Money 20/20 Europe 2025 offered an all-encompassing view of the financial sector and the global money ecosystem, one defined by transformation, convergence, and urgency.
Held in Amsterdam, the event brings together global leaders, innovative fintechs, and ambitious startups.
Across stages and breakout sessions, the main message was clear: the boundaries between traditional banking, fintech, technology, and regulation are fading fast.
This article highlights the most important takeaways from Money 20/20 Europe across innovation, AI, open banking, payments, regulation, and more, offering a summary for anyone looking to understand where finance global leaders are heading next.
At Money 20/20 Europe 2025, innovation was less about launching the next flashy product, and more about using technology to solve everyday financial problems. Across sessions, the spotlight was on creating value for consumers, removing access barriers, and designing financial systems that serve broad and diverse needs.
Retail investment is opening up to broader audiences. A partnership between Revolut and GTN is now bringing access to global bond markets, historically limited to institutional investors, directly to everyday users. With over 50 million customers, Revolut is moving closer to becoming a one-stop “super app” for managing all personal finance needs, including wealth-building.
Meanwhile, Affirm’s expansion into markets like Canada, UK, Germany, France, and the Netherlands shows how credit services are evolving. Their approach focuses on transparency and real-time data to support flexible, inclusive lending.
In technology, banks like Starling are offering their core infrastructure (Engine) as a platform that other banks can use, a model already in action at Salt Bank in Romania. In just 10 days, Salt Bank signed up 100,000 customers. One year later, they had over 500,000. This points to a future where banking services are built on modular, flexible platforms.
Projects like ABN AMRO’s Buutt, a neobank for teenagers, reflect the focus on growth and inclusion in the European Banking Markets. Designed with a fun, social media-like experience, the platform helps young people learn about money in a way that feels natural and engaging. Parents and kids get separate, tailored interfaces, bridging generational gaps in financial literacy.
Younger generations were also a central theme at Money 20/20. Gen Z’s growing financial power is shaping new kinds of products. PayPal and MasterCard introduced One Credential, allowing users to manage multiple payment methods through a single digital identity.
Innovation isn’t limited to consumer products, it’s happening under the hood, too. Project Agora, a collaboration between 7 central banks and 43 private firms, is building a shared platform for faster, cheaper cross-border payments using tokenized money.
In parallel, Project Neo, Hertha, and Aurora are reimagining how institutions use data. From using train shipment data to generate real-time economic forecasts, to detecting financial crime while preserving privacy, these initiatives show how public institutions are applying tech to upgrade the backbone of finance.
One in four people globally live with disabilities, but most payment technologies aren’t designed with them in mind. Project Nemo is working to change that by promoting inclusive design practices and partnering with companies like HSBC to offer free accessibility training.
Research shows that 70% of disabled individuals avoid businesses where payments are difficult. Therefore, it should be a priority to make financial services more inclusive.
Artificial intelligence was one of the highlights of the Money 20/20 Europe 2025, the focus was on practical applications of AI that are already showing results, as well as future trends that could define the next decade of finance.
AI is helping banks and fintechs detect fraud faster, reduce false positives, and route payments more efficiently. More than 85% of banks now use AI to improve operations and customer experience. Companies are reporting measurable results, such as 12% higher revenue and better conversion rates, by using AI to personalize checkout experiences or automate support.
Stripe and Klarna shared how AI is being used across their organizations. Stripe processed $1.4 trillion in commerce in 2024 with a 99.99989% reliability rate. Klarna’s approach is based on building an internal culture that supports AI adoption at every level.
Companies like Experian and Koodoo are using generative AI to offer mortgage advice and financial coaching through natural, conversational interfaces. This represents a transition from rigid digital forms to intelligent assistants that provide financial guidance tailored to individual life stages and preferences.
In personal finance, the goal is to move away from one-size-fits-all tools and toward solutions that understand the person behind the account balance.
AI can support users in making long-term decisions by offering simulations, insights, and guidance that feels human without trying to replace human expertise.
A major theme at Money 20/20 Europe was the rise of agentic AI, software agents that can take actions on a user’s behalf. These agents are designed to handle repetitive tasks, talk to other systems, and even make financial decisions based on predefined preferences.
