Over 600 delegates took part in keynotes, panel discussions and workshops at PAY360
Over 600 attendees from across the payments industry came together last week to collaborate, network and learn at the Emerging Payment Association’s (EPA) PAY360 conference, in association with Visa. It was the biggest edition of the payments conference yet, taking place in a new, larger location at the Business Design Centre in London.
The event featured over 45 payments industry stalwarts, including Jeni Mundy of VISA, Maha El Dimachki of the FCA, Marion King of NatWest, Scott Abrahams of Mastercard, Tao Tao of Alipay, Laura McCracken of Facebook, Julian Sawyer of Starling Bank, and Will Sorby of N26, delivering talks and panel discussions on the theme of ‘Improving, understanding and exploring real-world innovations’.
Marion King, Director of Payments at Natwest, talked about how to balance customer expectation, innovation and regulation. “Let’s think about today,” she said, “as well as the excitement of future digital innovation. How does regulation play in? And what do customers want – all customers? These things create tension. We want to go faster, but we want it to be safe, and those two things aren’t always complementary.”
In an all-star panel discussion entitled ‘Adapt or Die – Digital Banking Transformation’, market leaders explored best practice in everything from overcoming legacy challenges to changing work cultures within the Fintech banking space. Søren Rode Andreasen, Chief Digital Officer at Danske Bank, commented, “Technology is readily available, and everyone knows what to do. But what is stopping bankers deploy this is their culture.”
Closing the conference, Andrea Dunlop, Chair of the EPA Advisroy Board and CEO of Paysafe, spoke about how inclusion is one of the most important hurdles for the payments industry to overcome. “Companies are becoming more customer and consumer centric,” she said, “creating products that are more inclusive. And it’s refreshing that the industry is being realistic and acknowledging that there are still steps to be taken towards improvement.”
The conference was supported by the PAY360 Event App, which encouraged delegates to line their digital wallets with the Collaborite cryptocurrency. Collaborite could be earned by scanning exhibitor QR codes and scheduling meetings using the app. This could then be spent at the PAY360 store, with the day’s top prize being gift voucher and tablets from Amazon. The app also facilitated the payments trivia game, Trivial Paysuit, which had a first prize consisting of a McLEAR payment ring pre-loaded with £1000.
Anna Campagnoli, Portfolio Director at the EPA, said. “The 2019 event was an enormous success, with our largest number of attendees yet and over nine hours of learning and networking. Some of the biggest thought leaders in payments gave fantastic talks on the hottest industry topics, delivering invaluable insights and knowledge. We’re already planning how to make the 2020 event even bigger and better.”