We bring you the latest on Day 2 of Money20/20 in Amsterdam.
17:00 -19:00 – Day 2 came to a close with delegates letting off steam with the legendary DJ Annie Mac.
16:45: Digital asset partnerships are supporting the agility of traditional finance players as they respond to increased competition and margin pressure. Speaking to Payment Expert, BCB Group said this was the key takeaway from conversations with their clients and partners during the event so far.
Camille Tas, head of sales at BCB Group, said this year’s Money 20/20 Europe has come at just the right moment, as positive regulatory changes encourage banks, investment managers and insurers to seek out new partners:
“As companies respond to growing client demand for faster, compliant, private and interoperable systems that are cost-efficient, we are witnessing a huge uptick in enquiries from traditional market participants.”
16:00 – In the penultimate session on the Horizon Stage, Elizabeth Rossiello, CEO and Founder of AZA Finance, shared insights about building payment solutions across Africa. Rossiello explained a lot of investors said building infrastructure across a whole continent is too ambitious. “That will fade, or that’s a fad,” are remarks she heard.
However, Rossiello and AZA Finance have proved these naysayers wrong. She says this proves “you can be underestimated and move froward.”
15:45 – Sebastian Siepen (ECB): “Regulation has been good for innovation in Europe—and strategic autonomy will drive the next phase.”
Julia Kowalski (Stripe): “European fintech is a success story. PSD2 created trust and competition. PSD3 needs to do the same—without crushing emerging business models.”
15:30 – As regulatory momentum builds across Europe—with PSD3, MiCA, and the Digital Euro shaping the agenda. Regulating for Innovation in Payments: Challenge or Opportunity? explored how to strike the right balance between innovation, consumer protection, and strategic autonomy.
Key Takeaways:
- Stablecoins are here to stay: With increasing demand for programmable, cross-border payments, stablecoins will complement (not compete with) CBDCs—if supported by clear regulation.
- Regulation has enabled innovation: Frameworks like PSD2 laid the groundwork for Europe’s fintech boom. PSD3 aims to modernise this foundation to reflect today’s digital economy.
- Strategic autonomy is a growing priority: With dominance of non-European schemes and USD-based stablecoins, regulation is increasingly a lever for economic sovereignty.
- Flexibility is crucial: Overly prescriptive rules risk stifling fast-moving business models. Stakeholders called for adaptive, principles-based approaches.
- Public and private innovation must align: The Digital Euro project is not just a central bank initiative and should be seen as a collaborative infrastructure play involving over 170 private-sector participants.
14:50 –
Diana Carrasco :
“The one form of money that you cannot use in the digital economy is central bank money. So in an increasingly digitalised economy, the question remains: do we still need that in that new economy or not?”
14:25 – Diana Carrasco Vime (Bank of England) and Evelien Witlox (European Central Bank) outlined the current status and future direction of the Digital Pound and Digital Euro initiatives.
Both projects are in their design/preparation phases, aiming to build privacy-preserving, resilient, and innovative digital payment systems. While the UK focuses on innovation and optional adoption, the EU is emphasizing sovereignty and infrastructure resilience, especially amid growing concerns around stablecoins and geopolitical dependencies. Both stressed the importance of public-private collaboration, user-centric design, and avoiding displacement of existing financial players.
Evelien Witlox: “We’ve had central bank money available for retail payments for as long as we can remember. Why would we not bring this to the digital age?”
13:30 – A slight switch up this afternoon, with payments moving aside for sport. Former Liverpool Football Club player Sami Hyypia joined Lee Gunning Director, Financial Markets at Standard Chartered Bank.
Hyypia outlined his career at Liverpool, where he made 464 appearances and scored 35 goals. During the conversation he explained the mood in the dressing room at half-time in the 2005 UEFA Champions League final against AC Milan. Hyypia’s team found themselves losing at half-time, but something changed and Liverpool ended up clinching the title after penalties – regarded as one of the best comebacks in European history.
“Follow your dreams… you just have to have the passion inside you,” said Hyypia.
