Key takeaways from Money 20/20 Europe 2021

Money 20/20 Europe 2021 brought together key players from throughout payments for a series of presentations and debates on the key concerns and opportunities within the industry. This event brought together over 1,500 people. Gathering alongside other delegates in Amsterdam for one of the first in-person events since the onset of the pandemic.

The European Payments Initiative (EPI) aims to create a unique scheme to facilitate a unified, pan-European payment solution. And that is for both domestic and cross-border transactions. The migration of domestic card schemes to EPI aims to provide a more seamless payments solution for consumers. One of the primary focuses, of discussion at Money 20/20 regarding this initiative was defining its next steps. Institutions such as BNP Paribas and Worldline voiced their support for the initiative.

The key aspect of the work is building trust and adoption for consumers and merchants. This was noted at the event by CEO of the EPI Interim Company, Martina Weimert. He is the one, who stressed that this initiative will look to tackle the fragmentation issues. By creating a unified network, the EPI is bringing together the plethora of domestic schemes into one centralized ecosystem. Cryptocurrencies were another key topic. This trend has been accelerated by the adoption of Bitcoin as legal tender in El Salvador. Banks are keen to develop proof-of-concept Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC) to retain their position in the ecosystem.

Delegates discussed the requirement for international standards to be agreed on collaboratively. Different stakeholders hold varying motivations. Much of the conversation at the conference was conceptual economics as opposed to tangible payment solutions. Echoing throughout the conference was the underlying theme of putting customers at the heart of any solution. SoftPOS solutions can enable users to accept payments. This is by using their own commercial off-the-shelf device. And that gives more people access to the growing world of digital payments.

It was interesting to hear discussions regarding Visa and Mastercard offering free software development kits for SoftPOS. This makes solutions more readily available. Money 20/20 Europe gave insights into the industry. The overarching themes discussed above served as the framework for even more discussions. Fime can offer support in defining, designing, delivering and testing quality payment solutions.