ProgressSoft’s Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Michael Wakileh, looks back on an impactful 2022 and anticipates what is to come for all stakeholders in 2023. https://bit.ly/3YNsoYG
Dear partners, colleagues, and stakeholders,
The world is in times of turbulence: climatic, economic, and financial, with the situation foreshadowing mixed fortunes for many industries and economies in 2023 and beyond.
But as wise Peter Drucker once said, “the greatest danger in times of turbulence is not the turbulence, it is to act with yesterday’s logic.”
We may not be certain of what is to come for the financial industry, however, we can choose to adapt our practices to not only survive the rain but use it to grow. With that, I must highlight the importance of letting go of outdated solutions that aim to resolve new challenges.
The demand for user-friendly and portable financial services will not wait for any technology or institution, so we must keep moving, keep growing, and keep persevering in the face of massive change and uncertainty. This is where we are headed.
As to where we have been, an eventful year to say the least with a lot of collaboration and active change that we were honored to witness and be a part of in the financial sector.
We commenced the year with the Advancement of Digital Currency in Interoperability Award by the Digital Currency Advisory Committee in Washington D.C. recognizing our Central Bank Digital Currency solution and its ability to revolutionize the future of interoperability in cross-border financial ecosystems. We collaborated with tens of central banks on the topic, resulting in valuable discussions and transformative decisions that will impact generations to come. We are proud of our progress in this domain as one of the world’s first innovators of CBDC.
Throughout the year, we discussed, signed, and launched projects catering to governments, regulatory body national strategies, and banking digital transformation initiatives. We celebrated major upgrades, successful migrations, first-of-their-kind implementations and big milestones for us and for our clients.
We were also major exhibitors at some of the most prominent events for the financial industry in Athens, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Kigali, and Washington D.C. It is part of our commitment to being among our clientele across the 5 continents and ahead of the latest updates in the global financial sector.
Before long, we were celebrating yet another prominent milestone in our domain. Our Payments Hub Platform was among the first 3 solutions worldwide to be awarded with the SWIFT Compatible Application Payments Label, marking the beginning of our contribution to the evolution in global payments and the financial industry’s ISO 20022 migration period.
Our successes remain incomplete without our corporate social responsibility. In 2022, we continued to cultivate a culture centered around giving back to the community and environment through several green initiatives, care packages, and health awareness sessions. But above all, we massively contributed to elevating education and empowering a new generation of students through fruitful collaborations with the private and public sector. We hope to see that impact grow in 2023.
Finally, after 33 years of guiding over 370 financial institutions in their digital transformation journeys, we now recognize a major shift in our scope of work: a new intersection of services among financial institutions, mobile network operators, fintechs and exchange houses. Accordingly, a major announcement by ProgressSoft is in store for 2023, and it will be an exciting journey that we look forward to pursuing with our clients and the entirety of the financial sector.
Lastly, my sincere gratitude goes to our colleagues in our 6 offices across the globe for their diligent work. Our outcomes will continue to leave a mark on nations, institutions, and citizens – and it is with great thanks to all our stakeholders that we sustain this impact so wonderfully.
Wishing you a happy 2023.
Sincerely,
Michael Wakileh