25 Jun 2024

GFT @ Money 20/20 in Amsterdam

Earlier this month (4-6 June), over 11,500 banking and fintech professionals descended on Amsterdam for Europe’s largest fintech and payments conference and in this GFT blog, I'll be sharing my experiences of this important industry event.

Simon Farmilo

Banking Partnerships Director

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Digital Transformation

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Money20/20, held in Amsterdam’s premiere events & expo center (The Rai), is a major calendar event for many of our GFT partners, clients and prospects. It was fantastic to join the team representing GFT at this year’s event alongside Paul Dukes (Sales Director, UK), Monika Kania (CRO, Poland) and Richard Kalas (Client Solutions Director, UK).

Whilst the event officially kicked off on the Tuesday morning, Tuum and Citi Ventures teamed up to run a launch event on the Monday evening and the GFT team were delighted to join in for the networking and pre-conference discussion.

Tuum, a 4th generation core-banking platform, is an exciting offering that is winning clients with its innovative technology and flexible approach. Citi Ventures have now become a key investor of Tuum.

On Tuesday morning, after checking in and grabbing our event passes, the GFT team got busy. Meetings ranged from partner discussions, to client engagements and analyst briefings, where we were able to provide positive updates on GFT’s recent success, including the very successful launch of Salt Bank in Romania, powered by the innovative Engine by Starling.

Transformation trends

Richard Kalas, in particular, was in hot demand regarding GFT’s partnership with Engine by Starling and he spoke on various panels and in media interviews alongside the Engine team.

From a speaker perspective on day 1, unsurprisingly it was AI that remained a key theme in many presentations, based on its potential to revolutionize everything from fraud detection to personalized financial services.

Once more, Richard participated in a studio filmed panel session talking alongside Microsoft, Mambu and Veripark on the subject of “Transformation Trends: AI in Financial Services”.

On Tuesday evening, Mambu invited the GFT team to its networking reception where we reflected together on the great momentum we're building in our partnership (Mambu is a popular 4th generation core banking platform with an impressive portfolio of clients worldwide). The evening also gave us a chance to meet a number of Mambu’s ecosystem partners.

Later, we moved nearby to join Visa and its networking reception where we met a number of Visa’s leadership team members in the EMEA region.

Core-Banking

On Wednesday, we joined Mambu’s stand as a ‘featured partner’. It was great for GFT to have a high-profile presence and continue several conversations with banks engaged in core banking transformation journeys.

A number of Wednesday’s panel discussions emphasized how embedded finance is breaking down traditional barriers and enabling new entrants to compete with established financial institutions. This trend is expected to grow, driven by advancements in API technologies and increased consumer demand for convenience and integrated services.

After a few more productive conversations, including with Google’s EMEA team, we visited a range of partner booths, notably Skaleet, an exciting core banking solution from France. Overall, there was a great feeling from core banking system partners who are seeking to collaborate more with GFT given our extensive experience and success in the core-banking space.

Wednesday evening saw the GFT team hosting Thought Machine for dinner, a chance to celebrate our successful and longstanding relationship.

Later, we felt we had to stop by Money20/20’s famous street party. This time the sun was shining, and it was fantastic to do socialize with the global banking community.