SIBOS is more than a conference and exhibition. It is the financial services industry’s premier event. It is also the only event that covers all sectors of the financial community, and therefore attracts the industry’s leading figures and companies. Networking and doing business are at the top of the agenda.

The presence of so many senior representatives from leading institutions worldwide means that dialogue about the future of the industry is lively and thought-provoking, therefore the conference sessions are designed to highlight and explore the current challenges and initiatives arising in the industry. Leading experts in their field come to debate and share their knowledge about new technologies, processes, requirements, alliances, and of course, efficiency and security.

SIBOS draws audiences in excess of 7,000 participants from the financial industry ranging from the established financial institutions to application and middleware vendors, system integrators, central clearing systems and consultants. They come to SIBOS to do business, learn about new products and services, and simply to network. Bankers, investment managers, broker-dealers, treasury specialists, operations professionals, corporates, and representatives from emerging markets, all see the SIBOS conference and exhibition as an excellent investment.

SIBOS has been around for more than three decades with the last SIBOS held at Vienna, Austria. SIBOS 09 is being held in Hong Kong from 14-18 September 2009.

The big issue debates of this SIBOS are

- Leading through uncertainty

- Asian century – implications for the financial industry

- Will transaction banking be the engine for sustainable growth

The main conference sessions are grouped under

- Cross market

- Asia Focus

- Corporates

- Foreign Exchange

- Payments

- Securities

- Standards

- Trade

The following forums and streams add further glitter to the banking conclave

- Innotribe at SIBOS Stream

- Securities Market Infrastructure Forum

- SIBOS forum for Corporates

- Standards Forum: Where business and standardization meet

- Trade at SIBOS stream

In addition some sessions are brought by the Community, McKinsey (the Big Consulting Company) and SWIFT.

I expect this SIBOS 2009 at Hong Kong will throw open many new questions and find / furnish answers to the already raised questions and doubts in the minds of the bankers’ and banking community.

I wish to provide by way of curtain raiser my thoughts and inputs in the form of blogs on some of the important topics that are proposed to be discussed in the SIBOS.

I do not wish to claim authority and mastery to cover all the aspects of the topics but I believe my blogs will provide some connect with the actual discussions and presentations in the SIBOS.

I wish to attract the practicing bankers at the field level by encouraging them to actively join in this blogging exercise and also to dispel any thoughts they may be having that these kind of conferences and workshops are normally meant for Senior bankers at the decision / policy making level.

I would be happy if I could serve this purpose well!

Happy reading!