Money20/20 Europe Day Three

Although Day 3 saw the curtains drawn, the connections, insights and game-changing experiences left attendees with all they needed to level-up in money and, as Dan McCrum, Investigative Reporter, Financial Times said, “once you've got people hooked... That's all that really matters.”

We don't know about you but Money20/20 Europe has got us hooked.

Firstly, let’s take a look at the groundbreaking stats across the 3-day conference at the RAI Amsterdam:

• 8000+ Attendees
• 2300+ attending companies
• 380+ sponsors
• 90+ countries represented
• 16 billion media reach
• 450+ speakers

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Now let’s have a look at the roundup of highlights from Day 3

Meet the Three Pillars of Disruption: AI, Open Banking and Instant Payments

We kicked off the final day of Money20/20 Europe with a session on the key trends disrupting current operational models and processes for banks, fintechs and regulators and how market players are evolving to deliver them. Fabian Khoshbakht from BNY Mellon, Nico Strauss from Rabobank and Khun Budsakorn Teerapunyachai from the Bank of Thailand took to the Fusion Stage. 

Fabian Khoshbakht, Global Head of Client Insight & Innovation at BNY Mellon: “How do we need to adapt our infrastructure to be able to compete against fintechs - that’s what disruption means to me.”

Nico Strauss, Tribe Lead B2B Services at Rabobank: “What really changes within banks is that innovation teams used to be in the basements; they’re a core team now.”

Wirecard: The Fascinating Downfall of a Fraudulent Fintech 

Next up we took a deep dive into the bizarre tale of Wirecard, a company hailed as the German alternative to PayPal, which turned out to be a massive money laundering scheme. In this session, Zach Anderson Pettet of Money20/20 sat down with Prove Identity's fraud and cybercrime executive advisor Mary Ann Miller and journalist Dan McCrum from the Financial Times to unpack how Dan broke this fascinating story and how the massive scandal relates to recent similar fraudulent activities. 

“How do you convince people? The inside part is how do you get people to go along with it? The outside part is how do you get away with it? It started with finding someone in the accounting team, he’s young and just starting out, and started asking him to do things, all the way from asking them to get your mail to forging invoices and backtracking contracts,” said DanMcCrum, Investigative Reporter from the Financial Times. 

“This is where the money laundering piece becomes powerful. Wirecard’s cover story is when it has nasty business, it has friends to do the payment processes behind that.”

“I don’t think any of them set out to steal a billion dollars. They were thinking we’ll fudge it now and then next quarter we’ll make it back. Then they borrow a bit more and a bit more and then it’s all gone. Deep down they knew what they were doing, but there was an element of internalising it and being convinced that they would get away with it.”

“I started investigating the company and soon after people are getting followed around, accounts are getting hacked and my boss is being bribed with ten million dollars.”

A Neobank for the Next Decade to Come: bunq CEO Ali Niknam 

As recessions bite and the era of hypergrowth and high valuations is over, bunq’s CEO Ali Niknam took to the Encore Stage to answer whether we’ve entered a more sustainable and healthy phase of our economy. Ali talked us through how we chose the right approach to profitability from day one, how the bank tackled its recently won court case against the Dutch Central Bank and what the future holds for neobanks. 

“Bunq never believed in handing out anything for free. We always tried to have a sustainable business model. It doesn’t matter what the environment is, you must deliver value to your users,” said Ali Niknam, CEO of bunq. 

“Bunq is the best bank for digital nomads. The second biggest demographic after Europe is the US. So we go there not because we want to; but because users want us there and we always deliver what users want.” 

Seeing is Believing: AI Developments in Health Technology 

We then went over to the Outer Limits Stage to hear from XRAI Glass. Mitchel Felman, Co-Founder of XRAI Glass, gave us a demonstration of new visual equipment with transcription and translation capabilities to help the hard of hearing, but also wider communities like the neurodiverse. 

“Technology has moved on significantly within the augmented world where AR and AI have fused. Through this fusion, it has opened vast opportunities for everyone across the board, especially people who are neurodivergent.”

“With the recent news from Apple and the launch of their new Vision Pro, this could be the acceleration that is needed and the move that could finally bring augmented reality technology into the mainstream, and about time.”

“With all these latest developments, education still plays a very important role in helping to break down communication barriers. We are grateful to Ascential and Money20/20 for trialling the glasses at the Money20/20 Europe show. This has raised awareness to a wider audience which is what is needed to make a difference. The feedback has been humbling and has further cemented why these glasses are essential. Hopefully, in the future, this will become the norm and technology continues to develop to become smaller and invisible.” 

