17:00 – That’s the end for Payment Expert’s coverage here at Sibos, and what a week it has been.
From conversations surrounding frictionless cross-border payments, AI models for enhanced customer experiences, how digital assets can no longer be ignored, and everything else in between. Frankfurt has played an amazing host, with Swift Chiefs announcing more than 12,000 delegates descended on Masse, Frankfurt.
I’ve been Callum Williams, and thank you for turning into our live content this week.
16:30 – Jurgen Klopp on how to be a leader
Did Sibos leave the best speaker for last? Former Liverpool and Borussia Dortmund Manager Jürgen Klopp closed out proceedings at Conference Stage 1, speaking on how his 25-year career as a Manager helped him learn things about football, his players and himself.
He played down any notion of returning to management at this current time, and told the Sibos crowd to “lead yourself, and you will feel the power of having many” team members around you.
15:00 – Vyntra Director, Antoine Cuypers, on why transaction observability is removing friction from the payment journey
Speaking to Payment Expert, Cuypers revealed why transaction observability is gaining momentum this year as more financial institutions are seeking an edge when it comes to removing friction in transactions.
Cuyper’s views will be shared in full on video this week
13:45 – How synthetic data can combat AI Fraud
Data is on everybody’s minds here at Sibos, but it’s not just payments it is being used for, but also within fraud.
AI-related fraud cases are growing, with fraudsters gaining the ability to create fraudulent images, voice recordings and texts with Generative AI. And as the technology becomes more sophisticated, this becomes a logistical and infrastructural nightmare for companies to combat.
“Fraud is a low target variable. Fraud is just a small percentage of the overall payment ecosystem. We can use synthetic data to enhance the fraud target variable.”
Christen Kirchner from SAS told the Sibos crowd that GenAI is being used on both sides of the fraud fight. She explained hallucinations within AI models can often cause risks when deploying AI to fight AI fraud, but by embedding synthetic data into the algorithm, fraud target variables will be more accurate.
12:40 – Meet Optimizer
In addition to key discussions, Sibos has been used to launch new products, and VERMEG is the latest to do so.
Optimizer is a new solution which aims to simplify and accelerate collateral optimisation. It plans to do this by eliminating over-pledging, reducing manual intervention and providing actionable insights which directly impact liquidity and funding costs.
“Utilising advanced optimisation algorithms, our Optimizer automatically identifies the cheapest-to-deliver eligible assets, minimises overall margin requirements, and frees up HQLA for more strategic purposes, transforming collateral management from a reactive cost centre into a proactive driver of efficiency and competitive advantage,” explained Khaled Ben Abdeljelil, SVP, Banking Market Strategy at VERMEG.
12:05 – Are financial institutions meeting G20 cross-border goals?
There has been a key statistic that has been thrown across a whole host of conversations at Sibos this week… The global asset volume total is expected to reach $330 trillion in the next five years.
An important factor of the global transferring of these assets is cross-border payments, which have been debated at length this week, but are financial institutions prepared to the bmeet the goals laid out in the G20 cross-border payment roadmap?
Francois Maigre at Swift believes with cross-border payments expected to grow 6% Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGP), the acceleration of digital payments is key. He revealed Swift is committed to supporting the G20 roadmap and the company has gathered some “interesting data to benefit the community” in order to help progress with meeting cross-border goals.
Maigre also spoke at length on the issue of friction within cross-border payments, being one of the most prominent concerns for financial institutions. He revealed with 75% of payments reaching banks in 10 minutes, Swift has been working with 250 institutions in over 40 markets to develop new use cases to solve the friction issue, which is revealed in the Swift research paper: Spotlight on Speed.
The report categorises friction elements into four groups: regulation, banks needing same day value transfer, dependency on legacy technology, and specific market practices.
11:30 – Deutsche Bank wins the Swift Hackathon Technical Challenge
Deutsche Bank won the 2025 Swift Hackathon Technical Challenge, coming first out of a record 104 applicants and 12 nominees. Deutsche Bank’s Rajin Kumar spoke on the bank’s ability to address the technical challenge; overcoming the digital payments divide with ISO20022.
Kumar focused on the key features of how to integrate fragmented digital infrastructure with existing ones. This includes: blockchain identifiers, token IDs, hashtag addresses, and live verification, making it more transparent across chain for KYC compliance with its pilot programme.
The runner-up was Currency Network, with Animesh Ghosh describing how his company is using digital currency processing by adding value and identity together. “What you get from us is interoperability between multiple digital currencies, quantum security and production level scale, and low onboarding costs. If you are a financial institution looking to use next-gen payment rails we want to work with you,” said Ghosh.
10:55 – Standard Chartered Head of Payment Products, Transaction Banking, David Rego, on the changes to 24/7 cross-border payments this year
Speaking to Payment Expert, Rego reveals what its customers are demanding for more efficient and quicker cross-border payments, highlighting stablecoins and tokenised deposits.
Rego’s views will be shared in full on video this week
10:15 – Data to enhance the customer experience
The Swift Theatre stage was the setting which allowed HSBC’s Francois Ionesco and Swift’s Stephen Grainger to discuss why data is now more prevalent to the customer experience than ever before.
Grainger opened by claiming “data for the sake of it, does not add value”, but rather using enriched, clean data can create a positive impact to the customer experience, whether that is making payments, settling trades or handling FX.
“Data for the sake of it does not add value”.
Grainger’s team at Swift uses unique data compilations to help address the three biggest objectives all banks have: make more money for customers, efficiency, and how to help risk management. He believes this is a representation of the challenges all banks face, including Ionesco at HSBC.
Removing friction with data is a big opportunity for banks like HSBC, Ionesco believes. He shared the opportunities standing in front of the international bank, which revolves around data as it sits at the core of modern banking system, enabling the ability to personalise and educate customers with machine learning.
“Banks today are already using clean data strategies to remove friction,” said Ionesco. “If you aren’t, banks will unlikely be competitive and meet clients expectations.”
09:30 – Day four kicks off with payabl. joining Europe’s Wero wallet
Day four at Sibos kicks off with big news for Europe’s payments. Fintech provider payabl. has become one of the first licensed members of the European Payments Initiative (EPI), taking a direct role in Wero, the new pan-European digital wallet already in the hands of 43.5 million users.
The move positions payabl. at the sharp end of Europe’s push for instant, account-to-account (A2A) payments, a model already reshaping commerce from Brazil’s Pix to India’s UPI. Backed by Europe’s biggest banks, Wero promises to deliver 10-second cross-border payments and a lower-cost alternative to cards.
“Consumers have made it clear: they want speed, convenience and trust above all else,” said Ugne Buraciene, CEO of payabl. “With Wero, Europe has a once-in-a-generation opportunity to deliver on those demands at scale, while giving merchants a cost-efficient alternative to traditional card networks.”
09:00 – A slightly later start to Payment Expert’s coverage of Sibos this week, but the fourth and final day here in Frankfurt promises to offer more engaging conversations around cross-border payments, digital assets and much more. Former Liverpool FC Manager Jürgen Klopp will also speak to close out the conference, while Payment Expert will be speaking to representatives from Standard Chartered and Vyntra.
