Celebration of 25 Years of DSI
Celebrating 25 Years of DSI: an afternoon of inspiring conversations and innovative (AI) art
On Friday, October 4, we celebrated the 25th anniversary of the DSI Foundation and we look back with pride on an inspiring day full of insights, interesting conversations and great encounters.
This event at the Beursgebouw in Amsterdam focused on two key themes: the rise of digitization and Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the important role of the investment industry in sustainability. With engaging contributions from renowned speakers and experts, we explored the latest trends and discussed the challenges facing the financial sector.
Inspiring key-notes
Keynote speakers such as Jos Heuvelman (AFM), Jorissa Neutelings (ABN AMRO) and Erik van Houwelingen (Van Lanschot Kempen) shared their insights with the audience.
Jos Heuvelman congratulated us on our 25th anniversary and thanked us for our close cooperation with the AFM, especially in the areas of professionalism and integrity in the financial sector. He discussed new challenges such as digitalization and the role of AI in the financial world. Heuvelman warned about risks of AI, such as biases in algorithms, but also recognized the opportunities for fraud detection and efficiency improvements. He stressed the importance of competent and incorruptible advisors, especially in an increasingly digital world, and praised DSI’s role in promoting quality and trust in the industry. Jos Heuvelman’s complete speech can be read here .
Erik van Houwelingen took the audience on his personal journey in his thinking and acting on sustainability and mentioned some concrete examples of how Van Lanschot Kempen deals with this, for example by working with a fully regenerative farm producing olive oil. He challenged the audience to think about what moves you personally, thinking about the importance of future generations, and act accordingly. This can also be small, within your personal sphere of influence.
Jorissa Neutelings discussed with the audience the major trends that everyone in the financial industry should follow to remain successful in serving customers. The development of AI plays a big role in this, both conversational ai and generative ai. Automation should be central to the service concepts where customers increasingly demand hyper-personalized service based on experiences from other digital services. Here, security is absolutely central; the bank as a vault of all your data offers opportunities. And finally, in the sector we need to think more in terms of ecosystems in which parts of the service can be integrated in cooperation with third parties. At a time of increasing polarization and decreasing trust in large institutions, integrity and an impeccable track record are crucial.
Panel discussion on sustainability
During the anniversary event, an inspiring panel discussion on sustainability in the financial sector kicked off, using as a basis the recently published DSI white paper “Greenwashing: Let’s be Real,” which came out in October this year. An expert panel, consisting of Harald Walkate (Route 17 / University of Zurich), Carola van Lamoen (Robeco / Eumedion) and Erik van Houwelingen (Van Lanschot Kempen), explored some tantalizing questions: What do we actually mean by greenwashing? How can we effectively integrate elements such as “additionality” into labels or disclosure regulations? And how do we create an honest dialogue with consumers about what they should expect from the financial sector in addressing societal problems?
Review of the event
For those who missed the event or would like to look back: the presentations and photos can now be found on our website www.dsi.nl/jubileumevent. We also presented three amazing AI artworks by the AI Gallery from Amsterdam, which creatively represent our themes: integrity, sustainability and digitalization in the financial sector. Explanations of these works can be found at www.dsi.nl/ai-artworks.
