All good things come to an end and, just like that, Money20/20 in Amsterdam is over. But the three-day extravaganza rocked out in style on Thursday with another stellar lineup of industry voices.
The Fintech Times brings you a roundup of day three of Money20/20 Europe 2022.
Over the past three days, we’ve listened, learned and connected with the cream of financial technology and beyond. We’ve enjoyed a wealth of diverse opinions from an eclectic group of leaders and thinkers on a variety of topics. Let’s take a look back at the final day.
Thursday’s action
What’s next for buy now, pay later (BNPL)? That was the debate on The Big Picture Stage first thing with panellists including Alice Tapper, financial expert at Go Fund Yourself, Clare Gambardella, chief customer officer at Zopa, Louise Maynard-Atem, head of data insights at GBG and Ruth Spratt, UK country manager at Zip.
Alice Tapper said: “New legislation should focus on protection, education. Regulators should have foresight to define pre regulation on anticipated new payment technology.”
Meanwhile, Helen Hai, head of fiat business, at Binance, highlighted the benefits of blockchain for removing intermediaries in the art world and beyond. From the ease of use of converting fiat-to-crypto and back again, to supporting new trends and industries through non-fungible tokens.
Over on the Planetarium Stage, a discussion mulled over whether web3 is just VC-driven hype, or if the DeFi world coming good?
“web3 has the power to revolutionise everything we do if it’s based on problems that we’re solving. It all starts with why we’re using this new technology rather than building tech for tech sake. It has the power to fundamentally change ownership,” says Seema Khinda Johnson, co-founder & COO, Nuggets.
This was followed by Ahmed Karsali, founder of Papara, and Edidiong Uwemakpan, group head of marketing at TEAMAPT, chatting about what’s holding up financial inclusion. Karsli believes “there are two different major challenges: culture and education”. While for Uwemakpan, the main issues affecting financial inclusion are “affordability, access and education”.
On the M Pulse stage, Becky Danks, chief product officer at Comma, David McHenry, head of sales at Silicon Valley Bank and Roland Selmer, chief product officer at Yapily discussed how banks and fintechs can embrace a healthy collective attitute to cooperation.
Selmer commented: “As in life, all good partnerships are based on good communication and mutual understanding.”
Later, a headline session on the Big Picture Stage delved into the topic of ‘culture over quota’ and how fintech can lead the way. What is the solution?
- Dr. Herbert Wigwe, group MD, Access Corporation, said: “Change starts with you. That’s the only way we can change businesses, countries and continents. Let’s focus on great leaders. Male or female. And make sure that there’s no bias.”
- Caroline Emch, vice president of government affairs at American Express, said: “Set the right tone, make sure you’re inclusive and lead by example.”
- Ladi Delano, co-founder & oc-CEO of Moove, added: “Have a no bias culture and focus on ensuring that there is absolutely no bias.”
- While Maha El Dimachki, head of early and high growth oversight at the FCA, simply advised: “Don’t walk by.”
Introducing Project New Era: the UK’s first sterling pot
Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) are quickly gaining traction across the globe. Project New Era is a Digital Sterling (dSterling) pilot evaluating the future digital currency ecosystem in the UK with a focus on Retail CBDC, aiming to drive public-private collaboration and real-world testing to accelerate the pace in the race towards the future of money.
Let’s take a look at some of the comments from the afternoon’s session on Project New Era.
- “I think what we need to be doing… is ensuring that digital transformation and innovation has at its heart inclusion, because there are so many sectors of our society who are marginalised in traditional finance industry,” said Dr. Lisa Cameron, MP House of Commons.
- “If I had one takeaway from this, it’s CBDCs are meant to be cash like and be linked to a central bank. Cryptocurrency is not linked to a central bank and a stable coin, it really depends…. some are stable, some are coins, some are not… But you have to think about them very, very differently and they have to be regulated appropriately differently,” commented Nicole Sandler at Barclays.
The last word…
Let’s leave the final words to Tracey Davies, president of Money20/20. She says: “Money20/20 Europe has now come to a close and what a show it has been! This year, we tried to create spaces with different experiences and the feedback has been amazing. We had new formats for our stages and some truly thought-provoking speakers.
“I would like to thank everyone that has joined us in Amsterdam this year and contributed to making this show one of a kind for the fintech industry. And now that the Europe show is a wrap, we are looking forward to opening our doors to the industry in Las Vegas in October.”
The Fintech Times will also see you in Vegas!