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Sibos 2020: destination Lygon, outlook global

Lygon is set to go global, with the successful guarantees-based technology targeting new markets in new countries – and according to Nigel Dobson, Banking Services Lead at ANZ, it’s all because Lygon is a real solution with an identifiable problem it can solve.

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Speaking on podcast ahead of the Sibos 2020 financial services conference, along with Hari Janakiraman, creator of the Lygon concept and Head of Trade Product, Institutional at ANZ, Dobson said Lygon’s clear mandate was behind its ongoing success.

"We talked to colleagues in New Zealand, Singapore, the US and Europe, and they all say ‘we've got exactly the same archaic paper-based processes’.” – Nigel Dobson

“The reason Lygon has been successful and will continue to grow at scale… is the problem it is solving is substantial and meaningful,” Dobson said.

“Not just for the beneficiary client, but for all three parties in the transaction. Everybody benefited from the implementation of a digitised instrument on the Lygon platform.”

Dobson said as the project refined its capability it has seen clear opportunities to scale to help users.

“I think the most-important [opportunity] was to realise this problem around data guarantees is a global one,” he said. “We talked to colleagues in New Zealand, Singapore, the US and Europe, and they all say ‘we've got exactly the same archaic paper-based processes’.”

You can listen to an edited version of the conversation on podcast below.

Earlier in September, ANZ announced Lygon was moving to the next stage of its development, looking to expand to digitised guarantees outside the retail property sector it focussed on in pilot.

The platform, which will open to the general public in early 2021, also plans to explore expansion into markets outside Australia, offering unprecedented assistance to trade companies that work with complex cross-border guarantees.

Dobson said Lygon was particularly targeting a foothold in New Zealand where it felt it could expand “quite rapidly”.

“We're already building alternative guarantee types into the platform,” he said. “And we're already in quite significant discussions across a number of geographies.”

“The most obvious one [is] New Zealand, where the footprint from a banking point of view is very similar [to Australia].”

Janakiraman said the platform was constructed in a manner that made such transitions relatively smooth.

“The platform has been built in such a way – not just the actual workflow but the underlying technical architecture - that it is easy to deploy in different locations using multiple models,” he said.

“We kept an open mind in terms of how it can be used in other geographies by other financial institutions. The underlying technical architecture is quite flexible.”

Sibos like you’ve never seen it

The Sibos financial services conference will look a little different in 2020, but you can rely on ANZ Institutional for the market-leading insights and thought leadership you have come to expect.

From October 5 to 8, the annual finance conference is going digital, with an online schedule offering insights into the trends which will shape the financial services sector into 2021 and beyond.

In the lead up to the event ANZ Institutional will offer a wide range of coverage on those trends, offering you a sneak peek at the ideas set to dominate the conference from ANZ’s industry experts.

Dobson said the potential application of Lygon’s guarantee solution was wide, spanning from “commercial lease guarantees, environmental guarantees for a large projects, performance guarantee for a range of business and commercial uses [and] financial guarantees for other types of contracts”.

“There are [also] specialised guarantees we've been working with [in] a number of industries with very specialised types of guarantee instruments, which could easily be digitised, coded and standardised for their own benefit,” he said.

Arun Kayal is Associate Director, Communications & Shane White is Content Manager, ANZ Institutional

This article was originally published on ANZ’s Institutional website

The views and opinions expressed in this communication are those of the author and may not necessarily state or reflect those of ANZ.

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