The Fintech Power 50: Recent Episodes
The Fintech Power50
Title: Payments in Progress
Host: Dave Birch, an author and commentator on digital financial services and Payments Power 50 influencer
Guest: Julian Farley, Sales Director UK and Europe, at BPC. Reinhard Hochrieser, SVP of Product & Technology at Jumio Corporation
- Core Topic: The discussion centres on "payments in progress" and aligns with the UK Financial Conduct Authority's (FCA) horizon scan identifying three key strategic trends for the next three to five years: AI, fraud (specifically synthetic identity fraud), and tokenization/stablecoins.
- The Evolution and Industrialization of AI Fraud: While payments have utilized machine learning for a long time, the rapid mass-market availability of advanced AI tools has "industrialized" and automated fraud. Fraudsters now use AI agents to generate synthetic IDs, selfies, and fakes on mass, as well as discover new security loopholes throughout the entire user lifecycle.
- Defending Against AI Threats: To combat AI-driven financial crime, companies are looking at identity more holistically rather than relying on a one-time physical ID check. This involves continuously monitoring behavioural signals, sensor data, camera photos, and location data. Additionally, financial institutions must collaborate to share information about fraud indicators rather than treating fraud as a competitive issue.
- The Rise of Agentic Commerce: The panellists discuss a future where consumers and merchants will use AI agents to interact and transact. This introduces a significant need for new frameworks and protocols to establish authentication and trust between autonomous agents. Despite agent automation, regulatory compliance (such as checking sanctions and PEP lists) will still necessitate verifying that a real human is ultimately behind the agent.
- Digital Identity Wallets: The rollout of the European digital identity wallet standard serves as a critical path forward. These digital wallets will shift identity verification away from easily tampered physical documents and will facilitate the safe growth of large-scale agentic AI usage.
- The Future of Payments (5-Year Outlook): The panellists predict the sunset of the traditional "app era" in Favor of centralized super-applications or invisible AI agents managing actions directly. For consumers, payment methods (whether card, account-to-account open banking, or stablecoins) will become secondary to pure convenience, leading to frictionless experiences where retail transactions are automatically handled by AI in the background.
Moderator
- Ruth Wandhofer, Experienced Chair, Author, Speaker, Adviser, Visiting Professor at Bayes Business School
Panellists
- Stephen Simmons, Co-founder and Chief Data Officer at Sikoia
- Simon Kingston, Head of Partner Sales, EMEA at Jumio Corporation
Key takeaways
- Regtech is becoming part of how firms evidence control across automated processes.
- Identity verification is moving from one-off onboarding to ongoing risk monitoring.
- Data quality is essential for auditable decision-making.
- AI can support faster risk assessment, but firms still need governance and accountability.
- Vendors can provide tools and evidence, while regulated firms remain responsible for final decisions.
- Better collaboration between banks, fintechs, telcos, Big Tech and government could strengthen fraud prevention.
Title: The Future of Open Banking: Trends and Challenges
Host: David Parker, CEO at Polymath Consulting.
Guest: Timo Seifert, Director Product Management at Unzer. Miroslav Pekárek, CPO at Aevi. George Parks Davie, VP of product at Brite Payments.
Takeaways
- Open banking has reached a tipping point with increased user adoption.
- Consumer trust in merchants is essential for the success of open banking payments.
- Instant payments are revolutionizing the payment landscape.
- The enrolment process for open banking payments remains a significant challenge.
- Chargebacks and consumer protection are critical gaps in open banking.
- Biometric authentication could enhance security and user experience.
- Variable recurring payments present new opportunities for merchants and consumers.
- Standardization and consistency in payment practices are needed for growth.
- The future of payments is leaning towards account-to-account transactions.
- Operational challenges, such as API stability, hinder the growth of open banking.
