PAY360 – Unlocking The Power Of Payments Together

As we slowly return to more in-person conferences and events after a tough last few years, I felt extremely lucky to attend the PAY360 event, an annual meeting place for the payments industry, bringing approximately one thousand of the most senior representations from banks, fintechs, governments and various other forms of financial institutions together. Obviously, what this creates is an environment filled with vast knowledge and expertise. You might be thinking, “I wish I had gone now!” Thankfully though, here are what I believe to be the top 3 talks of the day from 8 hours of dynamic sessions and cutting edge content from the best in the business. 

1 – The Future of Payments, Mali Fernando, Global Head of Digital Experience and Accessibility at HSBC

This talk genuinely moved me, Mali Fernando opened my eyes, and many people in the room in fact, to what digital experiences for those with a disability can look like. Over 98% of the world’s top websites are inaccessible, as they don’t work for disabled or neurodiverse people. This is shocking. Mali noted the importance of making experiences as digital accessible as possible.

First, it’s simply the right thing to do. Many of us deal with questions of gender, ethnicity, race. We need to do the same when it comes to disability, building an organisation today for the world of tomorrow. When put like this, it becomes so eye opening to think how many organisations have not been built with this mindset, and how problematic that is. 

Secondly, there is a legal right to do so too. 1.2 billion people around the world identify as being disabled. In the UK, about 18.6% of the population identify, that’s a fifth of people, whether they are your audience, your employees, that you may not be serving. Design, communication and usability standards should all meet their needs. 

Thirdly, inclusivity starts within. We’ve all seen ESG and financial inclusivity being pushed by FIs around the world, but how many are truly inclusive in themselves? Having internal systems that are digital accessible creates a genuine sense of community. Culture and culture creation is a tricky thing to accomplish, but Mali noted how HSBC intends on carrying that torch high, as should we all. 

2 – Instant, Frictionless and Cross-Border Payments – Pushing the Frontiers of Payments

In this talk, we were blessed with an All Star panel, including Oonagh McGrane, Director, FI Commercialisation, Client Products , Lloyds Bank, Lewis Ide, Interim Head of UKI & Head of Key Customer Relationships, SWIFT, Michael Boel, Head of Local Clearing, Banking Circle, Connie Blacklock, EMEA Head of Real Time Payments, J.P. Morgan Payments and Ross Jones, Director, Barclays Corporate Banking.

After a discussion on how important technological advancement is on the back end for bringing ideas and innovations to life in the front end, the conversation moved on to smart data and the role of ISO20022. Ide highlighted how ISO20022 helping everybody speak the same language which in turns allows for more innovation. What was made clear from all speakers here is that it should be seen as a liability, but be appreciated as an enrichment. 

Boel followed on to claim though that if you want to push the frontiers of payments, in this day and age you have to pick a specialism and advance that area because there’s simply too many offerings at the moment. The talk ended on the mention of CBDCs, for which Boel very warningly noted the dangers of. Would we be handing over our freedom if we embrace them? Does that ethically benefit you? Yes it’s interoperable, but you may be so strictly logged out of so much financial activity because of the sheer power you would have conceded. Whilst the others pandered on how the programmable element is quite interesting, technology itself doesn’t deliver the use case. The real juice is the platform that enables innovation. 

3 – A Thought Leader’s Crystal Ball

This talk gripped me because it was one of the few times I saw so many leading professionals evaluate key predictions for the payments industry this year, all together all at once. The 4 predictions that I found most fascinating were: 

“VRP will be the TFL moment of Open Banking” 

Having Jessica Richards, Head of Market Development, Payments, NatWest, was particularly insightful here as the company, with TrueLayer, made the first Open Banking VRP transaction at the end of 2021. The speakers noted that it’s potentially transformative but there’s still a long way to go because “if you screw up payments then the whole ecosystem falls to pieces.” The next 3-4 years could be huge in this field though.

“Everyone wants to protect the customer”

It’s not a prediction we won’t welcome! As technology rises, so too does the technology of fraud. Rob Eleveld, CEO of Ekata, noted how this has led companies to start protecting the consumer before the point of transaction because fraudsters are inserting themselves in the financial process earlier than before. “KYC was a checkbox in the last few years”, but now we’ll see more machine learning look at identifying genuine customers as opposed to fraudsters all the way through the transaction. 

“Creativity will win the war for talent”

Cecil Edwards, Group Chief Operating Officer at GPS, warned that “this industry wont work if we don’t have the right talent in it.” He urged that we need more talent to capitalise on the opportunities in our industry. “You can steal off your competitors but you haven’t raised the number of people involved.” There needs to be a genuine attempt at capturing the interests of talented people if the industry intends on having longevity. Creativity will win the war, because it must. 

PAY360 was filled with fascinating insights from some truly inspiring people. I can’t wait for the next one!