“I am highly passionate about the openness of ecosystems. If you view issues like identity and sustainability from this angle, you can form an idea of an ecosystem put together by banks, third parties and partners, to drive transformation, streamline processes, and make consumers aware of how they can make the best decisions for their futures.”
It was inspiring to sit down with Martin Sladecek, Director of Digital Strategic Studies at Société Générale. Martin’s role is to search for the most promising innovation opportunities on the market and assess their future value to simplify customer’s lives or improve their experiences.
Martin highlights some priority areas of innovation for financial institutions, beginning with digital identity. Banks could, Martin explains, become providers of digital identity leveraging existing KYC procedures and data flows to provide customers with Digital IDs for use with selected third parties.
This could make things more streamlined for users, but also has the potential to open new revenue opportunities for financial institutions. “Identity is already ready to be used on a large scale in everyday life,” Martin says, “there are no doubts that we are ready.”
Martin also spoke passionately about banks role in driving sustainable finance and the potential to go beyond the mere regulatory requirements to report ESG data.
Through the many innovative services and products being delivered to retail customers and SMEs, huge stores of transactional data are created. Using this data, financial institutions can gather insights into their customers’ carbon footprints. “If we have enough information we can play the role of advisor, advising customers how to prioritise sustainability, to achieve a much brighter, greener future for all of us.”
Watch the full interview now.
The conversation continues at Future Identity Festival, co-located with FID Fraud & FinCrime, the FTT Fintech Festival, FTT AI Transformation, and FTT Mutuals on the 10th – 11th November 2025 at The Brewery, London.
Join 2,000+ festival-goers as we explore the trends and technologies shaping the future of financial services. World-class learning and engagement, meets live entertainment and our famous craft beer bar, all while connecting with the industry players you are looking to meet.
