When Sibos opens in Frankfurt at the end of September, it will do so at a moment of transition for global finance. For banks, technology providers and regulators, the conference is more than an annual gathering: it is where strategies are tested, alliances built, and priorities set for the coming year. After pandemic-era restrictions, visa challenges and geopolitical tensions curtailed travel in recent years, Frankfurt promises to be the most widely attended edition since London in 2019.

In this context, Dhiraj Bajaj, global head of transaction banking financial institution (FI) sales at Standard Chartered, offers a perspective shaped by decades in payments. He sees Frankfurt not only as a return to scale but as a shift in substance. The focus will be on how banks, fintechs and FIs can adapt to digital assets, harness artificial intelligence (AI), manage rising cybersecurity threats, implement ISO 20022, and navigate evolving expectations of Swift.

The theme of Sibos 2025—the next frontier of global finance—is apt. Bajaj emphasised that what will be discussed is no longer theoretical.

For him, Sibos is not simply about panel discussions or plenary speeches. It is also about the conversations that take place in closed rooms and side sessions. Standard Chartered is convening its Financial Institutions Client Advisory Board  on the Sunday before the conference begins, bringing together 45 to 50 senior FI and transaction banking leaders. The focus will be threefold: digital assets, cybersecurity and AI. These themes, he argued, are now at the centre of the industry’s collective agenda.

Bajaj frames Sibos Frankfurt as both a showcase and a stress test. On one hand, it is an opportunity for institutions to demonstrate progress in building interoperable, resilient systems. On the other, it is where clients probe for clarity on how far banks are willing to go in integrating tokenisation, machine learning (ML), and multi-currency clearing into daily operations.

What distinguishes Frankfurt is that these themes intersect. Digital assets require 24/7 interoperability. ISO 20022 introduces structured data that must be screened intelligently with AI. Cybersecurity underpins every innovation, while Swift’s role as a connective layer is being redefined in real time. Sibos is where these threads will be woven together—or left exposed.

Frankfurt’s scale and shifting ecosystem

His remark reflects the momentum building ahead of the event, with attendance projected to exceed recent editions. Unlike in Toronto or Beijing, where visa issues limited participation from certain markets, Frankfurt benefits from being both accessible and symbolically central to European finance.

The scale, however, is not simply numerical. “It’s actually evolving more from a bank conference to a conference for the whole financial ecosystem. Bajaj’s observation captures a fundamental change: fintechs, big tech, and payments providers are no longer fringe exhibitors—they are among the anchors of the show floor.

Standard Chartered itself is bringing a large global delegation and has scheduled hundreds of bilateral meetings. For Bajaj, this is not about visibility alone. It is about substance. The bank is using Sibos to reinforce its positioning as a global institution, clearing 130 currencies. By staging client meetings and side events, the bank ensures its presence extends beyond the panels.

One of the highlights will be the Client Advisory Board session on Sunday. He said, “We get 45 to 50 C-suite, very senior FI and transaction banking heads. The three themes this year are digital assets, cybersecurity, and the use of AI and ML.” In Bajaj’s view, this format—closed-door, highly focused, peer-level—is where candid conversations about risks, priorities and experiments take place.
Clients are not passive recipients. This expectation reframes Sibos: it is no longer about banks telling clients what is possible, but about clients pressing banks for clarity on what is practical.

Digital assets and tokenisation

Digital assets are moving from pilot to mainstream. “We have one hour session on digital assets, which covers stablecoins as well as cryptocurrency, the evolving landscape and what’s happening with the multiple public infrastructure that is there,” Bajaj explained. For him, this is not hype—it is the most pressing question clients are raising.

The bank serves as a bridge between fiat and tokenised value. “From my experience being in the FI business, digital assets are now becoming mainstream.”

This bridge involves supporting issuers with fiat accounts, managing mint-and-burn cycles with immediate settlement, and offering 24 /7  application programming interface (API)-driven reporting.

Geography shapes adoption. Hong Kong and Singapore are leading with regulatory frameworks for institutions. Europe and Japan remain cautious.

The potential scale is striking. Bajaj expects stablecoin issuance grow rapidly and if they  evolve to pay yield, they will shift from pure payment instruments to treasury assets. “If stablecoins evolve to pay benchmark-linked interest, they become not only a payment medium but also a treasury instrument,” he said.

Yet tokenisation will not supplant fiat. Large-value trade and treasury flows will continue to run on Swift and real-time gross settlement system (RTGS), while wallets and blockchain rails may dominate low-value, always-on niches such as gaming. For banks, the imperative is interoperability—offering clients the ability to move seamlessly between both environments without disruption.

Cross-border payments and local currencies

For all the new focus on digital assets, cross-border payments remain the backbone. “The traditional cross-border payments, which is basically the reason why we are all there, continues to evolve. We have seen an increase in volumes. We’re seeing a very large change happening even in terms of the currency corridors,” Bajaj said.

“We have used the euphemism greater use of local currency.” This is borne out in the data. “Even on the trade front, the value of letters of credit (LCs) that was issued, in fact, now renminbi (RMB) is number two, accounting for 7% of global MT700s.”

