Money20/20 USA is back with this year’s show promising a jam-packed four days to explore what’s next in the world of money.
Taking over the famous Venetian resort in Las Vegas, the US edition of ‘where money does business’ welcomes 300 industry leading speakers to join the fray from companies all over the world to deliver an agenda of more than 60 hours of thought-provoking content.
Tuesday 24 October brought a full day of insightful conversations on fintech, with discussions focusing on real-time payments, embedded finance and building customer loyalty.
A change of climate
First up is a discussion around climate tech in banking, with the panel discussing why consumer demand for sustainability unlocks share of wallet growth.
With increasing environmental awareness, banks have a unique opportunity to channel consumer demand for sustainability transformation into new business growth and long-term customer loyalty. Yet the discussion remains far too political in the US and the benefits of customer focused banking are often overlooked.
David Lais, Co-Founder & managing director, ecolytiq; Jason Rubottom, CEO Cloverly; Dondi Black, EVP chief product officer, TSYS; and Worku Gachou, head of North America inclusive impact and sustainability, Visa, Inc., came together to share why and how sustainability is a customer imperative in their organisations.
As David Lais said during the conversation: “Overall in Europe, 90 per cent of the consumers are worrying about climate change. So that alone gives you everyone out there pretty much is open and willingness to have a conversation about the topic right? …When we talk about the crisis, we have just seven years left to really solve it until we reach those different point. We should really make sure we all work on it.”
Collaboration is key?
Next up, we head to The Briefing Stage for the panel discussion “Clear Skies Ahead: Solving Cloud Migration Issues Through Open Source.”
Gabriele Columbro, Executive Director, The Fintech Open Source Foundation (FINOS); David Stone, office of the CISO, Google; Rohan Deshpande, head of app foundry, Goldman Sachs and Paula Bowie, head of business management, capital markets technology & operations, Bank of Montreal sat down to converse on how the financial services industry’s move to the cloud accelerates, with organisations migrating their workloads still facing exponential costs to mitigate potential cybersecurity and compliance risks across multiple cloud providers, in the context of a highly fragmented regulatory environment.
During the discussion, Gabriele Columbro, said: “The industry has moved on, understanding open collaboration means that the benefits will outweigh any whatever risks.” With David Stone succinctly summing up: “Cybersecurity is a team sport.”
Enhancing banking
Finally is the panel discussion “Embracing Reality: Harnessing Technology to Improve Banking”, with the discussion revolving around how technology and speed can enhance banking and make the system safer.
Penny Lee, president & CEO, Financial Technology Association; Conway Ekpo, director & associate general counsel Brex; Brigit Carroll, policy lead, Americas, Wise; Sharon Carmeli, general counsel, Bluevine sat down to discuss what policies can help the industry and the entire US market embrace open banking, real-time payments, and increased access, and what can policy makers do to safeguard our banking system and better meet customer expectations in the digital age.
During the conversation, Brigit Carroll said: “It was really encouraging to hear Comptroller Michael Hsu’s remarks yesterday and he spoke a little bit to what other jurisdictions aren’t doing like the UK, Singapore and others in terms of regulating payment services, regulating the activity of payment services, and recognising that maybe you shouldn’t have to become a bank to do payment services.”
An announcement
Elsewhere at the event, Money20/20 themselves announced the inaugural class of the Money20/20 Startup Network at its Las Vegas show: a chosen a group of companies it believes will revolutionise the world of money.
“We are thrilled to announce seven startups with huge potential in gigantic markets founded by extraordinary founders,” said Zach Anderson Pettet, US content director at Money20/20. “Each one of these companies not only represents an important piece of the digital finance landscape, but a number of them will have reach beyond finance. Fintech companies don’t look how they did in years past – these seven are all poised to add real value in a sustainable manner that doesn’t only encompass burning huge VC dollars, but building real businesses.”
The seven inaugural member of the Money20/20 Startup Network are:
Kamino – included for reimagining banking and corporate credit cards for small and mid-sized businesses
TodayPay – included for revolutionising the way customers can receive refunds on their purchases.
Themis – included for improving compliance and risk management tools for banks and fintechs.
Skipify – included for its game changing Digital Wallet connects merchants, shoppers and financial institutions in a previously unimaginable manner.
Ansa – included for its payments platform that lowers payments costs while increasing transaction value for business.
TripleBlind – included for offering an unrivaled level of data privacy and security without hindering the ability to employ cutting edge AI strategies
Hypercard – included for launching the first ever consumer credit card powered by employers