12:15 – The UK Government’s Counter Fraud Strategy
The conversation looked at how the UK is stepping up its fight against fraud, with a clear takeaway: government, fintech, and social media companies need to work together to stay ahead of the scammers.
Social media was flagged as a growing hotspot for fraud, sparking calls for better data sharing between platforms and authorities to catch scams early. AI came up too, both as a tool to stop fraud and as a weapon being used by increasingly sophisticated criminal groups. It’s a tech tug-of-war between good and bad.
They also highlighted the need for stronger support for victims and floated the idea of a national fraud data centre to help agencies coordinate and respond more effectively.
Luke Charters, MP, House of Commons
“In the British government, we’ve got this big factor about regulating fraud growth. And the big argument that I put is that fraud is a drag on growth. Obviously, it takes money out of people’s pockets – but what people don’t often realise is it changes their behavior. Some of the card firms I speak to have proven that if you’re a victim of a scam, you spend less in the economy. And frankly, I sat here with House of Commons after my name. I was elected because we as a government were elected on the promise of growth – so we must tackle fraud to get better. That is why it’s such a priority issue. But it’s not just about growth. It’s about justice.”
11:30 – It’s interview day in the press lounge and we’re rolling out the video. Barry O’Sullivan from OpenPayd spoke to Rachael Kennedy about what people are continually getting wrong about embedded finance, how stablecoins have sneaked into mainstream conversation, and why the UK regulatory environment is fostering innovation, not cutting it off at it’s heals.
Barry’s interview will be published in full on Payment Expert next week.
11:00 – Payment Expert’s Kieran O’Connor interviewed Alejandro Revilla, the original developer of jPOS, the open-source payments framework used by banks across the globe and Constantino Voulgaris, CEO of Transactility.
Revilla spoke about the original problem he was trying to solve when he first built jPOS, explaining how it aimed to make the industry more open and transparent. Voulgaris noted his future vision for Transactility.
Make sure you are signed up to the Payment Expert newsletter to not miss the full interview and other in-depth articles over the coming weeks.
10:35 – “No one wants to be the first mover”: Experts at Money20/20 on what drives consumer adoption of payment methods
“The first question from any merchant is always, how many customers do you bring?” said Martina Weimert, CEO of EPI Company, during a panel at Money20/20 Europe. “Nobody wants to be the front runner for a new solution.”
The session, titled “Consumer Adoption of New Payment Methods: LPM Playbook”, explored what it takes to launch and scale a payment method that actually gets used. Speakers from EPI, Adobe, PPRO, and the European Central Bank offered a practical guide to understanding both merchant expectations and consumer behaviour.
Weimert pointed to the need for integrated solutions that go beyond single use cases. Many consumers, she noted, are juggling multiple apps that don’t cover all scenarios. EPI’s upcoming wallet aims to offer a unified experience across e-commerce, in-store, P2P, and bill payments. “Today’s payments landscape is fragmented. There’s no all-in-one product, and instant payments still don’t serve every channel,” she said.
Matt Wegner, VP of Payments and Risk at Adobe, said merchants are cautious when it comes to adding new methods at checkout. Too many choices can harm conversion. Adobe tends to wait until a method has scaled locally before adopting it.
“We don’t want to be first. We wait until consumers are already there,” said Wegner. “But when it’s time, we want fast implementation — and we expect our partners to help reduce the cost and complexity.”
He stressed that success is not just about adding a method to the checkout flow. Support from payment service providers — including things like easier integration and standardised reporting — can be a deciding factor.
From the public sector, Eric Tak of the European Central Bank offered a broader view. He described how popular solutions often succeed despite lukewarm research findings, citing contactless and iDEAL as examples. “Consumer research doesn’t always predict adoption. What matters is broad accessibility, simplicity, and supporting both digital and analogue users,” said Tak.
Tak explained that the ECB’s digital euro project is being designed with both merchants and consumers in mind, including recurring payment use cases and fallback systems for people not fully connected to digital tools.
