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Payments leaders set the tone before the main stage – Money 20/20 Europe

Before the fintech fest began, a quieter gathering set the tone. At Amsterdam’s ARTIS Royal Hall, payments leaders, retailers, and startup founders exchanged real-world lessons on trust, scale, fraud, and the uneasy alliance between AI and compliance. From Silverflow’s scale-up story to IKEA and Wayfair’s checkout challenges, here’s what went down before the main stage at Money20/20 Europe.

  • Editorial Team
  • June 2, 2025
  • 4 minutes

While the fintech world gears up for three intense days of announcements, product launches, and networking at Money20/20 Europe, an invitation-only gathering at Amsterdam’s ARTIS Royal Hall gave the industry a quieter space to start the conversation.

Organized by PCN, the Amsterdam Payments Network, and the FAN Network, the Pre-Money20/20 Event brought together a tightly curated group of payments professionals and startup founders for a late afternoon of panels, food, and meaningful exchanges — away from the noise.

Backed by sponsors like NORBr, Fraud.net, Actuals.io, and SME finance provider Liberis, the event served as both a runway for what’s to come and a litmus test for what’s top of mind in payments today.

And what’s top of mind? Trust, scale, fraud, and the uneasy marriage of AI and compliance.

Front-Line Lessons from Open Banking & New Payment Schemes

The first panel of the afternoon — Open Banking and New Payment Schemes: Real-World Perspectives from the Front Lines — brought together key voices from across the payments stack: scheme builders, retailers, product leads, and payments facilitators.

Moderated by Rogier Rouppe van der Voort, CEO of PCN, the discussion moved quickly from high-level ambition to on-the-ground friction.

Ivo Broeren of the European Payments Initiative (EPI) opened with an update on how Europe’s homegrown scheme is evolving and what it’s learning from real implementation.

The shift from pilot to scaled payments product is messy, he admitted, and local adaptation remains a challenge.

From the merchant side, IKEA’s Melvin Schreijer shared practical lessons from embedding open banking into their payments offering.

Convenience and cost matter, but without instant reliability and minimal cognitive load for customers, adoption will stall.

Isabel Ugurlu of Riverty added a view from the payments facilitation side, emphasizing the need for ecosystem-wide alignment — especially when compliance standards differ across markets.

Wayfair’s Matteo Gamba brought the global e-commerce perspective, noting that even as customers demand frictionless payments, they’re still highly sensitive to trust signals.

For global retailers, he argued, success lies in the micro-tuning of checkout experiences based on behavioral signals — not just flashy payment logos.

What became clear: while open banking and local schemes are technically live in many markets, they’re still finding their feet with real users. The hype has been replaced by a tougher phase — operationalising at scale, across borders, in real time.

Founder Interview: Silverflow

Next up,  Anne Willem de Vries, Co-founder and CEO of Silverflow, for a founder interview hosted live on stage by FAN Network’s Victor Bacre.

Over the course of the conversation, Anne Willem recounted Silverflow’s journey from startup to Mastercard principal member, expanding from Europe into the US and Asia Pacific.

He spoke candidly about the regulatory and technical hurdles involved in building a card network integration platform — from securing a PSD licence to navigating relationships with Visa and Mastercard — and how Silverflow turned these challenges into a product advantage.

The session also explored Silverflow’s approach to fundraising and hiring. Anne Willem shared practical lessons on maintaining discipline in overheated markets, the benefits of bringing early angels into later rounds, and why he still believes in making hiring decisions within 24 hours.

“People like certainty,” he said. “And when you move fast, it sends a clear signal that you want them on board.”

Silverflow now supports gateways, banks, and commerce platforms by enabling direct connections to card networks — a proposition Anne Willem believes helps payment players differentiate not on price, but product.

The panel also touched on global expansion strategy, with Anne Willem outlining the company’s criteria for market entry across Europe, the US, and Southeast Asia. His takeaway? Treat fundraising as an ongoing process, and build for scale early.

Checking In with Liberis

Among the event sponsors was Liberis, whose CEO Rob Straathof was on-site and preparing for two major panels on Tuesday at Money20/20 Europe:

  • 🧠 “Beyond the Hype: Building Trust and Transparency with AI Agents” alongside Google Cloud and Softcat
    ⏰ 15:30 | Briefing Stage, RAI

  • 💼 “SME Finance & Supporting Growth” with eBay
    ⏰ 12:10 | Horizon Stage

We caught up with Rob at the event to talk embedded finance, capital access, and what SMEs really need from funding partners.

Keep an eye on those sessions — they’re set to bring practical insights on how fintech can meaningfully serve the small business economy.

We’re looking forward to officially kicking off Money20/20 Europe tomorrow — and we’ll be on the ground every day.

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