MasterCard, Visa, PayPal, and Microsoft are among those developing tools that support AI-to-AI transactions. These systems will allow agents to research products, manage payments, and even negotiate terms. The future of payments and commerce may not involve people clicking buttons, but it may involve bots doing the work behind the scenes.
PayPal is already working with OpenAI and Perplexity to bring real-time, conversational agents into checkout experiences. Their goal is to reduce drop-off during checkout by simplifying decisions and removing friction through automation.
A recurring message throughout the sessions at Money 20/20 Europe 2025: AI adoption depends on trust. Companies like Adyen, Bunq, and Nvidia are all exploring how to build explainable, transparent systems. This includes managing the 2% of cases where AI gets things wrong and building safety checks, audit trails, and fallback processes.
Speakers at Money 20/20 also explored how AI will work alongside people. Microsoft described AI agents as “digital co-workers”, helping employees boost their productivity and make better decisions. The most advanced systems are expected to manage millions of transactions across systems and markets, using natural language to operate and adapt as needed.
And while this may sound futuristic, many of these systems are already in use or actively being tested. JJ Lopez Murphy broke down the six traits of modern AI agents - reasoning, interaction, adaptability, and more - illustrating how finance is moving toward fully autonomous support systems.
Open banking has moved from theory to real-world deployment in many parts of Europe. At Money 20/20 Europe 2025, discussions focused on how banks, fintechs, and regulators are trying to shift open banking from a compliance task to a business opportunity.
Many banks still treat open banking as a regulatory checkbox. API performance remains a challenge, with 20% of surveyed users reporting failures. Business models for monetizing open banking services are still unclear for many institutions.
To unlock its full value, the mindset needs to shift. Instead of building to meet minimum legal requirements, banks are being encouraged to treat open banking as a way to deliver better customer experiences and generate new revenue through smarter data use and embedded services.
Payments are one of the most promising areas of open banking. Thanks to new instant payment regulations and updates from the Payment Services Regulation (PSR), more banks, like BNP Paribas and Santander, are offering account-to-account (A2A) payment options.
These solutions help merchants by providing faster settlement and better visibility into transactions. They also give consumers more choice, especially across different markets. The future looks like a patchwork of payment schemes that are working together - providing flexibility and better reach across Europe.
One big takeaway at Money 20/20: open banking only works if the experience is smooth for users.
The average consumer doesn’t care what’s powering their transaction, they care if it’s fast, easy, and secure. Whether it’s e-invoicing or subscription management, open banking products need to solve real problems in a simple way.
Panelists also pointed out that progress varies widely by region. While Europe moves steadily, other markets have taken different paths, from more aggressive rollouts to alternative standards. But everywhere, the same principles apply: make it simple, useful, and built around the customer.
Banking as a Service (BaaS) is becoming a large industry on its own, projected to reach €100 billion in Europe by 2030. Unlike open banking, which often focuses on giving third parties access to account data, BaaS is about embedding banking functions (like payments, credit, and accounts) directly into other platforms.
Companies like Stripe and Adyen are building tech infrastructure that allows e-commerce, travel, and mobility businesses to offer banking features without being banks themselves. For providers, the challenge is building flexible platforms, clear partnership models, and strong go-to-market strategies that align with non-financial brands.
Instead of making users seek out banks or lenders, finance is being built into the digital tools and platforms people already use. At Money 20/20 Europe 2025, the conversations showed that embedded finance is changing who gets access, how services are delivered, and what’s possible across sectors.
Traditional small business lending is often slow and rigid. Embedded finance solutions like eBay Seller Capital, powered by Liberis, are making it easier for entrepreneurs to access funding directly within the platforms they already use.
The new Flexible Cash Advance offering, available through eBay’s partnership with Liberis, provides sellers with fast, flexible funding ranging from $5,000 to $2 million. Once approved, sellers can access advances on demand without reapplying, and only pay for the capital they use. The repayment model adjusts with their sales, making it easier to manage seasonal fluctuations and unexpected expenses.
These systems leverage real-time business data to pre-approve around 70% of applicants instantly, dramatically reducing rejection fears and speeding up access to working capital. In some cases, funding is delivered in as little as 24 hours, with applications taking just minutes to complete.
These embedded finance solutions represent growth accelerators, for example funded businesses have seen 22–25% higher growth rates and a better chance of moving up the income ladder. With partners like Liberis, platforms like eBay are turning capital access into a seamless, always-on experience for entrepreneurs.
