems) risk as the most critical operational risk facing the banking sector. Rising losses, growing dependence on external technology providers, and an intensifying threat environment underscore the urgency of this challenge. At the same time, fraud, conduct risk, and third-party dependency are converging with cyber threats, amplify...