James Maudslay, Senior Solution Marketing Manager, Equinix, talks to Hannah Wallace from Finextra about how banks are managing the need to offer digital services to their customers in an increasingly competitive environment.

Alan Koenigsberg, global head of new payment flows, Visa Business Solutions, talks to The Banker’s Joy Macknight about the challenges banks and corporates face when making cross-border B2B payments and whether real time is necessary for cross-border flows.

Thibault de Barsy, General Manager of the Emerging Payments Association EU, started proceedings with an overview of a recent study on the trends in European payments.

Lessons learned include that while regulation does cover the entire European Single Market, payment behaviours and preferences still differ largely within individual countries and regions. Overall, cash is being replaced by debit and credit cards, which are in turn being replaced by e-wallets and digital currencies. While the US and China offer plenty of innovative approaches, Europe’s diverse landscape has led to different examples of best practice all over the continent.

Simon Black, CEO of PPRO, covered some of the impacts that COVID-19 has had on the payments industry: a large increase of smaller merchants, and customer behaviour pivoting to online purchases in a way that will likely remain beyond this crisis. There is a crucial need for strong cybersecurity and IT investments in the payments industry, according to Simon.

Karen O’Sullivan, Head of Innovation, Payments, Market Infrastructures and Governance at the CSSF, gave a wide-ranging overview of upcoming regulatory topics, including everything from the level of harmonisation within the EU for PSD2 to the upcoming regulatory changes on virtual assets. She also had a positive prediction for the market: no new legislation – only amendments to fit new technologies.
Live polls taken during the event showed that for most people, harmonisation is still a work in progress, with the majority of audience participants believing it will take over 5 years before there is a single European payments market.

A lively Q &A session with the audience ended the event, covering everything from views on the European Payments Initiative, consequences of the rise of deferred payments schemes, and the panellists personal favourite payment methods.

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Visa has recently announced its partnership with the digitally native neo-bank First Boulevard. The initiative is part of Visa’s new cryptocurrency API pilot programme and will allow First Boulevard’s customers to purchase, custody and trade digital assets held by Anchorage, a federally chartered digital asset bank.

Behind the headlines, what does this story tell us?

First Boulevard and Visa’s story is an example of how key industry players are using APIs to push the original regulatory boundaries set by Open Banking to generate new business opportunities. A path that incumbent banks should follow if they want to remain competitive. But how can they seize the opportunities brought by Open Banking APIs? And what challenges remain to overcome?

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Videos mentioned:
How banks can use Regulation to Innovate: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2xKWCQV4so &t=9s
ISO 20022: Why the path to success lies in data-led testing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8nHAi14Y8I &t=179s

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