By Chris Baker, Senior PR Consultant
We’re on the cusp of a step change in financial infrastructure.
AI agents are beginning to make purchases on consumers’ behalf. Stablecoins are reshaping cross-border liquidity, and regulators are racing to keep pace with programmable finance and tokenised assets.
The world’s leading banks, payment networks, fintechs and financial journalists will be discussing these innovations at Money20/20 in Amsterdam from 2-4 June.
Here’s our take on the four core themes.
What’s happening?
Mastercard has been among the first major payment networks to publicly demonstrate agentic payment capabilities over the last year. ARK Invest has forecast that 25% of all consumer e-commerce spending will be driven by AI agents by the end of the decade. At the same time, criminals are weaponizing AI bots to break through banking and payments security.
At Money20/20 we’re expecting to hear how banks and fintechs are using agentic AI, not just to make payments but to build infrastructure and tackle fraud. The big question is whether consumers and businesses are ready to trust the technology. When an AI assistant hallucinates around a simple task, how much faith can you have that a bot will make the right purchase on your behalf? Broadcaster Hannah Fry recently gave an agent access to her bank card and here’s what happened.
The communications opportunity:
Payments and tech businesses need to assure their customers and regulators that their agents are reliable and their systems secure. This creates a major positioning opportunity for RegTech firms to prove how their technology can be relied on to protect customers’ money.
Recommended session:
What’s happening?
In the last 15 years, a generation of start-ups and scale-ups have sought to break apart traditional banking services. Many challenger brands are now entering a more mature phase of growth, while traditional banks are acquiring fintech capabilities to remain competitive. The consequence is a move back towards integrated platforms that can deliver a seamless financial experience between different products.
The communications opportunity:
As everyone clamours to say that they’re the ‘unified platform’ for financial services, the communications challenge becomes one of differentiation. Scale-ups need to make sure that they don’t lose sight of their DNA. It’s often the story of where you’ve come from which gives your businesses the authority to lead the next phase of financial services. This is as true for Revolut and Wise as it is for the new wave of challengers.
Recommended session:
What’s happening?
The European cryptocurrency market is growing fast, but it’s the integration of crypto technology with the infrastructure of mainstream financial services that is the real shift. Stablecoins are increasingly being used to improve the speed and efficiency of cross-border payments, proving blockchain settlement can work at scale. Other territories and central banks are moving fast to catch up. The digital euro is on track for testing in 2027 and launch in 2028/9, so is likely to be a key talking point at Money20/20.
The next step is ‘programmable finance’: combining embedded finance APIs with AI, blockchain and open data to automate payments and financial transactions. This could enable faster settlement, smarter contracts, greater security and more efficient financial systems.
The communications opportunity:
There is a clear opportunity here for banks and fintechs to show how they are shaping and harnessing these infrastructural innovations for the benefit of their customers. The challenge is to ensure that these benefits are explained with clarity, and underpinned by confidence in a technology that still gives some policy-makers sleepless nights.
Recommended session:
(Wednesday 3 June, 10:55, Orbital Stage) Mastercard, Oracle and the Vice Finance Minister of Lithuania discuss how public and private sectors can collaborate on the future of payments infrastructure.
What’s happening? Regulators have always struggled to play catch up with technology, but the rapid pace of change, supercharged by developments in AI and decentralised finance, is demanding even greater agility. The trick for regulators is to provide the guardrails that strike the right balance between innovation and protection. While regulation for open banking has felt too slow, look at how quickly MiCA and the Genius Act have unleashed investment in crypto and stablecoin infrastructure in the last year.
The communications opportunity:
Regulatory uncertainty provides opportunities for media engagement and expert opinion. We help journalists and their readers to understand the significance of the changes being proposed, how they could be best delivered and what businesses need to do to prepare or respond.
In the EU, new Anti-Money Laundering (AML) rules come into effect in July: but are businesses ready for them? Consultations are ongoing around the Third Payment Services Directive (PSD3), the AI Act and the digital euro. In the UK, the government is expected to announce a consultation into the regulation of payment services to support stablecoin and tokenisation, Open Banking and the safe adoption of AI agents. The fintechs that will deliver these innovations need to make sure that their voices are heard.
Recommended session:
Across all four themes, there is a clear opportunity for fintechs and banks to demonstrate leadership. In a fast-moving market, business success will depend not only on technical capability, but on how clearly businesses can communicate customer value and security.
If you’d like to meet our team in Amsterdam this June, contact Senior PR Consultant Chris Baker 07583 079640 [email protected]
You can also read our round-up from Money20/20 last year here.