Even established banks are recognizing they need to change how they operate. NatWest spun out a separate venture, NatWest Boxed, to build embedded finance tools that could compete with fintechs. The goal: redesign banking infrastructure to fit into other platforms and customer journeys.
Small and mid-sized businesses face big hurdles when it comes to financing. Complex underwriting processes and high overhead often make it hard for banks to serve this market effectively.
Fintech companies like Defacto are embedding lending directly into tools like Pennylane, turning the loan process into a one-click feature powered by real-time data. When paired with traditional partners like Societe Generale, this model blends innovation with regulatory and risk expertise, creating a smoother experience for SMEs.
In the B2B space, embedded payments are growing at 20-30% per year, helping businesses handle transactions more smoothly inside their own systems.
Players like Visa and Checkout.com are also exploring the role of AI agents in agentic commerce, where bots manage routine B2B transactions and decision-making. This could transform how business payments, financing, and compliance are handled in the future.
The next steps in embedded finance will probably include more personalized offerings, such as contextual loans, virtual business cards, marketplace savings accounts, and automated customer service tools.
To succeed, providers will need to balance seamless integration with secure infrastructure. AI will play a major role in managing fraud, handling compliance, and ensuring these experiences stay both simple and safe for users.
Payments are going through a period of major transformation, driven by regulation, technology, and changing user expectations. At Money 20/20 Europe 2025, conversations highlighted how Europe’s payments ecosystem is developing across national lines, partnerships, and new formats. But while innovation is happening fast, fragmentation and the lack of a shared roadmap remain big challenges.
In the UK, regulators have released a National Payments Vision, aligning on goals for mobile payments, wallets, and fraud prevention. Europe, in contrast, operates through a patchwork of initiatives such as FiDA, PSD3, and regional services like iDEAL, Swish, and Blik, without a common direction.
Industry voices called for a unified vision that includes open finance, digital identity, real-time infrastructure, and blockchain. But even that vision needs broad consensus. Some asked: Do we even agree on what “progress” looks like in European payments?
Pay by Bank is one of the most discussed alternatives to card payments. It offers direct account-to-account payments, stronger security, and better resilience during system outages. Adoption is growing, 65% of users are comfortable with it, and 85% of transactions come from repeat customers.
Still, its future depends on more than just the tech. It needs strong partnerships between banks, merchants, and regulators to build consumer trust, create seamless user experiences, and ensure consistent standards across Europe.
Embedded payments in B2B are growing at 20-30% annually, as businesses look for ways to integrate transactions directly into their workflows. Tools like request-to-pay and pay-by-bank are helping merchants reconcile faster and manage payments more flexibly.
MasterCard and Deutsche Bank are developing open banking payment models to support e-commerce and lending, signaling a shift from card-based thinking to more dynamic, data-driven solutions.
Small businesses are powering the global money ecosystem, but many still struggle with slow, costly, cross-border payments. Traditional channels often push companies toward informal or risky alternatives.
New solutions like Global Business Account and Local Currencies Account are helping SMEs move money securely and cheaply, improving cash flow and supporting global growth.
On the personal banking side, projects like Interledger are also working on currency-agnostic protocols to move money as easily as sending an email. Their goal: financial inclusion for the 1.4 billion unbanked and underbanked people worldwide.
Europe's wallet ecosystem is growing too. Domestic tools like Bizum (Spain), Blik (Poland), and others are expanding, but success depends on interoperability, the ability to work across countries and systems.
Initiatives like EMPSA (European Mobile Payment Systems Association) are tackling this challenge by enabling mobile payment roaming across member countries. Much like how SIM cards allow phone usage across Europe, the goal is to let users of one wallet app make payments in another country’s system without needing to download a new app or switch accounts.
This model is already live in some areas: Bluecode and Bancomat have enabled cross-border payments between Austria, Germany, and Italy. If scaled successfully, this could significantly reduce fragmentation and pave the way for a more unified European payments experience.
The future of payments is less about disruption and more about coordination. Instead of building new rails from scratch, the industry is focusing on combining innovations with trusted systems.
Whether it’s account-to-account payments or embedded commerce, successful solutions will be those that address real needs such as: reducing friction, enhancing trust, and supporting diverse use cases, from subscription management to international trade.
