Let’s catch a glimpse of this year’s Money20/20 and recall what happened there day-by-day
One of the most anticipated fintech events in the world has just ended in Amsterdam. Money20/20 gathered the most influential fintech experts, top businesses and investors.
The fantastic atmosphere, tons of lively discussions and networking opportunities brought enormous inspiration to the visitors of the largest-scale fintech conference in Europe.
Day 1
The panel of amazing speakers on the first day of the conference featured John Collison, Co-founder & President of the payment giant Stripe who discussed open banking opportunities. He also revealed the delegated authentication technology developed in partnership with Wise which makes authorisation frictionless for the consumer.
A surprising appearance of an astronaut guest speaker at the fintech event brought unexpected perspectives to the discussion. Tim Peake spoke about an acceptable level of risk. He stressed the importance of both individual and organisational acceptance of risk in fulfilling one’s ambitions.
Peter Smith, CEO & Co-Founder of the digital asset platform Blockchain.com pondered over global prospects for the crypto industry. In his opinion, accepting Bitcoin as legal tender in Salvador and the Central African Republic doesn’t undermine national financial stability. At the same time, the speaker highlighted the importance of stepping outside the single-legal-crypto paradigm. Smith believes the value of the crypto industry is in the underlying technology. Hence, he questioned regulators’ motives to grant only one blockchain project legal status.
The question of security is always in the spotlight when we speak about crypto. Anne Boden, CEO & Founder of Starling Bank, was chosen to highlight the dangers of crypto payments and their growing usage in illegal schemes. She stressed that up-to-date the principal concern with crypto is safety.
Today, there are many alternative ways of money-making which are not always recognised by national financial systems and legacy institutions. Lee Taylor, Chief Financial Officer of the subscription-based social media platform OnlyFans, spoke about much-needed recognition of the content creators’ needs by the financial community. He discussed the moral dilemma of making a living through legal explicit content, reputational risks of businesses similar to OnlyFans, as well as tech details such as KYC procedures required for such sensitive data platforms.
Day 2
The second conference day shed light on payment orchestration and API integration. Yorik Naeff, CEO & Co-Founder of the investment platform BUX, spoke about the differences between legacy institutions and innovative fintech projects, stressing that the main thing challenger banks can learn from their predecessors is what not to do.
Joanne Dewar, CEO of Global Processing Services, explained the benefits of orchestration layers such as flexibility of multiple suppliers, resilience, and a competitive edge.
Dr Daniel Holz, VP of EMEA North in Google Germany, discussed augmentation of corporate strategy, as well as standards for high-performance secure infrastructure platforms which function in an open cloud environment.
Getting back to the topic of crypto security, Valentin Stalf, Co-Founder & CEO of N26, shared experience of trading crypto on their banking platform, and treating crypto as every other asset class.
A speaker from the war-laden Ukraine, Alyona Shevtsova, CEO IPS LEO and Owner of the IBOX BANK, highlighted challenges for fintech during the war. She also started the diversity discussion, speaking about female entrepreneurs who now present the economic front of the battle for Ukraine. In such critical times, female leadership in business becomes crucial for its survival.
Day 3
Audrey Motupi, CEO of Systemic Logic, continued the gender equality theme with the statistics of female leadership in fintech. Spoiler: it’s quite an unequal environment.
Alice Tapper, Financial Expert of the financial news and education platform Go Fund Yourself, contemplated on the importance of financial literacy. The speaker also highlighted that regulators should be forward-thinking about preempting financial platforms and technologies which allow people to manage their budget wisely.
Along with that, Vrushali Prasade, Co-Founder and CTO in Pixis, a leading provider of contextual codeless AI infrastructure for complete marketing optimisation, spoke about the complexities in acquiring new customers. The main factors impacting the expansion pace including target audience, communication channels, money allocation, and conversion metrics were vividly discussed as well.
Finally, Helen Hai, the Head of Fiat Business, NFT, Fan Token and Charity department on Binance, continued the crypto debates. Despite all current hardships and criticism, she believes that the ultimate goal of blockchain technology is the free transfer of values. That is what secures its position in the financial world of the future.
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