Time Stamps
00:00 Introduction to Open Banking and Its Evolution
03:56 Current Trends and Changes in Open Banking Payments
10:54 Challenges and Opportunities in Open Banking Payments
15:49 Use Cases and Merchant Perspectives on Open Banking
20:48 Consumer Experience and Drop-off Rates in Open Banking
25:23 The Evolution of Payment Methods
27:29 Challenges in Open Banking Payments
30:59 Consumer Trust and Payment Security
34:00 The Future of Payment Technologies
36:56 Operational Challenges in Open Banking
40:21 Looking Ahead: The Next 12-18 Months in Open Banking
Title: Cross-Border Payments: Connecting Merchants to Global Customers
Host: Mark Walker: Editorial Director at The Fintech Times
Guest: Victor Padee: CRO at Aevi. Tom Voaden: VP of Commercial at BR-DGE. David Messenger: Global CEO for Ping Pong Payments
Expanding into new international markets offers immense growth potential, but it comes with a web of complexities—from fragmented local payment schemes to heightened compliance risks. In this episode, Mark Walker sits down with experts from AVE, Bridge, and Ping Pong Payments to deconstruct the current landscape of cross-border payments
The discussion covers the differing needs of B2B versus B2C merchants, highlighting how enterprise merchants use orchestration to optimize conversion rates and how B2B companies prioritize straight-through processing and compliance The panel also debates the impact of fraud on international transactions and offers predictions for the industry in 2026, including the rise of agentic commerce and a return to business fundamentals
Main Topics Discussed:
- Defining Cross-Border Success: How merchants in travel, gaming, and retail aim to make global commerce feel like a local experience for customers
- The B2B vs. B2C Divide: While B2C focuses on conversion and user experience, B2B demands rigorous compliance, liquidity management, and certainty of settlement for high-value transactions
- Navigating Local Fragmentation: The importance of adapting to local schemes (like Gyrocard in Germany or eftpos in Australia) rather than relying solely on international rails
- Payment Orchestration: Utilizing data to route transactions for higher authorization rates and lower costs across different regions
- Risk and Fraud: Strategies for managing higher fraud rates in cross-border trade, including the shift from random attacks to structured exploitation of local rules
Future Trends (2026):
Predictions on the impact of AI, agentic commerce, stablecoins, and the consolidation of fintechs
Title: AI in Payments, Why Consumer AI Will Rewrite the Rules
Guests: Neira Jones, David Birch
In this episode of the Payments Power 50 podcast, Neira Jones speaks with digital finance expert David Birch about the real shift AI is creating within payments. Rather than incremental improvements in fraud detection or customer service, the major transformation will come when consumers deploy their own AI agents to manage spending, saving and everyday transactions.
- Topics covered include:
• Why AI adoption by consumers, not institutions, will be the true disruption
• How AI agents could negotiate payments with retailer bots
• The impact on loyalty, interchange, card choice and settlement routes
• Ethical concerns including bias, explainability and autonomy
• Why bots will need their own digital identities
• The future role of wallets and digital asset managers
• How blockchain based market infrastructure fits into the next generation of payments
A forward looking discussion on what happens when AI becomes the primary participant in payments rather than the tool behind the scenes.
Another year has come to an end, and another year of incredible fintech innovation. At a time of reflection and anticipation, with our panellists we take a look at the developments and trends that have graced the industry over the past 12 months, as well as what to expect in 2025.
Is fintech really good? There's certainly a lot of effort by many players in the industry to make a difference in society. Whether it's offsetting carbon or providing services for the underbanked, this Podcast will explore what "doing good" actually means, and understand how fintech is making a difference.Our panellists will examine why the fintech industry is in the perfect position to "do good", and determine once and for all whether "fintech for good" is the latest industry fad or whether it's here to stay.
Digital assets are a constant trending topic within fintech. With the rise, and somewhat fall of cryptocurrency with popularity at an all time high but consumer trust wavering, as well as the rise of blockchain technologies and even CBDC’s making an appearance.With digital assets on the rise, this Podcast will take a look at the current digital asset landscape and how the industry has evolved over time.
Embedded finance has been a consistent trend within the fintech scene for the past few years. With the potential impact on the industry being huge, in this Podcast we take a look at the current embedded finance landscape and the opportunities it can bring.
Payments are an everyday facet of peoples lives, whether you are a regular consumer, a business or beyond. The industry is constantly working to innovate and create new and better ways to pay.In this Podcast, we take a look at the disruption of the traditional payments ecosystem and the opportunities fintech's have taken to revolutionise the way people pay. With the help of our panellists, we will breakdown the factors shaping the payments industry, and discover what's next for an industry that's already innovating to the max.
With 2023 being another stellar year for fintech, in this Podcast we take a look at the stand out moments and learnings for the industry in 2023. With the help of our expert panellists, we also look ahead to 2024 and what future innovation the industry has to offer. Featuring Debbie Wong, Head of Business Development APAC at BPC, Howard Wimpory, KYC Transformation Director at Encompass & Philipp Pointner, Chief of Digital Identity at Jumio.
Payments are an everyday facet of life for consumers, businesses and beyond, and the rapid innovation the industry creates is showing no sign of slowing down.In this Podcast, we take a look at the disruption of the traditional payments ecosystem and the opportunities fintech's have taken to revolutionise the way people pay. With the help of our panellists, we will breakdown the factors shaping the payments industry, and discover what's next for an industry that's already innovating to the max.