There is a shift reshaping clearing priorities. Corporates expect multi-currency settlement, last-mile delivery into domestic real-time payment (RTP) systems, and round-the-clock operability. Standard Chartered, with capacity in 130 currencies, direct clearing in 38, and real-time payments in 22 markets, positions itself as a global clearer capable of meeting these expectations.

ISO 20022 and AI at scale

ISO 20022 is the next frontier in payment messaging. For him, the November 2025 deadline is not just a milestone—it is an existential test.

The move from MT to MX formats transforms what banks, corporates and regulators can do with data. Structured fields allow automatic reconciliation, regulatory reporting and clearer sanctions screening. Corporates benefit from straight-through integration into enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. Regulators receive consistent purpose-of-payment codes. Banks gain better visibility across nested payments.

But with more data comes more complexity. “Screening hundreds of words rather than a handful of characters multiplies false positives if banks rely on yesterday’s tooling,” Bajaj said. The banking industry will have to deploy industrial-scale AI and ML stacks for both real-time sanction screening and longer-horizon anti-money laundering (AML) monitoring.

The competitive implications are clear. Institutions that master ISO 20022 and AI will process payments faster, with fewer errors, and with greater regulatory confidence. Those that lag will face not only client dissatisfaction but possible exclusion from Swift altogether.
At Frankfurt, this will not be an abstract discussion. Banks will compare how far they have industrialised AI, how regulators are scrutinising models, and how explainability standards are being applied. ISO 20022 will no longer be seen as a compliance project—it will be an operational reality that differentiates winners from laggards.

Cybersecurity and operational resilience

Cybersecurity, Bajaj argued, is not a side issue but a pervasive one. “As money moves faster and also gains different forms and shape, cyber security risk is only increasing. It’s not getting easier. It’s only getting more and more difficult.”

The rise of digital assets adds new vectors. Wallets, custodians and tokenisation bridges expand the attack surface. Deepfake impersonations—whether over video or voice—already pose serious threats. Standard Chartered has staged live demo, such as during a two-day programme in Sydney with 57 banks, to show how easily staff can be deceived into authorising transfers.

Operational resilience requires choreography. Incidents must trigger escalation pathways, regulator notifications, containment protocols and clear client communications. Frontline staff must be equipped not just with IT escalation steps but with scripts to reassure clients in crisis.

Information sharing is also crucial. A breach at one FI can cascade across the system if not disclosed. Communities of chief information security officers (CISOs) and shared threat-intelligence hubs, including dark-web monitoring, are becoming indispensable. “Prevention, not post-mortem” is the sector’s new guiding principle.

Frankfurt will surface these concerns across all themes. Whether the discussion is about AI, digital assets or ISO 20022, cybersecurity will underpin every conversation. Bajaj’s view is that innovation and resilience must advance together—or not at all.

Swift, Sibos and the contours of competition

Swift itself remains central to debate. Swift’s work has been consequential. Global payments innovation (GPI) fundamentally improved speed and traceability; ISO 20022 is changing the payload; and pre-validation services reduce mis-directed payments and fraud,” Bajaj said.

He expects Swift to dominate high-value flows for the foreseeable future, while wallets and blockchain rails expand in low-value or niche cases. “The map is not binary; it is layered, and banks that can operate fluently across layers will create value for clients,” he explained.
Swift is also partnering with fintechs. Bajaj cited the example of Ant, where clients funded wallets using Standard Chartered accounts over Swift rails. In this framing, Swift becomes a connector of the fintech and bank ecosystem rather than a rival to wallets.
Its adoption has been modest compared to GPI or ISO 20022, which directly addressed client pain points.

For Standard Chartered, differentiation lies in combining its global clearing strength with leadership in digital asset integration. Bajaj stressed that the bank is already ahead of many peers in commercialising tokenised flows. It also brings unique capabilities in Islamic banking, serving corridors across the Middle East, Malaysia, Indonesia and Africa.

The Frankfurt conversations that matter

Sibos Frankfurt will provide the stage to articulate this position. For Bajaj, Swift remains indispensable, but the institutions that thrive will be those that master multiple layers of infrastructure at once.

“The reason why we are all there is cross-border payments. But alongside, you have digital assets, AI, cyber security, all at the same time. That is what makes this Sibos very different,” Bajaj concluded.

Sibos 2025 is set to be more than a reunion of the industry. It will be a forum where banks must demonstrate how they are weaving together new technologies, resilient infrastructure, and global clearing capabilities. For clients, the question is not whether these innovations exist, but how they are delivered at scale, safely and reliably.

For Standard Chartered, the message is clear: it is a global clearer, a digital asset connector, and a builder of interoperability across currencies and platforms. In Frankfurt, Bajaj expects these themes to be tested, debated and sharpened in the crucible of client demands.
The conversations that matter most will not be the ones in the plenary halls but in the bilateral meetings, advisory sessions and side events where theory meets practice. Frankfurt will be where the industry decides how to navigate the next frontier of global finance.