At Money 20/20 Europe 2025, one theme kept coming up: the most valuable asset is not money, it’s trust. The conversations explored how financial services are rethinking digital identity, fraud prevention, and onboarding processes to create safer, faster, and more inclusive systems.
Fraudsters aren’t standing still. They are highly adaptable using AI to craft more believable scams, automate phishing attempts, and exploit weaknesses across the system.
To respond, financial institutions are shifting to a zero-trust approach: assume nothing is safe by default and continuously verify everything. Collaboration is also rising as a strategic response. Banks, platforms, and networks are sharing threat intelligence and exploring dynamic data-sharing systems that can trace fraud patterns across the ecosystem in real time.
Panels also emphasized the importance of education, helping consumers recognize scam tactics and reducing the stigma of falling victim to fraud.
Modern fraud detection is moving beyond passwords. Companies are exploring device intelligence, behavioral metrics, and even brainwave-based authentication as alternatives. For example, Credit Agricole is experimenting with brainwave tech to create unique “cerebral signatures” for users, enhancing both inclusivity and security.
Speakers noted that privacy and security don’t have to be in conflict. Emerging methods like homomorphic encryption and federated learning enable organizations to analyze data without exposing it.
The EU is planning to launch a digital identity wallet by 2026, creating a trusted, cross-border identity system. This will allow people to store and share verified credentials such as age, citizenship, or payment details, across different services and platforms.
Digital ID systems are already reducing fraud, simplifying KYC processes, and helping people control what personal information they share. They’re being used across sectors like employment, e-commerce, and public services.
At Money 20/20 Europe 2025, regulation was framed not as a roadblock, but as a potential tool to shape a stronger, more innovative financial future. While challenges remain, especially in keeping pace with fast-moving tech, European regulators are increasingly focusing on flexibility, inclusion, and cross-border alignment.
Europe’s approach to regulation is often viewed as cautious, especially when compared to the U.S. Some speakers even joked that the EU seems more focused on bottle cap rules than supporting fintech innovation. Meanwhile, the U.S. is taking a looser approach, focusing more on deregulation and protective trade policies.
This contrast sparked a core question: Does Europe need a unified, forward-looking regulatory strategy? And if so, how can it become the destination of choice for founders and fintech leaders looking to scale globally?
The discussion at Money 20/20 emphasized that regulation and innovation aren’t opposites. In fact, when designed well, regulation can actively foster growth. New efforts like PSD3 and the digital euro project show how European regulators are aiming to promote tech adoption while protecting users.
Stripe’s speaker, Julia, pointed out that Europe has created more fintech unicorns than China, and now represents a third of the global fintech market. The challenge is to maintain that momentum by avoiding overly rigid rules and instead building future-proof frameworks, ones that evolve alongside new technologies.
Instant payments are becoming standard, but scaling them across Europe requires more than just policy support. Banks need to build always-on infrastructure, deliver real-time notifications, and provide new user-friendly options like QR-based payments.
The goal is to make cross-border payments seamless, and 2027 is being seen as a possible milestone for full interoperability between euro and non-euro systems.
Regulation here plays a practical role: setting expectations for uptime, security, and dispute resolution, while giving banks the clarity they need to invest in new rails and customer features.
UK MP Luke Charters highlighted how regulation can also address systemic issues like fraud. He called for a national anti-fraud data center, encouraging collaboration across financial institutions, law enforcement, and tech platforms to detect scams faster.
He emphasized that fraud is personal and often devastating for victims. Charters advocated using AI to disrupt fraud networks at the source, and ensuring regulations include support structures for those affected, not just compliance rules for companies.
This year’s regulation discussions emphasized a growing consensus: Europe doesn’t have to choose between innovation and oversight. With flexible, responsive rules and a shared commitment between public and private sectors, the region can protect consumers while building space for experimentation and growth.
But that will require more alignment, faster adaptation, and a mindset shift, from preventing risk at all costs to enabling safe, responsible innovation.
At Money 20/20 Europe 2025, the conversations around environmental, social, and governance (ESG) and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) were direct and pragmatic. Far from being abstract goals, these themes are business drivers affecting how companies grow, attract talent, and serve new markets.
Companies that integrate sustainability into their operations are finding it easier to win contracts, attract investors, and build trusted relationships with customers.
