The Cyber Finance Summit 2025: A first of its kind highlighting cyber resilience in the financial sector

The inaugural Cyber Finance Summit 2025 will be taking place on 15 and 16 October, in a landmark move to strengthening digital defences in the financial sector.

Taking place at the Mediterranean Conference Centre in Valletta, the Summit is organised by the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) and is expected to welcome over 500 professionals from across the financial, regulatory, and technology sectors.

We speak to Alan Decelis, Head of Supervisory ICT Risk and Cybersecurity at the MFSA about why this Cyber Finance Summit is so important and the latest developments in the area of cyber resilience in the financial sector. 

Why did MFSA feel the need for a summit focusing on cyber finance?

The financial services sector is one of the main pillars of the Maltese economy.  Safeguarding the key economic functions of the financial system is critical.  The MFSA felt the need to organise an event focusing specifically on cyber resilience within the financial sector.

The financial sector is increasingly becoming technology-based/driven.  Technology is an enabler and a vital driving force in the financial sector. It brings a lot of opportunities and we need to ensure that it continues to do so. For this reason, we need to ensure that we understand and manage the challenges and risks that technology brings along.  This is exactly what the event will be focusing upon.

What would you personally feel to be the best outcome of this summit?

The best outcome is that the audience feels re-energised, ready to take cyber resilience to the next level.

Can you tell us about some of the more prominent keynote speakers who will participate in the summit?

The event will be organised into six themes, the flow of which has been very carefully crafted.

Day 1.

We will start off with the first theme focusing on the threat landscape and organised crime, or better, the outstanding threats related to the financial sector. This theme will set the scene and here we will have a keynote from a representative of ENISA followed by a panel with people also coming from MITA, FS-ISAC, Europol and Guardia di Finanza.

The second theme will elevate the audience to look at cyber resilience from a macro prudential perspective – the cyber resilience of the financial system as whole.  With a keynote followed by a panel as well, here we will have representative from the Bank of England, the Central Bank of Malta, the Malta Financial Services Authority and the Bank of International Settlements. 

The third theme will provide a Regulatory Update to the audience.  Here we will have a flavour of the regulation around cyber resilience not only within the EU but also globally incl. within the UK, the US and the UAE with 4 keynotes and a panel.

Day 2.

The fourth theme will be about Cyber Resilience Supervision.  The objective of regulation can only be realised fully through proper supervision.  It will also be organised in the form of four keynotes and a panel, with representatives from the European Supervisory Authorities, the European Central Bank, the Reserve Bank of India and the Malta Financial Services Authority.  I will be delivering a keynote on six years of cyber resilience supervision in Malta along with the key components and foundational elements of cyber resilience supervision.

The Supply Chain and the emanating ICT Third Party Risk will be addressed during the fifth theme in which we will have three keynotes and a panel discussion by the newly appointed Director leading the DORA Oversight Framework, as well as well-known ICT Third Party Providers.

The sixth theme will conclude the event with innovative technology arrangements such as Quantum and AI, but also on what we think that the future role of Cyber Resilience will look like within the financial services.  Here we will bring speakers from the University of Malta, Georgetown University, Amazon, the Malta Digital Innovation Authority and the Bank of England in the form of three keynotes and a panel discussion.

The event will be accompanied by an industry expo along with plenty of opportunity to network.

What are the bigger challenges the finance industry faces with the ever-increasing influence of AI and technology?

• Use of technology with little to no explainability and without properly understanding the risks that it brings.
• Dependency on a small number of technology providers who are becoming even more critical than the financial entities that they serve.
• The speed at which evolution is happening and the disruption that it brings and an industry that needs to spring from one disruption to the next.

What do you consider to be the major challenges in cyber finance to look out for in the next five years?

• Escalating sophistication of cyber threats.
• Managing the supply chain.
• Balancing out regulatory complexity and compliance pressure on the one hand, with the pressure to innovate and be competitive on the other hand.
• Operational complexity.

What role do you see Malta playing in this sector in the next five years?

Financial entities establishing themselves in Malta are expected to invest in, and to take, cyber resilience very seriously.  Malta is continuing to invest in the necessary structures to ensure that this continues to happen.