Autumn is prime time for payments industry conferences. Experts from the Federal Reserve System and Federal Reserve Financial Services (FRFS) had a full schedule of learning, listening and networking this September and October. Here are highlights of the Fed’s presence at four key events this fall.
Sibos 2023
This year’s event attracted more than 8,000 global attendees. FRFS leaders participated in four panel discussions on topics that included modernizing tech infrastructures, innovative technologies (e.g., generative artificial intelligence, or AI) and adoption and harmonization of the International Organization for Standardization’s ISO® 20022 approach for use in a wide range of applications, from the FedNow® Service to securities market infrastructures. In addition, FRFS hosted an instant payments roundtable that brought together central banks and instant payment networks to discuss industry trends, including the role operators play in addressing fraud/scams, rules/standards and efficient payment processing times. Other high-level themes during the Sibos conference included instant payments adoption and cross-border payment trends.
Money20/20
Money20/20 is one of the largest annual fintech conferences. Attendees who engaged with FRFS team members at the exhibit hall booth and elsewhere expressed interest in learning about FedNow Service adoption progress, specific FedNow Service features (such as request for payment, confirmation of payee, etc.) and challenges facing non-banks before they can enable the FedNow Service for their financial institution customers. FRFS leaders also took to the stage in four well-attended speaking sessions, including three panels on instant payments and a talk on payments trends and the FRFS enterprise strategy that attracted standing room only attendance. In addition, fintech company and financial institution attendees discussed multiple ways they are working to make instant payments access — and knowledge about it — more widely available in the United States.
Association for Financial Professionals (AFP) 2023
Leaders from FRFS participated in five panel sessions, including a session about an increasing worry — scams that leverage fraudulent payments. In addition, instant payments were a popular topic at the FRFS exhibit hall booth and during other in-person conversations and conference sessions. Topics here ranged from “What does the FedNow Service do?” to business and consumer use cases — “Where and how can we use instant payments?” One example, paying employees immediately after their wages are earned — in other words, more frequently than every couple of weeks — was an agreed-upon benefit to improve both employee recruitment and retention. The Federal Reserve also joined a panel presentation on improving business-to-business payment efficiency through industry collaboration and recent progress (Off-site).
Chicago Payments Symposium
Leaders from across the payments industry spoke to a capacity crowd at the October 2023 Chicago Payments Symposium, Accelerating Innovation and Inclusion in Payment Networks (Off-site). Topics included global payments, instant payments, innovation, digital currency, how to anticipate future trends and cybersecurity.
Stay up to date by visiting FedPayments Improvement Events (Off-site) for information on upcoming live and virtual events featuring speakers from Federal Reserve Financial Services.
Note
The Federal Reserve Banks do not sponsor or endorse any non-Federal Reserve Bank-related products, parties or entities discussed in this publication.
