New technological developments in the fields of artificial intelligence (AI), big data, robotics, blockchain and the like, as well as the rise of fintechs have increased the speed of change in the financial industry.
This new wave of technology has the potential to support the market to overcome certain barriers to harmonization, while delivering efficiency gains and supporting risk mitigation. And this development is set to continue over the next decade: trends in digitization will accelerate, and the challenge for established providers will be to find the correct means of collaborating with new business models and innovative technologies.
But the impact of digitization will not by any means solely be limited to post-trade. Market infrastructure providers such as Deutsche Börse Group, which Clearstream is part of, are well positioned to explore the potential of new technologies throughout the value chain from issuance, through trading, to clearing and settlement.
Deutsche Börse Group is taking a collaborative approach when engaging with new technology trends as part of its corporate strategy. The Group has, for example, developed a number of own blockchain prototypes, in cooperation with the German Central Bank and other central securities depositories, demonstrating how this technology could be applied to solve business problems. Other activities include its newly established Content Lab to better harness data in providing services to customers and its Product Development Lab, which explores micro-services development. Besides, Deutsche Börse Group is currently looking into providing connections to its systems through APIs to deliver new data and analytics solutions to customers, using cloud as an enabler for this shift.