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 have been covering the latest and greatest announcements from the companies who have been attending throughout the week at Money20/20.
The third and final day of Money20/20 was action-packed, with a number of must-see headline sessions bringing the week to a conclusion. Let’s take a look at some of the best ones…
Key Headline Events
There were two key headline sessions taking place today. First up, there was an intriguing question up for discussion: “How do we get from the hearts to the wallets of the fan economy?” Debating this topic were Adam Pearsall, Founder of +QNTMPAY, Gareth Dunsmore, Chief Marketing Officer, McLaren Automotive, and Nigel Verdon, CEO & Co-Founder at Railsbank.
We all know about the infectious passion that fans put into supporting brands they love. However, it is an energy that the financial services industry perhaps isn’t yet harnessing. Working for McLaren, Gareth was able to offer his opinion on how it may be possible to marry the magic of F1 with finance and, in the process, build unbreakable bonds between fans and brands they love. Carla Buzasi, President and CEO at WGSN moderated this discussion, which formed a part of the Money20/20 agenda theme called “The what: creating products you can’t imagine.”
Next up, there was a discussion based around a recurring topic: “What role should banks play in the financial services industry of the future?” The lead speaker for this event was Ana Botín, Executive Chairwoman at Santander Group and PagoNxt. Santander has recently spun out PagoNxt, an autonomous technology company that comprises their payments businesses. In conversation with Karen Tso from CNBC, Ana shared her vision for the future of Santander and the strategy behind the creation of PagoNxt and their ambitious expansion plans.
Also up for discussion were the macro trends in European regulation. Ana believes that sweeping reforms are needed to support financial institutions and their recovery from the recent economic downturn. This riveting session was part of the Money20/20 agenda theme called “The how: developing a regenerative genre.”
Money20/20: The Latest Company Announcements
This is where we have been covering the latest and greatest announcements from the companies who have been attending throughout the week at Money20/20.
As well as recent news stories, we wanted to also highlight some of the reactions to the event itself from industry professionals. Eddie Robb, commercial director at the Scottish fintech start-up, Zumo had this to say about Money20/20:
“Given the events of the last 12 months, it was no surprise to see crypto and blockchain top the agenda for the biggest event on the fintech calendar. Meanwhile, such a volatile year meant trust was also an integral theme throughout the event – whether speakers were talking about CBDCs, cross-market collaboration or the need for a trustless future. Opportunity and risk are two sides of the same coin, and the event certainly reflected both sides of DeFi.
“Crypto was amongst the biggest stories of the year. It’s all-time high price in April sent shockwaves through the finance industry and beyond, as did six-figure NFT sales and its emergence as legal tender in El Salvador. Consequently, crypto featured prominently throughout Money20/20, but the flipside to all these major stories was the issue of consumer trust. In El Salvador, there have been protests and technical issues, while the bitcoin peak was immediately followed by a crash.
“Trust is still the biggest barrier to crypto for consumers, due to security fears, negative headlines and market volatility. Meanwhile, crypto adopters have always had to contend with payments being blocked by their banks, slow transfers, complex user interfaces and hefty fees. A conversation I’ve had with many Money20/20 attendees is how Open Banking can drastically improve the convenience of the payment experience and bolster consumer trust. With even payment giants like PayPal struggling to make this journey seamless for users, Open Banking could represent a huge leap in consumer convenience and trust in crypto. I expect a lot of crypto people to leave the event with Open Banking at the forefront of their plans for the next 12 months.
“After this event, I’m more convinced than ever that neobanks and fintech companies are in a great position to deliver on increased demand in crypto. Crypto is here to stay, both an asset and a currency. It is likely to play a major role in the future of money management, monetary policy and cross border transactions. For fintech, it can be a great way to generate revenue, attract and retain customers, and future proof the business. It’s no wonder fintech companies such as Revolut, Square and Paypal all offer cryptocurrency investment on their app already.
Moving onto the announcements, Temenos, the banking software company, Vodeno, a fully cloud-native BaaS provider and Aion Bank, a European licensed digital bank and credit institution, have announced a strategic collaboration to accelerate Banking as a Service (BaaS) deployment in Europe.
The first banking services to be launched combine the Temenos Banking Cloud with Vodeno’s card management and payment processing services. This will enable banks and businesses across industries to broaden their portfolio of products offered to their customers by automating and embedding new payments and card services seamlessly in their customer journey. The collaboration across all three parties removes the complexities and regulatory overheads of deploying embedded financial services in Europe. Clients will benefit from faster time to market and the business agility to develop new customer propositions. Temenos and Vodeno are already engaged in several proof of concepts with banks and fintechs across Europe.
More than 3,000 financial services institutions around the world leverage Temenos’ modern, open, cloud technology. The Temenos Banking Cloud enables banks and businesses to consume, manage and maintain banking services in a secure, continually evolving, self-service platform while allowing them to develop new business models.
BaaS is emerging as a megatrend within financial services, where licensed banks integrate their digital banking services directly into the products of other non-financial businesses. Aion Bank and Vodeno – both backed by the global growth investor, Warburg Pincus LLC – were created with this opportunity in mind. The BaaS market in Europe is currently estimated at over $3 billion. BaaS functionality is attractive to banks, fintechs, non-banks and specialized BaaS providers, who can now use the combined power of The Temenos Banking Cloud and Vodeno’s technology to create, deploy, consume or monetize new banking services. Temenos, Aion and Vodeno can now offer any brand digital banking services to their customers, such as mobile bank accounts, debit or credit cards and payment services, without the need to have their own banking license.
Max Chuard, Chief Executive Officer, Temenos said: “Working with Vodeno and Aion Bank, we offer an open cloud banking platform designed for business agility and massive scale to banks, fintechs and established brands that wish to offer embedded financial services and drive ultimate customer experiences. We chose Vodeno and Aion Bank to establish this new channel to market for Temenos, which will help us capture the BaaS market opportunity in Europe. The Temenos Banking Cloud combined with Vodeno’s technology and Aion Bank’s proposition will help banks and non-banks to create, deploy, consume and monetize new banking services.”
More events to come in the days ahead
All good things, of course, must come to an end. And sadly, so does Money20/20. There have been a number of interesting sessions across the course of this week, posing thought-provoking questions and sparking debate. This was enhanced by the fact that it took place fully in person. Of course, there will be more to come throughout the year ahead from Money20/20 as it re-emerges this October in Las Vegas as Money20/20 USA.
