The Financial Services Club in Partnership with Z/Yen and Long Finance, is delighted to invite you to an evening seminar, which will be held at the Pewterer’s Hall in the City Of London, from 18:00 to 20:45 on Thursday 21 February, 2019. The evening will include drinks and canapes. Our distinguished speaker for the evening Lord Holmes, Vice-Chairman, All-Party Parliamentary Group on Blockchain, will introduce us to Smart Ledgers and look to answer the questions:

Why do we need standards, how do we manage the risks and how could the government help with the acceptance of standards?

The session will explore professional qualifications, voluntary standards and technical standards (ISO standards, sector specific taxonomies and performance standards) and will also look into the role the government could play in terms of legal frameworks, digital signatures and timestamping. Smart ledgers are based on a combination of mutual distributed ledgers (MDLs, aka blockchain: multi-organisational databases with a super audit trail, used since 2009 in cryptocurrencies) with embedded programming and sensing, thus permitting semi-intelligent, autonomous transactions. Smart Ledgers are touted as a technology for fair play in a globalised world. There are numerous projects building trade systems using this technology with announcements from governments, shipping firms, large IT firms, and the like.

Lord Holmes Of Richmond:
Lord Holmes of Richmond is vice-chair of the Parliamentary Groups on Assistive Technology, Fintech, Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain and the 4th IR. Chris is a former Paralympic swimmer, Chair of the Global Disability Innovation Hub, Diversity Adviser to the civil service, non-executive director at Channel 4 and Chancellor at BPP University. In 2013, Chris entered the House of Lords where his focus is on technology and the digital opportunity, employment, education and skills, media and sport. He has been a member of the House of Lords Select Committees on Artificial Intelligence, Digital Skills, Social Mobility and Financial Exclusion.

Background Reading: http://chrisholmes.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Distributed-Ledger-Technologies-for-Public-Good_leadership-collaboration-and-innovation.pdf

Chairman: Bob McDowall
Robert ("Bob") McDowall was an elected member of the States of Alderney, one of the Channel Islands within the Bailiwick of Guernsey, where he serves as Chairman of the Finance Committee and Deputy Chairman of the Policy Committee. Outside politics, Robert is an adviser to a number of businesses. Robert is a frequent contributor to industry thought and comment in the international, national and the financial industry press on financial markets. Robert has over 35 years experience in the Banking and Securities and Investment business, with companies including Merrill Lynch, Pru-Bache and Singer and Friedlander.

The schedule for the evening is:

• 18.00 Registration and drinks reception
• 18.30 Speaker presentation and Q & A
• 19.45 Canapés, drinks and networking
• 20.45 Close