Money 20/20 is back, and it did not disappoint

We sat down with our Chief of Product, Marijke Koninckx, over zoom with a cup of coffee and a pack of biscuits and we chatted about her first real-life event in almost 19 months.

Here's a closer look at what happened during Money 20/20 in September 2021. 

Despite being a lot smaller in size than previous years due to Covid restrictions, around 4,000  industry peers and leading experts were in attendance and it was a breath of fresh air. The event created spontaneity and naturalness moments that is hard to create over a video call allowing you to find new ways to learn, solve industry challenges, and engage in inspiring conversations, gaining back that human-to-human experience.

Money 20/20 key themes

1. Embedded Finance

"More and more providers are proposing banking as a service solution allowing fintech’s to embed banking and payments capabilities into their own offerings, the idea of having isolated stand-alone services is a thing of the past, proving what we at BankiFi have done all along. It also really validates that the market is heading to a more user-focused model."

"Embedded finance and linking different financial components into meaningful end-user journeys has become much more established – as a consequence of that, the focus has moved on from the traditional payments type to more data-focused meaning payments are considered just another form of data with the consequence that money has moved."

2. Data and Trust

"Echoing from conversations around these topics, as an industry, a lot of work needs to be ongoing with the clarity of how different players can work together whilst still protecting consumers and giving consumers control over how their data is being used. I participate in a panel discussing the open data economy and it is clear the transparency and education will play an important role. Regulatory involvement is truly seen as an enabler, it can bring open finance to a stage where it is mature enough for market forces to take over."

3. The future of payments

During money 20/20, at the Fintech Cappuccino, Marijke joined Julie Guetta, head of payments strategy at RedCompass Labs, Jane Loginova, Chief Strategy Officer at BPC Banking Technologies and Co-founder & CEO Radar Payments to discuss "the faceless future of payments", expanding on the questions of ‘is there a future for payment service providers?’ and ‘are big techs definitely taking over now?’.

A preview into the podcast with topics discussed such as invisible payments, whether technology drives financial inclusion and embedded finance suggesting whether the payment rails have become irrelevant or not.

In the podcast, Marijke started off the conversation by expressing "collaboration models was another key theme at Money2020 and it is refreshing to see the conversation is moving on from “who owns the customer” to really looking at the areas where collaboration provides a better outcome for all stakeholders."

"One final observation around Money 20/20 was the little talk around buy now pay later, with this topic being high in industry news it was interesting to note." 

Listen to the full podcast here.