Before the main stage: Payments leaders set the tone in Amsterdam
While the fintech world gears up for three intense days of announcements and product launches at Money20/20 Europe, a quieter but no less strategic gathering took place at Amsterdam’s ARTIS Royal Hall.
The Pre-Money20/20 Event, hosted by PCN, the Amsterdam Payments Network, and the FAN Network, brought together a selective mix of payments professionals, enterprise executives, and startup founders to explore what’s really shaping the future of finance.
Backed by sponsors including NORBr, Fraud.net, Actuals.io, and SME finance provider Liberis, the event created space for CFOs and senior decision-makers to step back from the noise and reflect on the themes dominating their agenda: scaling secure payment infrastructure, navigating regulatory complexity, managing AI risk, and enabling responsible growth through better capital access.
The panel titled “Open Banking and New Payment Schemes: Real-World Perspectives from the Front Lines” offered a CFO-relevant deep dive into the operational realities of rolling out new payment rails across Europe.
Led by PCN CEO Rogier Rouppe van der Voort, the session featured insights from:
What emerged was a clear picture: while open banking is technically live, business adoption is still constrained by fragmentation, consumer hesitation, and compliance friction.
IKEA’s Schreijer emphasized the role of user trust and reliability in driving uptake, while Wayfair’s Gamba underscored the need for localized checkout flows backed by scalable architecture—an insight particularly relevant to finance leaders tasked with overseeing multinational P&L structures.
Anne Willem de Vries, CEO and Co-founder of Silverflow, offered a case study in building a modern card payment platform from the ground up.
Now a Mastercard principal member, Silverflow’s journey revealed the regulatory hurdles, licensing timelines, and infrastructure investment decisions finance leaders must factor into long-term payments strategy.
From securing PSD2 compliance to navigating relationships with incumbents, Silverflow’s story underscored a recurring theme: finance infrastructure is strategic, not operational.
De Vries also spoke about fundraising discipline, investor signalling, and hiring velocity—all with implications for finance teams managing both burn rates and growth targets.
Among the sponsors present was Liberis, whose CEO Rob Straathof will be contributing to two key discussions at Money20/20 Europe:
? Building Trust and Transparency with AI Agents (Briefing Stage, 15:30 – June 4)
? SME Finance & Supporting Growth (Horizon Stage, 12:10 – June 4)
We caught up with Rob on-site for a conversation about capital efficiency, the evolution of embedded lending, and the data signals CFOs need to assess SME risk in real time.
The event set the stage for what finance leaders will be hearing more about in the days ahead: AI’s operational implications, the path to harmonized payment rails, and the evolving role of financial leadership in enabling scalable, compliant innovation.
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