Retail Banking Institute | Retail Banking Council: People, Banking and Technology

Retail Banking Council: People, Banking and Technology

Strange times indeed: it's like the Cold War in reverse. Thirty-five years ago George Bush announced a new world order, with the US as the global policeman. Now the policeman is going home and saying 'sort it out yourselves'. A Lafferty meeting in 2016 titled The New World Disorder looked at the changes in global politics and culture and predicted the end of the globalised and multipolar world order. Russia was beginning to build its own separate financial system. The UK was preparing to exit Europe and the US was about to elect Donald Trump. And while Covid interrupted the momentum, nationalism is back, in China, the US and increasingly around the world. Free trade is out, and tariffs are in. Ukraine's trump card may be its mineral wealth. As the US puts itself first, do other countries have a choice but to follow suit? Can African countries tap their mineral resources before they are carted away? What role can finance play in supporting indigenous industry: should it be at massive scale, or made of a thriving small business sector, or both? To what extent can new technologies and partnerships help build indigenous economies? There are some of the questions on the agenda at today's Retail Banking Council Africa: People, Banking and Technology, which starts at 11am UTC.