FINx 2025: Maintaining Momentum in a Digital Landscape

Jersey Finance’s inaugural FINx event, held on Wednesday 19 November at the Radisson Blu, brought together more than 230 professionals from the financial services, digital, regulatory and government sectors to examine the opportunities and challenges shaping the future of global finance. Across keynote addresses and panel discussions, speakers consistently highlighted the need for Jersey to maintain momentum, collaborate effectively and continue investing in digital capabilities if it is to strengthen its position as “the easiest IFC to do business with remotely in a digital world”, Amy Bryant, Deputy CEO Jersey Finance.

The half-day conference was split into two key themes, read on for key takeaways and insights.

Stablecoins and tokenisation: evolving opportunities for IFCs

Addressing the subject of digital assets, Andrew Morfill, Chief Technology Officer, explored the rapidly shifting stablecoin landscape. He highlighted how use cases are maturing, with significant potential in areas such as trade finance, tokenised money market funds and cross-border payments – all areas where Jersey could play a leading role.

A panel session on tokenisation built on this discussion, noting that Jersey’s early regulatory engagement – from virtual asset guidance almost a decade ago to updated guidance on stablecoin issuance and real-world asset tokenisation last year – provides a strong foundation. However, speakers stressed that continued momentum and regulatory clarity will be vital as other international finance centres (IFCs) accelerate their efforts in this space.

AI: Transformation, risk and the need for agility

In his keynote address, ‘Surviving and Thriving in the Age of AI – Key Lessons for Jersey’, Professor Alan Brown set out the scale of change AI is already driving across global financial services. A subsequent panel expanded on this, noting that within the Island, financial services stand to be the most significantly impacted sector.

Speakers noted that while the future trajectory of AI remains difficult to predict, the risks associated with inaction are clear. An agile, coordinated approach to AI adoption, supported by strong governance and industry-wide engagement,will be central to protecting Jersey’s competitiveness and ensuring long-term success.

This narrative was reinforced in a keynote address from Gregg Hutchings, Programme Director at the Financial Services Skills Commission, who emphasised the importance of digital skills. Embedding a culture of digital resilience, and prioritising both reskilling and upskilling across the workforce, he noted, will be critical as the pace of technological change accelerates.

A call for pace, collaboration and investment in skills

Reflecting on the event, Amy Bryant, Deputy CEO of Jersey Finance, emphasised how FINx provided a valuable platform for industry and digital experts to consider the opportunities and risks ahead:

“Our digital capabilities will undoubtedly be a key factor in our competitiveness in the years ahead, but what this event really highlighted was just how rapidly the fintech space is evolving and it’s important we maintain pace.

The good news is we absolutely have the intellectual capacity, the drive and the frameworks to be successful by embracing fintech and the potential of AI – but we must maintain momentum, we must collaborate and we must invest in homegrown digital skills.”

The level of engagement across #FINx2025 made one thing clear: there is strong interest in the topics discussed. While we weren’t able to cover every question during the live sessions, we’ll be addressing them as part of our FINx: Your Questions Answered series (coming soon).

We look forward to continuing the conversation.