Money20/20 Europe Day 1

As one of the most renowned FinTech events to be held across the world, our FinTech Editor Elizabeth Boampong was on ground to capture the essence of the event and to connect with attendees and companies, who arrived in their thousands.

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Being the world’s leading, premium content, sales and networking platform for the global money ecosystem, Money20/20 aims to provide the clearest and most distinctive focus on what’s next for the world of Payments, FinTech and Financial Services.

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From in-depth analytics to inspirational speakers, their world-class insights and networking opportunities help us all stay ahead of the curve by leveraging relationships in a bid to promote even more collaboration.

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Here are a few highlights from Day 1:

The Encore Stage kicked off with Hiroki Takeuchi, CEO of GoCardless, and Mark Brant, Chief Payments Officer at NatWest, talking about the evolution of their industry-first partnership. GoCardless and NatWest collaborated to revolutionise the open banking journey for both businesses and consumers to make Variable Recurring Payments (VRP) available.

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“In the world of payments, someone told me that there’s no such thing as competition, just cooperation. That’s definitely been the case for us and the banks,” said Hiroki Takeuchi, CEO of GoCardless.‍

“It’s about always pushing the boundaries to create a better customer experience, which has been a big part of our journey.”

"There’s no secret sauce to a partnership. Over the years, banks have become a lot more open to partnering with fintechs.”

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On the Money-Bot Stage, Google Maps, Visa Europe, and Snowdrop Solutions discussed transaction enrichment and their recent collaboration that enables Visa clients, such as banks and credit card issuers, to quickly and easily access enriched banking transaction data, as well as add geospatial information to their experiences for the benefit of their customers and internal teams.

Over at the Fusion Stage, Money20/20 celebrated five years of RiseUp, Money20/20’s programme dedicated to the acceleration of women’s careers in financial services. We heard about the decision points and learning curves from the female-focused programme, which was created in 2018 by Money20/20's President, Tracey Davies.‍

“More than 70% of participants in our programme have moved into a more senior role. 85% feel more prepared for their careers, and 95% have expanded their network,” said Tracey Davies, President of Money20/20.

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Later on the Elements Stage, Binance’s Director, MENA & Europe, Vishal Sacheendran, delved into the EU’s new crypto regulation, MiCA, and how this constitutes the first major step towards international legal clarity in cryptoasset regulation.

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“MiCA is a regulation to rule them all. This is now a legislation in place, where you have little room for national divergence, you have more clarity on how you should be going down the road, we have more collaboration from the regulator and we have a sense of how they're going to regulate going forward.”

“There is clarity on what the current state of the crypto market is, the kind of trading that happens, the custody that happens, financial derivatives that are going on - there’s clarity to an extent but it will have to be more pronounced as we move along until MiCA comes out in January 2025.”

“Whatever activity you do in the crypto asset space, you’re going to be regulated to that extent.”

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For all incoming announcements and highlights from Day 2 and 3 of Money20/20 Europe, keep an eye on the Gadgette social media platforms.