IT companies from CIS, Europe to take part in BankIT forum 19-21 November
Representatives of banks, IT companies and the National Bank will exchange views on the current situation in the market of IT solutions for banks and discuss innovations in automation and development prospects for the forthcoming year.
BankIT is Belarus’ largest business forum which brings together over 1,000 specialists every year. Taking part in the forum in 2012 were 1,155 representatives of banks, IT software developers, government agencies and educational institutions from Belarus, Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Poland, Armenia, Lithuania, Latvia, Germany, Belgium and the UK. As many as 17 countries are expected to partake in this year’s forum already.
Every year new features are introduced into the format of the event and the forthcoming forum will not be an exception. In 2013 BankIT will last for three days and move to a new venue, the President Hotel, which has enough room to accommodate all participants.
Strategic issues of the development of the IT branch and modernization of the economic sector will be discussed at a high level on 19 November. The meeting participants will focus on the increase in the effectiveness of the banking sector, the role of information in this process, the increase in the effectiveness of investments in the IT sector and the training of skilled young IT specialists in the banking sector. On the second and third days the forum will be divided into thematic sections to discuss some practical issues such as world trends in IT technologies in the banking sector. The second day will focus on the importance of IT for starting business while the final day will highlight the supporting function of IT in business.
Thus the forum will underline the growing role of IT in the banking sector and the priority development of non-cash retail payments. The Belarusian banking sector has made significant steps in this direction: the country is steadily and systematically developing single information space for non-cash payments. The further development of the system of non-cash retail payments which uses modern electronic payment instruments presents new challenges for developers of IT solutions. In this regard, special importance is attached to the development of remote banking services and front office solutions. These matters will be in the center of discussion on the second day of the forum.
The level of automation and the effectiveness of application of IT solutions in back offices are also vital for the competitiveness and investment attractiveness of banks. They are currently in need of systematization and the increased quality of information. The banking system would benefit from becoming part of the interagency electronic document management system which is being introduced in Belarusian government agencies. Banks consider it important to make sure that automated systems operate without downtime pointing out the significance of data protection and information security. Experts also note that the way IT specialists look at IT infrastructure has changed completely and currently creating a failure-proof and accident-free infrastructure is a priority. The third day of the forum will be dedicated to these matters.
The 2013 forum will be the 10th event in the series. It is organized by the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus, the association Infopark and the Association of Belarusian Banks.