The Russian invasion of Ukraine is generating a deep geopolitical change, which has transformed the international agenda and will condition the global economic reality for a long period of time. While global growth for 2022 was forecast to rise to 4.4 per cent, it could fall to 3.8 per cent according to the latest projections of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). This is due to the slowdown of markets in the EU, China, and the US, the impact on international commodity prices, as well as rising inflation.

As far as the banking and financial sector is concerned, reasonable profitability levels are expected to recover in the first part of 2022. New trends point to an increase in the use and demand for products and services through digital channels, expecting speed and security that are increasingly present in our daily life. The increased use of Big Data, AI and Blockchain mark the beginning of a new era, where data represent a before and after in the customer experience, contributing not only to financial flexibility, but also to its democratisation. Around these key concepts, it is crucial to effectively manage fraud, which is growing in parallel to digital channels, but becomes easier to fight thanks to data and decisional technology, capable of automatically predicting fraudulent behaviour and acting accordingly.

After the first quarter of 2022, we see that we are in an era where humans increasingly need machines and where the effective use of machines makes or breaks a business.