HSBC’s Manish Kohli: Top innovations in payments, and can TradFi fix the experience ahead of DeFi?

There is a significant trend is the convergence of various technologies, including real-time payments, AI, large language models, APIs, and blockchain. This integration allows for creative use cases that facilitate faster movement of money globally.

The biggest challenge in the past year has been the fragmentation of payment systems, driven by DeFi, geopolitical issues, and data localisation. Many organisations are heavily investing in ways to connect these disparate systems to ensure clients remain unaffected by this fragmentation.

The relationship between traditional finance (TradFi) and decentralised finance (DeFi) is not a race where one must defeat the other. Both will likely continue to exist and improve by learning from each other. Expect TradFi to incorporate better client experiences and new technologies from the DeFi world and DeFi to dedicate more resources to handling large transaction volumes typical of the TradFi sector. But the ultimate goal is to bridge these two worlds with the client as the winner.