Crown Agents Bank shared its experience becoming a certified B Corp, demonstrating that ESG practices can differentiate a business. Collaboration with regulators and transparency from day one were highlighted as essential to making ESG efforts both credible and effective.
Speakers also emphasized looking beyond traditional markets. For example, tapping into the unmet needs of unbanked women worldwide represents both a social impact opportunity and a business growth path.
Whether it’s carbon impact tracking or building inclusive teams, ESG and DEI are moving from side initiatives to core components of financial strategy. They affect everything from customer loyalty to regulatory risk, and the companies that lead on actively solving these issues are increasingly seen as more resilient, more trusted, and more future-ready.
This year at Money 20/20 Europe showed that the future of the financial industry is programable. Whether through tokenization, blockchain-native ecosystems, or central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), institutions are tapping into real-time, secure, and interoperable systems. While quantum computing may still be early-stage, the groundwork for a more automated, connected financial system is already being laid.
JPMorgan and MasterCard are developing programmable digital asset systems that allow for conditional, real-time payments across currencies and networks. Their goal is to make financial transactions more transparent, efficient, and flexible, especially for cross-border or high-volume scenarios.
Meanwhile, companies like Nomyx are helping traditional asset managers move from legacy systems to on-chain infrastructure without sacrificing compliance. Their tokenization framework supports this shift by focusing on interoperability and gradual integration, making it possible to modernize operations without starting from scratch.
As digital assets become more mainstream, the infrastructure protecting them needs to mature. Paribu’s ColdShield solution shows what next-gen custody looks like, combining multi-party computation (MPC), secure enclaves (SGX), and hardware security modules (HSM) to keep assets safe.
These tools also enable features like staking, API integration, and token issuance, turning custody into a flexible platform that supports growth and innovation in the digital economy.
Projects from the European Central Bank and Bank of England are progressing steadily, with pilots for the digital euro and digital pound focusing on privacy, public-private collaboration, and flexible payment architecture.
The aim is to provide digital alternatives to cash that are secure, programmable, and usable across sectors. For central banks, is a step toward economic sovereignty and ensuring that domestic systems stay competitive.
Across Europe, experiments from Banque de France have tested how tokenized central bank money could streamline settlement and reduce cross-border payment costs. The vision: a unified, programmable ledger that bridges public and private money systems.
Corporate treasury functions are also being transformed. Companies like BNP Paribas and Ant International are exploring atomic settlement, a process where payments and asset transfers happen simultaneously. This reduces risk and enables 24/7 treasury management across borders.
One speaker noted that a third of their treasury operations have already moved to blockchain platforms. This signals that programmable money isn’t just a future possibility, it’s already reshaping how global liquidity is managed today.
Quantum computing may still be emerging, but its relevance to finance is growing. While today’s systems are limited (most hover around 50 qubits), the long-term potential includes applications in risk modeling, encryption, and complex financial forecasting.
The most immediate concern for financial institutions? Quantum-safe encryption. As quantum capabilities improve, existing cryptographic systems will need to evolve to protect sensitive data, including assets, identities, and communications.
Major players like Microsoft, Amazon, and IBM are investing in quantum services, and financial services firms are beginning to think through how to secure infrastructure against future decryption threats.
Whether it's tokenized money, stablecoins, or quantum-ready security, the conversations at Money 20/20 focused on rebuilding the financial infrastructure. Many of these technologies are already moving from the lab to the real world.
The next challenge? Making them work together across platforms, jurisdictions, and use cases without creating new silos. The winners will be the ones who think beyond proof-of-concept and build with scale, security, and user experience in mind.
If one theme stood out at Money 20/20 Europe 2025, it was this: the era of isolated innovation is coming to an end.
We’re seeing convergence across technologies, institutions, and even ideologies.
AI, tokenization, embedded finance, open banking, ESG, and digital identity are coming together to reshape how the financial system works.
The takeaway? The next decade in financial services won’t be led by those with the flashiest tech, but by those who can connect it meaningfully, securely, and inclusively across real-world contexts.
Institutions are moving past the experimental phase and asking bigger questions:
Success in this next chapter won’t come from chasing hype. It will come from bringing the right technologies together with clear purpose, strong partnerships, and a commitment to scale and security.
If you're exploring advanced technologies but unsure whether you're ready for a larger-scale implementation, we can help. Schedule a call with our experts to discuss how to move your project forward.
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