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In October, ������ϲʿ�����¼ PaymentsCompliance exhibited at in Las Vegas. The event took place across 4 days (Sunday - Wednesday) in Las Vegas. The Sunday was entirely focused on content and networking, and what was really encouraging to see was both the presence on the agenda and subsequent interest in the topic of compliance and regulation from the audience. The expo ran Monday - Wednesday, and ������ϲʿ�����¼ were placed right in amongst the buzz, with plenty of opportunities to have valuable conversations with attendees and other exhibitors throughout the event. Aside from this, the team had 20+ pre-booked meetings coming into the week and, again, the quality of the conversations was extremely high. 

The conference content covered essential areas, including artificial intelligence, open banking, alternative payment methods, crypto, blockchain, fintech, fraud, digital assets, and instant payments. There was a significant focus on how the US regulatory framework is fragmented and how recent proposals for open banking and FEDNOW are likely to shape the regulatory landscape in the USA. Additionally, a comparison was drawn between the instant payment models of the EU, UK, India, and Brazil. Brazil was cited as a leader in innovative instant payment methods, particularly with PIX and its recent features.

Many of the discussions focused on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and the regulatory landscape in the US, given the recent publications around data sharing rules and consumer protection. More specifically, we heard about consumer protection, the federal financial service policies often conflate consumer protection with financial inclusion, how developing a policy and regulatory framework for fintech innovation, blockchain, and digital assets is becoming increasingly important. The fact that there needs to be more progress from the regulatory side in addressing risk and consumer protection, and that there is a concern that policymakers have not prioritised accessibility and inclusion, was also addressed. 

“The payments market in the US is not as advanced as in the EU when it comes to payments, but open banking initiatives are expected to encourage innovation and competition. The discussions at Money 20/20 about consumer protection, payments innovations, and recent federal movements indicate that the US is following in the footsteps of countries like the EU in terms of fostering innovation in the financial sector to promote competition.”

- Viviane Giglio, Payments Compliance and Regulatory Lead & Director, ������ϲʿ�����¼

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Key highlights and challenges discussed:

1) Instant Payments (Global and US Overview)

An overview of real-time payments was discussed, including the adoption trends and the factors behind the adoption. Experts also spoke about predictions for FEDNOW, the real-time payment system in the US and how it compares to other similar systems across the world. It was agreed that, despite being released only this July, FEDNOW shows a lot of promise, and the US will likely learn from other countries, such as the UK, Brazil, and India, as local regulations continue to evolve.

2) Crypto (US overview)

It was clear from the conversations and content sessions at Money 20/20 USA that the cryptocurrency industry is undergoing rapid evolution. With recent regarding increased safeguarding requirements for qualified custodians, the entire crypto industry will be impacted. This proposal will require qualified custodians and asset managers to provide standard custodial protections for client assets, affecting asset managers and companies offering custody technology solutions. The US government's position on regulating cryptocurrency is unclear and frequently changing, creating challenges for crypto companies seeking to operate in the country.

3) Fraud (Global overview) 

Companies have been struggling to strike a balance between fraud prevention and authorisation rates while maintaining faster payment processing times. There have been discussions around the issue of Authorised Push Payment (APP) fraud and concerns around the financial losses which reach billions of pounds each year. According to PSR, £485.2 million was lost to APP scams in 2022, despite efforts to raise awareness and prevent scams. The problem continues to grow, especially in countries like the UK, which have already implemented real-time payment rails. Fragmentation has been a significant problem for fraud reduction, where there is a general opinion that the financial industry is not doing enough to share information that could help reduce fraudulent activities.

“In my opinion, there is still much to be done from the customer education side. I would even draw a parallel with the consumer duty rules in the UK that came into effect two months ago; one of the expectations was to ensure that the information provided through terms and conditions was easily understandable to all customers. After speaking to the panellists on this topic at Money 20/20, it’s clear there is still uncertainty regarding the actions being taken by the industry to address this.”

- Viviane Giglio, Payments Compliance and Regulatory Lead & Director, ������ϲʿ�����¼

4) AI (Global Overview)

During several sessions, the topic of AI, including generative AI, was extensively discussed to gain a better understanding of its transformative impact on the financial sector and the AI role when it comes to processing complex data, automating manual tasks, combating fraud, and extracting and analysing key insights to facilitate better decision-making. The use of generative AI (Chatgpt, OpenAIs, etc.) has been helping companies providing financial services to create personalised services, improving customer experience during interactions by learning from customer searches. Additionally, we heard conversations on AI-powered compliance solutions as a critical enabler to prevent fraud and money laundering by enhancing KYC capabilities during the beginning of the customer relationship. 

Overall, it was a fantastic experience that the ������ϲʿ�����¼ team is keen to repeat next year. Did you visit our stand, and not get a chance to speak to us? Get in touch so we can have the conversation.