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Money20/20 Europe Day 2 Roundup

This week sees the return of the biggest Fintech event in the European Calendar: Money20/20. If you don’t know already, Money20/20 is one of the world’s leading, premium content, sales and connections platforms, with a focus on the global money ecosystem and the fintech industry.

Money20/20 takes place every year in Europe, Asia and the USA, with financial service professionals from across the world in regular attendance. And, even better, this event is taking place in person!

Here at The Fintech Times, we will be bringing you a daily summary of the best bits from all the different stages, along with regular updates from the companies in attendance, and the breaking news stories as they happen.

The second day of Money20/20 featured a bumper crop of talks, discussions, and panels, with several key headline sessions. So without further ado, let’s take a look at some of the key highlights from day two…

Key Headline Events

One of the early events taking place this morning was a discussion about Stock Exchanges, and exploring whether or not they are still relevant in the ‘new economy’. Olga Zoutendijk, Board Director, Julius Bär Group, led the discussion, and she was joined by Julia Hoggett, CEO of the London Stock Exchange plc.

During this talk, Julia Hoggett shared her vision for the ongoing purpose of one of the world’s oldest stock exchanges as a force for good in society, and on how the London Stock Exchange can manage the ongoing demands of the modern economy. Modern demands, of course, include adapting to the changing needs of issuers and investors and the fast pace of technological change. Also up for debate was ESG, and how it will drive the activities of the London Stock Exchange as a venue, and the London Stock Exchange Group as a whole, going forwards.

Later on this morning, Karen Tso, Anchor at CNBC Europe, led a session on “How do we empower SMEs to take on the likes of Amazon?” It’s an interesting question indeed, and attempting to provide an answer to it were Adriaan Mol and Shane Happach, the Founder and CEO of Mollie Payments, respectively.

In this panel, they agreed that the task of taking on e-commerce juggernauts like Amazon isn’t one for the faint of heart. With the hindsight of what led to the creation of Amazon, they set out how Mollie Payments has the foresight to what the next stage for SMEs should look like. They also tried to explore what have we solved for, and what is it we haven’t yet.

One of the final headline sessions of the day saw Shola Akinlade, the Co-Founder & CEO of Paystack, outline how you can build local infrastructure and, at the same time, take it global. Hugo Amsellem, VP, Creator Accelerator, Jellysmack, moderated this talk.

Shola’s company, Paystack, is a growth engine for a new generation of innovative, forward-looking organizations operating in Africa, with an ambition to build a pan-African payments infrastructure. Shola explained how he is looking to expand the company’s horizons beyond the home market, and how Paystack is capitalising on African payment infrastructure opportunities and building innovative solutions that not only contribute to increasing regional online GDP but are scalable beyond their home markets too.

Money20/20: The Latest Company Announcements

This is where we cover also the latest exciting announcements from companies who are attending Money20/20.

First up, Railsbank has announced a new partnership around ‘Bank of the Future’ outlining how banks and financial services brands could one day look and operate. The partnership is focussed around three pillars: strategy devised by Pacemakers, design and product vision led by Elsewhen and embedded finance partner Railsbank which has the platform to bring this vision to life here and now.

Railsbank also announced during Money20/20 that they are partnering with McLaren F1, which will lead to numerous upcoming product and services’ launches in the UK.

Next, we have one of the stars of the fledgling Open Banking industry, TrueLayer. This week they have announced that a $130m funding round led by Tiger Global, with participation from payments powerhouse Stripe. This latest funding round has resulted in an impressive valuation of $1bn.

The round forms part of the recent tsunami of investor interest in open banking — the infrastructure that allows banking data to be shared with third parties and underpins account to account payments. Open banking startups have also welcomed a recent tide of prolific acquisitions, including Visa’s deal with TrueLayer-rival Tink and Mastercard’s purchase of Aiia.

The new funding is therefore a big win for TrueLayer. It’s also a notable vote of confidence that Stripe — which competes with TrueLayer with its ‘Pay By Bank’ integration — has backed it.

While there is no set plan at this stage, sources say it could allow for TrueLayer to become Stripe’s de-facto open banking option at the checkout.

Finally, we have an independent report from the payments fintech, Boku. Their data shows that emerging markets are currently racing ahead of European countries in the move toward mass adoption of mobile wallets.

According to the study, which is the largest of its kind, this global uptake will prompt a 27% increase in the number of mobile wallets transacting over $1 billion per year between 2020 and 2025. Africa, the Middle East and Latin America are both set to grow significantly by 2025 with seven of the top 10 fastest-growing countries for mobile wallet purchases belonging to these regions.

With the market set to see one in two people using the digital payment method by 2025, merchants must be flexible and change their payment strategies. To assist merchants in meeting this trend, Boku has launched an API integration solution, M1ST, which streamlines and simplifies digital payment offerings.

More events to come in the days ahead

Tomorrow sees the conclusion of the three-day Money20/20 event. Like all good things, it has flown by! Rest assured, however, that the organisers have saved some of the best sessions ‘til last. To keep track of everything, tune into our daily summaries, follow our Twitter feed, or stop by for a chat at the event itself!

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