Money20/20 Europe, which I attended this year as a guest of United Payment, continues to be perhaps one of the best FinTech events in Europe, with its satisfying sectoral and academic conference contents, participants from all over the world, and the innovative experiences it offers.
About the Conference
This year, Money 20/20, which has the theme of “Human X Machine“, stands out with the conference content, as well as the event space, and networking opportunities it provides.
More than 350 people, including senior executives of the world’s most important financial institutions and financial authorities of the countries, took part as speakers at the event, where more than 8,500 participants from more than 100 countries were expected this year.
This year, the conference content is gathered under 5 main themes:
- Customer: Hyper-personalization and User Experience.
- Technology: Enabler. Technological advancements, from artificial intelligence and cryptography to quantum computing.
- Architects: Thought Leaders, the visionaries who create new landscapes for our financial futures.
- The Future: Financial Innovation in the Future.
- The Business of Money: Business Strategy, Funding and Investments
In this context, many presentations, panels, debates and case studies were held and current developments in the field of FinTech were discussed with experiences from different countries.
The contents that I was interested were in the fields of Open Finance, Embedded Finance, Identity Verification, Generative AI, DeFi, Web3, InsurTech, CBDC, Tokenization, B2B FinTech, Business Strategy and Strategic Partnership.
In this sense, I have noted many issues that we can learn from the industry and transfer to the academic field. It caught my attention that InsurTech was not a hot topic this year, with only a few panels.
About Participants
While the size of the venue this year allowed the stand areas to be more spacious and easier to navigate, it was also perceived as a decrease in density for the participating companies.
While FinTech companies from all over Europe exhibited themselves with their stands and country pavilions, countries outside Europe (such as Australia) also had the chance to show off the FinTech companies in their countries by opening pavilions.
Türkiye left its mark on the event this year with two major country Pavilions under the umbrella of TÖDEB (with 20 members) and DEİK Türkiye (Sponsored by United Payment and Papara).
In addition to TÖDEB and DEİK’s country pavilions; our fast growing and globalizing company United Payment; Papara, one of Turkey’s important Super Apps; Param , that works as an integrated financial services provider; VeriPark rapidly spreading in Europe; Fimple, which offers digital banking infrastructure; and UPT Ödeme Hizmetleri ve Elektronik Para A.Ş. , which is in the Aktif Bank ecosystem, were among our organizations that participated as sponsors with their stand-alone stands. Apart from these companies, many senior managers from Türkiye who participated individually also took part in the event.
As a result, as Turks, we have made a significant impact at the event; I believe the companies have established very good networking opportunities and create concrete connections. I believe that our presence here in Money 20/20 is a major step towards promoting our FinTech companies globally. I think the fact that our country was represented with so many participants in such an important worldwide organization would have surprised the Europeans as well, as everyone wondered why so many Turkish companies and participants came this year. It is a well-deserved success for our FinTech Ecosystem. Thanks to everyone who contributed to this proud scene.
This situation made me think about the following question: “Why shouldn’t Money 20/20 be held in Istanbul? Couldn’t there be a Money20/20 Eurasia?” The organizers will probably answer this one.
I would like to thank Ilker Sozdinler and United Payment Team for their invitation to this event, which was filled with extremely satisfying content and collaboration opportunities.
Looking forward to other fruitful #FinTech events.
