MALAGA, Apr. 21 (EUROPEAN PRESS) –

The Fintech Forward Summit (FFS) has established itself as a benchmark meeting point for the fintech ecosystem –financial technology– to discuss innovation in the financial sector. The meeting, held on 18 April in Malaga, was attended by 400 participants and 75 speakers from 68 companies, including Visa, JPMorgan, Singular Bank, Openfinance (BME), Unicaja, Accenture, Microsoft, Spotify or Bluetab (IBM).

This was highlighted by the organization in a statement, in which they pointed out that artificial intelligence, GPT Chat and its application to financial services make up a large part of the Fintech Forward Summit debate.

This new technology will make it possible to optimize internal tasks, facilitate the work of financial advisors and “accelerate the adoption of a conversational interface for clients and employees. Clients feel more comfortable talking or interacting than clicking on screens and generative artificial intelligence This opens up many possibilities for us,” said Javier Porras, director of Artificial Intelligence in Innovation at Unicaja Banco de Unicaja.

But if there is a recurring theme, both in FFS simultaneous two-room scenarios and in networked workspaces, it is the need for collaboration between more traditional companies or entities and ‘fintech’ as ​​accelerators of change.

“The more exposed we are to fintech, the more they help us develop the lateral thinking that is so necessary to accelerate response to what our users ask of us and, furthermore, working with founders is one of the most beautiful things that can happen to you,” he said during a meeting with Eva Ruiz, Visa Financial Technology Manager for Southern Europe.

The Fintech Forward Summit also discussed technological innovations to improve customer experience and optimize marketing strategies in the financial sector, as well as the latest developments in the application of ‘blockchain’ and progress and challenges in regulation or means of payment.

What’s more, at FFS there is also room for ‘fintech’ and ‘startup’ inventions that are revolutionizing the way financial services are offered, such as Housia, Vankor, Zonox or Alma NFT from the Málaga Tech community.

Spain is the third European country with the largest number of fintech companies, behind the UK and France, as shown in a meeting by Arturo G. MacDowel, president of AIFI (Spanish Association of Fintech and Insurtech).

“We have a great opportunity as a country, because we have a series of competitive advantages that are difficult to imitate. Spain is one of the leading countries in the world in terms of infrastructure, we have an enviable talent pool, especially in terms of creativity and something inimitable, which is a spectacular quality of life.” McDowell also touched on the small hurdles the sector is facing, such as “regulatory downsides and entrepreneurial barriers which I hope will also lessen,” he said.

The Fintech Forward Summit, which is already preparing for its 2024 edition, has become a meeting organized by Epika Comunicación in collaboration with Promálaga (Málaga City Council) and with support from Evo Banco, Scalable, Ebury, Bluetab (an IBM company), Bird & Bird, Arcopay- Afterbanks, Minsait Payments, Pencunpay, Openfinance, Inveert, Cober.io, Bitpanda, Wealth reader, Heytrade and Bit2me.

FFS also has collaborations with AIFI (Spanish Association of Fintech and Insurtech), Insurtech Community Hub, Singular Bank and The Valley.