Crypto Regulation in Europe: The Tipping Point with Gillian Lynch, CEO of Europe at Gemini 

Cryptocurrency: the word on every regulator, lawmaker, investor, and journalists’ lips in recent months. In a landmark moment for the industry, the European Union lawmakers recently passed a vote to implement the new regulation MiCA (Markets in Crypto Assets) in a bid to become the crypto ecosystem of the future. We heard from Gillian Lynch, CEO of Europe for Gemini, on what the future of the cryptocurrency industry looks like in the EU. 

“The air that we see, particularly in Europe, has been one of positivity that actually stems from regulation, which seems strange. When you look at MiCA, a landmark regulation, it’s putting Europe at the forefront of implementing a framework for crypto companies,” said Gillian Lynch, CEO of Europe for Gemini. 

“All people are really looking for is the rule book. To date, the U.S. has had a big influence on the crypto sector, but we’re going to see that diminish with them not leading the cause. But that’s an opportunity for other markets, whether that’s Europe, APAC or the Middle East.”

“MiCA creates an open dialogue, which is the piece that is missing in the US. All of us in the crypto world know that it’s in the early stages and the regulator is very much learning. For us at Gemini, we’ve been engaging with European regulators for years and it was always about simply being told the rules.”

Does the Regulation Equation Equal Innovation? 

With a slow economic outlook dominating the news cycle, businesses are developing strategies to adapt and overcome and looking to their partners – banks, consultants, trade bodies – to help carve a compliant path to success. Daniel Szmukler from Euro Banking Association, Ludovic Houri from J.P. Morgan, Adam Gagen from Revolut and Valeriya Minaeva from 1inch Network joined the stage to evaluate the changing regulatory landscape and how the industry can come together to influence upcoming changes.

“It used to be about competition, whereas now it is more about data, innovation and sovereignty,” said Adam Gagen, Global Head of Government Affairs at Revolut. 

“Fintechs that are still here are the ones who adapted their business model. We are here to ignite the ecosystem as much as we can,” said Ludovic Houri, Co-head of EMEA Payments & Commerce Solutions at J.P. Morgan. 

DORA: The Biggest Change in Payments No-One is Talking About 

We ended the final day of Money20/20 talking all things DORA, the European Union’s Digital Operational Resilience Act, which aims to mitigate systemic digital operational risk in an increasingly digitally connected EU financial services market. Abdellah Ben Hammou from Klarna and Jessica Ramos from EBA CLEARING talked through how DORA will accelerate cloud and third-party services adoption, and how concentration risk management is now both a system level and firm-level effort. 

“I quickly learnt that DORA is important and will have a big impact on how we do business,” said Abdellah Ben Hammou, Product Director at Klarna. 

“DORA is actually a very broad scope and from a regulatory perspective, we welcome it. It harmonises a lot of different regulations and regulatory bodies that are relevant to the financial services industry. It creates harmony in knowing that there’s just one act to follow,” said Jessica Ramos, Head of Regulatory and Financial Affairs at EBA CLEARING. 

And finally, on Wednesday 7th June, Money20/20 announced that ZeroLabs has been crowned the winner of Europe’s Got Access, the ultimate pitch battle for climate fintech startups. Money20/20 Europe has welcomed a record number of startups this year at the show. Championing innovators is at the core of what Money20/20 stands for and Europe's Got Access provided a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for startups to demonstrate their greenest and most groundbreaking products and services in the fight against climate change.

Scarlett Sieber, Chief Strategy and Growth Officer at Money20/20, said: “We are thrilled to announce ZeroLabs as the winner of Europe’s Got Access. A rapidly growing fintech making remarkable strides towards democratising access to provable renewable energy. Congratulations to ZeroLabs and the other four finalists.”

Announcements 

See below a few announcements that grabbed everyone’s attention on Day 3:

• Enfuse: Enfuce announces partnership with Kvika Bank at Money20/20 to transform financial services in Iceland
• PagSeguro: PagSeguro, the international division of PagBank (NYSE: PAGS), launches study that reveals payment habits of Latin American gamers
• Rabobank: Rabobank and in3 are jointly offering an instalment payment solution
• Nium: Nium Reaches New Heights in Europe with GM Hire, Regional Expansion, and Revenue Growth
• Zilch: Zilch opens its revolutionary ASPN to third parties across the globe - advancing a multi-trillion-dollar payments and advertising marketplace

Money20/20 Europe is evidently the home and hub for the industry’s boldest and brightest new voices - where the money ecosystem comes together to shape what’s next for the industry. Every year, Money20/20 provides connections, tools, knowledge and access to the innovations of the future and this year’s Europe edition did everything to deliver on its agenda.

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"Money20/20 delivers for us. It helps us to showcase our brand and our capabilities."

Leah Holzman

Head of Marketing Communications

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For all announcements and highlights from Day 1 and 2 of Money20/20 Europe, head over to all Gadgette social media platforms.