Around 30% of the Fintech workforce is made up of women, that figure drops to just 17% of Fintech leaders - though the industry has moved on a long way, theres still so far to go.In this Podcast we champion our panellists, amazing women who have broken barriers, overcome hurdles and sometimes even crash-landed to get to their positions. We take a look at their career journeys and their thoughts on the diversity of the industry, and get their thoughts on how exactly fintech needs to change.
With the use of digital banking services growing exponentially in the last few years, the industry is constantly reinventing itself. Consumers can now access banking services from anywhere in the world at any time, with banking's transformation becoming an industry standard.In this Podcast, we hear from our expert panellists about the current digital banking landscape and the trends that are taking hold. Our panellists will also examine the challenges currently facing players in the industry, and what the future has in store.
By its name, a central bank digital currency (CBDC) is the virtual format of a fiat currency for a particular nation or region. But why is it such a popular term right now? With pilots going well in China and encouraging words from the Treasury in the UK, CBDCs are moving forward at a spectacular pace. This podcast seeks to examine the reasons behind such a demand, and ask what technology and regulatory factors need to be in place to support an efficient roll out.
Regulation and fintech go hand in hand, and for both sectors its changing all the time. With monitoring and reporting ever more crucial to businesses out there, the regtech industry has evolved in a big way.This podcast will examine the current regtech landscape as well as what is currently exciting leaders in the space. With the help of our panellists, we will determine whats next for regtech, and how the industry will get there.
Wealthtech is often considered as one of the more popular verticals within the fintech space. With personal wealth management continuously on the rise, wealthtech companies have carved themselves an ideal niche in which to work, offering innovative solutions to transform the investment and asset management world. In this podcast, we will take a deep dive into the world of wealthtech, learning whats on the horizon for the industry and how its thriving.
Payments are an ever-changing landscape within the fintech world - but as things change and develop, much about the sector stays the same. With payment methods developing all the time in the consumer and business sectors, many are left wondering what will be the major trend of 2023. In this podcast we will explore some of the latest innovations within the payments industry, and look at how paytech may develop over the coming year. With the help of our panellists, James Butland, VP of Financial Partnerships at Airwallex & James Neville, CEO at Citizen we will decipher what the next big trend will be and what challenges could be standing in the way of the perfect payment mix.
Open banking has seen significant growth over the last couple of years, and continues to be on the rise. With huge benefits available to the fintech sector, open banking continues to advance - but the question that remains is what's next?With 2022 creeping to a close, this Podcast will examine just how open banking is used within the industry, and more importantly how it can get better. With the help of our panellists we will explore what's next for open banking, and where the future may take us.
Embedded finance has proved to be one of the major buzzwords of 2022. With the value of the market expected to exceed $7 trillion in the next 10 years, its easy to see why. Join Polly Jean-Harrison and Alex Mifsud, Co-founder and CEO at Weavr, whilst they explore the year embedded finance has had, and uncover the hype around the topic, while looking ahead to the future.
On this weeks episode of Power 50 Podcasts, the Power 50 team speak about Neobanks with Nosa, Head of Retail Product & Partnerships at KUDA.
On this weeks episode, we speak with Will Marwick, CEO at IFX Payments, Damien Cahill, COO & Co-founder at VYNE and Daniel Blondell, COO at Mclear to talk Payments.
On this weeks episode of The Fintech Power 50 Podcast, Mark Walker, Chief Operating Officer at The Power 50 speaks with Lucy Liu, CEO of Airwallex to cover the Airwallex roadmap, and also talk about what it's like to be a female young Co-Founder, in a male-dominated financial services world.
On this weeks episode of The Fintech Power 50 Podcast, we speak to Kani Payments CEO, Aaron Holmes, and Trade Ledger CEO, Martin McCann as we want to understand their journey into the industry and explore the dynamics between established financial technology leaders with years of relevant experience, and the fresh up-and-coming fintech’s.
On this month's episode of The Fintech Power 50 Podcast, we have a great discussion evolving around digital assets.
In this months episode of The Fintech Power 50 Podcast, we have a fantastic group with us to talk Partnerships, with the likes of Derren Powell, UK Head of Fintech Business Development at Mastercard, Shana Schneider, Global Marketing Director at Silent Eight and Louis Demetroulakos, Strategic Partnerships Manager at tomato pay giving their insights on the topic.