‘Create the future’ is the theme of Money20/20 Europe 2025, taking place once again in Amsterdam at the RAI, and according to the event’s president Tracey Davies’ opening welcome speech, that includes this year discussing all things finance in a sauna.
We didn’t make that podcast recording, alas, but what did we see on day one?
With over 400 speakers expected to feature across the event’s six stages – the Na.I.ture Stage, The MoneyPot, The Summit Stage, The Briefing Stage, the Off the Record Stage and the Horizon Stage – over three days, content is spread across four pillars, including ‘Embedded Intelligence, Digital DNA, Governance 2.0 and the Future of Money’.
Looking to the future
Kicking off the proceedings, we saw Scarlett Sieber, chief strategy and growth officer at Money20/20, host the Money Morning Show, a session promising ‘unfiltered conversations’, ‘big ideas’ and ‘bold predictions’.
In the show, Rahul Patil, CTO of Stripe, revealed that if his payments company “was a country, it would rank as the 17th largest economy on the planet” and that in 2024, Stripe powered “$1.4trillion in global commerce which is equivalent to 1.3 percent of the world’s GDP”. He also suggested that with stablecoins will be “pretty transformational” and will make “moving money as seamless as sending a text message across the globe”.
Mareme Dieng, partner at venture fund 500 Global, described cross-border payments as one of “the most important services provided by fintech”. She said: “I think in the next 10 to 15 years, what we are going to see is that the actors who can provide cross border payments at the cheapest rate, and you can maximise on and off ramp strategies as well as stablecoins, will be winners.”
The big thing in the next few years for Prajit Nanu, co-founder and CEO of Nium, will be “treasury optimisation”. He explained: “Actually that’s going to be convergence of lot of buzzwords, which is real time, payments, open banking, AI and stablecoins.”
Finally, David Sandstrom, CMO at Klarna, talked about the company moving from being a “traditional blue fintech, a techie male company” into a “pink, vibrant consumer brand” that works with Snoop Dogg and working with Paris Hilton. “We built Klarna to be different: more human, more relatable.”
He also talked about the power of AI helping the company operate with a “very slim, efficient and skilled organisation, but at a scale that is uncomparable”.
“We’re just doing the same old things, but way faster, way cheaper, way more effective and with way higher quality, right?”
Spotlight on open banking
Simon Taylor, head of strategy at Sardine, highlighted a disconnect between the ambition for increased revenue and customer experience and the actual investment in open banking.
He also touched on a lack of a clear business model for monetising open banking APIs and the varying standards across markets with most financial institutions viewing open banking as a compliance project rather than a business opportunity.
“Open finance has a huge potential to do much more. There’s so much that can be done with data, and so much of it sits in the standards and most organisations aren’t using it because they saw it as a compliance project. Reframe how you see it and you reframe the opportunity.”
The Salt Edge
Open banking was also the topic of conversation at The Fintech Times’ pop-up TV studio as we chatted to Salt Edge CEO Garri Galanter. Salt Edge works with banks, fintechs and payment companies, offering regulatory compliance and private APIs for banks and aggregation services for fintechs.
He noted that open banking regulations, while tough on banks, ultimately help customers by providing better services and more competition. He also touched on global differences, explaining how banks and governments in various countries have different views on open banking. Despite the challenges, Galanter sees steady progress and new opportunities ahead.
“The financial institution has to spend a lot of money to comply with the regulation, and this is a lose-lose, because the money spent in exchange the institution gets more competition… But the winning side is a customer side.”
Looking ahead, Galanter said Salt Edge is focusing on growth and new products: “We’re going to introduce new products on the market, a kind of new vision… And we want to improve the usage of AI within the whole system of decision-making.”
In the mind of a fraudster
Former fraudster turned cybercrime and counter fraud speaker Alex Wood, shared his ‘ABC tips’ for preventing financial crime – Assume nothing, Believe nobody and Challenge everything.
“Never underestimate the resilience of a fraudster,” he said. “They are going to keep trying until they find a vulnerability. You’re always told to put yourself in the mind of a fraudster – but this isn’t possible unless you’ve actually been one.”
Creating an EU payments vision
In October 2024, the UK released its National Payments Vision, in a move to align its various financial regulators on a plan for digital and mobile payments, wallets, and fraud prevention. We sat in as one panel debated whether Europe needed a similar vision or plan to reduce fragmentation and drive payments progress. Spoiler – not everyone was in agreement!
Oliver Hanmer, head of supervision and compliance monitoring at the UK’s Payment Systems Regulator (PSR), explained the value of the UK’s Payments Vision: “There was a sense in the UK that we were falling behind the rest of the world when it came to innovation and competition in payments. In response, the National Payments Vision brought regulators and the broader industry together around a shared set of objectives.
“The Vision clearly sets out the roles and responsibilities of each of the regulators, defining lead regulators for particular aspects of financial services regulation and encourages regulators to remove barriers.”
Although Europe doesn’t have a similar ‘Vision’ per se, Madalena Cascais Tomé, CEO of SIBS, argued that it doesn’t actually need one: “The plans of the European Commission and the European Central Bank are very well expressed, and they’re anchored around innovation, efficiency, security, safety and trust. It’s also focused on pan-European payments.”
Fittingly at the honey-themed MoneyPot stage, beekeeper (and founder and CEO of Polymath Consulting), David Parker, played the role of devils advocate, arguing that the EU requires a single Vision to align European regulators and entities, but Cascais Tomé rebutted, explaining her view that the Retail Payment Strategy from the European Central Bank, the Retail Payment Strategy by the European Commission, and their core principles, are “very much aligned”.
From banking to the pitch
We also visited Money 20/20’s Horizon Stage, powered by Mastercard, as fintech journalist Anna Milne moderated a panel delving into Manchester City Football Club‘s partnership with Veritran, the tech company focused on simplifying banking experiences.
Kaitlyn Beale, VP global partnerships sales at City Football Group, explained how the footballing organisation was utilising different technology types: “Technology is the core of everything we do in our business processes at City Football Group. We interact with millions of fans globally on a day-to-day basis. Every few days, we welcome 50,000 fans into our stadium in Manchester – so we’re constantly looking at new technologies that improve the fan experience”.
Beale also discussed why the Group had selected Veritran as a partner. “It was clear to us early on that Veritran could help us with a number of challenges. One of those was fan verification during the registration process, and that for us, we needed to make merchant lists, while ensuring that fans could enjoy creating memories for a lifetime.”
As the club’s fan identity partner, Veritran’s technology integrates with Manchester City’s infrastructure, enhancing processes and transactions for fans across key areas such as registration, memberships, and ticketing, aiming to streamline the fan experience.
“We realised that our technology can serve other industries, so sports tech was a natural next step for us,” added Jorge Sanchez Barceló, CMO at Veritran. Man City explained that it needed to make its transactions more smooth. From fans registration to ticketing, we are supporting the club. This is a very good example of how fintech companies and banks can start supporting a wider range of industries by harnessing their experience.”
Also on the agenda
Elsewhere, there was the chance to have your nails done, win some Money 20/20 Europe 2025 merch and be serenaded while riding a stationary bike! On to day two…
