Events and highlights

February 28, 2012

The information and communication technology (ICT) sector has played a unique role in the development of the financial sector since the first computing systems emerged in the middle of the last century. Many of the innovations wrought in the information technology industry have served to enhance banks’ internal core processes, including transaction management, market trading and payment system interconnections. From the advent of the mainframe computer in the late 1960s to the most recent cloud computing innovations, ICT has evolved in parallel with the growth of the banking sector.

The ICT sector has also played a prominent and noteworthy role in how banks deal with their customers. Spain, with its amenable climate and penchant for street life, warmly welcomed the arrival of ATMs in the 1970s. Since then the number of banking platforms has proliferated. Today, we can bank with many institutions at their branches, using their ATMs, by phone and by internet, etc.

ICTs and the Financial Industry of the Future is a benchmark publication. It reviews the symbiosis between technology and the cornerstones of the finance system, including banking, payment solutions and financial market trading. Innovation is the hallmark and key driver of the history of this symbiotic relationship. And its role is only set to become more important in the years to come.

The book’s table of contents and prologue can be downloaded from the Fundación Telefónica website.