Reflections on Money 20/20 from Wise Platform

Since the doors closed on Money 20/20 Europe last week, our team at Wise Platform has been reflecting on what we shared, learned, and discussed over the course of 3 action-packed days in Amsterdam. As always, Money 20/20 was a unique opportunity to be surrounded by a thriving community of industry leaders and innovators, all working to bring customers the best possible financial solutions that suit their lives.

One of the key highlights of our experience at Money 20/20 every year is the opportunity to hear from our partners, old and new, as well as speak to companies looking to enhance their international payments offering with Wise Platform. We caught up with our friends at Bunq (who are celebrating their first year of profitability), BPCE, Wio, Temenos, Thought Machine and many more.

Beyond our current partners, we also engaged in insightful discussions with a range of individuals and companies about the ever-evolving landscape of fintech. This included a live discussion for the 11:FS podcast between Abid Mumtaz, Commercial Lead for Wise Platform, Ben Morfoot, Director of Product at GoCardless, David Singleton, CTO at Stripe, and David Brear, CEO at 11:FS, which covered the tricky question “How do we make back office payments processes sexy?”

Throughout the event, several key themes emerged, many of which resonate strongly with us at Wise Platform. The first theme was the pressing need to modernise payments infrastructure. As customer expectations evolve rapidly, the industry is becoming more committed to making the infrastructural changes necessary to serve consumers’ needs - whether that’s making payments move faster and cheaper, or embedding more solutions that bring the additional convenience of managing multiple areas of your finances in one place.

Going a step further, there was equally plenty of discussion around how we can help to transform the underlying plumbing of cross-border payments for the industry as a whole to better serve customers’ needs both domestically and internationally.

Wise fully embraces this philosophy; we have spent the last decade building an entirely new cross-border payments network that will one day power money without borders for everyone, everywhere. Thanks to Wise Platform, large companies and banks can leverage Wise’s technology and embed the best way to send, receive, and manage money internationally into their existing infrastructure. With over 60 partners worldwide, we save our partners time and money by allowing them to seamlessly bring fast, cheap, transparent and convenient cross-border payments to their customers.

Speaking of which… cross-border money movement emerged as another prominent theme at Money 20/20 Europe. It’s exciting to see such a variety of companies aimed at simplifying and optimising cross-border transactions for customers. They’re solving an important problem: customers are still too often subjected to hidden fees and slow processing of international transfers. At Wise, our mission is money without borders for everyone. To get there, we need the whole industry to get on board, and it feels like we’re on the right track.

Perhaps our most encouraging takeaway from Money 20/20 this year was the increasing openness of traditional players to embracing the potential of fintech partnerships. The mindset shift among established financial institutions was palpable in sessions and conversations throughout the course of the week. The value that fintechs like Wise bring to the table is becoming increasingly apparent, and this willingness to collaborate presents exciting opportunities for financial institutions of all sizes.

Money 20/20 Europe always provides an immersive and exciting opportunity to connect with the people and companies driving innovation in the sector. We engaged in lively conversations with entrepreneurs, industry leaders, partners and regulators, exchanging insights and perspectives on the future of finance.

The event reaffirmed the significance of modernising payments infrastructure, highlighted the ongoing potential for innovation in cross-border money movement, and underscored the growing openness of traditional players to embrace fintech collaborations. We are more motivated than ever to continue pushing boundaries and revolutionising the global payments industry.

Thank you to the organisers who put the event together - we’re already looking forward to Money 20/20 Vegas. See you there!