The discussion repeatedly returned to the importance of balancing merchant needs with consumer convenience. Weimert said adoption can be driven by recurring use cases like transit or loyalty-linked purchases, using Starbucks as an example.
“You need a reason to use it every day,” she said. “Merchants want volume, and consumers want value.”
The panel concluded with a shared message: real adoption happens when solutions address actual pain points — not just for consumers, but for the merchants who enable them.
9:50 – “If you’re not digital-first, you’re last”.
“You have to get it right from the start,” said Darek Paleczny, Chief Risk and Compliance Officer at Worldline, speaking during a session this morning. “Retrofitting later is much harder and more expensive.”
The panel, titled “If you’re not digital-first, you’re last”, brought together senior leaders from Worldline, Trulioo, Paysafe Group, and Bizum to discuss how digital-first infrastructure is reshaping onboarding, compliance, and fraud prevention in financial services.
Paleczny opened the discussion by pointing out that success in digital transformation relies on building flexible systems from the ground up. He stressed that onboarding and verification processes should be automated where possible, while still allowing for human intervention in complex or high-risk cases.
Alex Johnson of Bizum focused on the importance of balancing speed with control. She warned that removing too much friction can actually harm the user experience. “It’s about the right kind of friction,” she said. “That’s what gives users confidence to make a payment.” Johnson also highlighted Bizum’s move toward self-serve onboarding. Businesses can now sign up, receive feedback, and go live within 24 hours. This shift depends on reviewing internal policies and aligning them with fast, digital expectations.
Diana Zavoianou, Senior Director of Global Consumer Risk at Paysafe, said data and machine learning models are helping the company scale onboarding and monitor customer behaviour over time. “Verification isn’t a one-time event,” she said. “We follow the customer through their full journey and adapt based on activity.”
She explained that different fraud types require different models and rules. Paysafe now tailors these to individual products, channels, and risk profiles to improve both protection and user experience.
The use of AI and automation came up throughout the session. Johnson shared how language models are used to pull data from internal and external sources, helping speed up due diligence and onboarding. Zavoianou added that automation also plays a role in monitoring regular customers, not just detecting fraud.
Closing the session, the panellists shared practical advice for firms investing in digital transformation. They agreed that customer experience, compliance, and automation must all work together — and that early investment pays off over time.
“Digital-first doesn’t just mean faster,” said Paleczny. “It means smarter, more adaptable, and ready for change.”
9:30 – “I think there is going to be a race between two sides of this industry. The legacy banks and whether they can use tech and challengers and whether we get banking. My bet every day of the week is that we will go toe-to-toe with any legacy bank on banking,” said TS Anil in a closing statement.
9:25 – Jeff Tijssen asked what was on most attendees minds – what’s the latest with Monzo’s IPO plans.
“We will be a great public company one day. We have the gift of choice, we’re well capitalised, we’re capital-accerative,” said TS Anil. “We understand why therefore people ask us all the time and speculate about it [IPO], but that’s just not our focus right this second. We’re focused on scaling the business.”
9:15 – “Mission statement is not a poster in the office. It’s an authentic belief about everything that we want to do,” explained Monzo Group CEO TS Anil to the crowd gathered around the Na.i.ture Stage.
Splitting the interview into three parts – Monzo’s emergence, it’s current plan and a look at the future – the group’s CEO noted how the challenger bank’s mission statement drove its early success and will continue to do so.
“Our mission statement is ‘making money work for everyone’, and what I love about that is it’s not an abstraction sitting over here with a business model sitting over there,” said TS Anil.
09:00 – The doors opened for delegates bright an early with a flurry to get to sessions across the RAI conference centre. Up on the main stage, Monzo Group CEO TS Anil will walk us through the challenger bank’s journey -arguably one of fintech’s standout success stories.
With Bain & Company’s Jeff Tijssen interviewing, expect to hear about Monzo’s emergence through fintech’s inital boom period, and how it’s managed to stay the course, grow, and expand internationally, while so many others failed to keep pace. Payment Expert’s Kieran O’Connor is there to bring you updates throughout the morning.
