Money 20/20 Middle East 2025
Last week, David Birch was back on the road at the first official Money 20/20 Middle East 2025 edition at the RECC, Malham, Riyadh, speaking about everything from resilience in payments to agentic commerce.
Fireside chat at Money 20/20 Middle East 2025: Rethinking Resilience in Modern Payment Systems
His first stage appearance this event was with Fime CEO, Lionel Grosclaude (Consult Hyperion are now the Consulting arm of Fime) on the Pulse stage. The pair have recently submitted a paper on this topic to the Journal of Payments Strategies and Systems which is due to be published next month.
This discussion explored the invisible fragility of global payment infrastructure, why redundancy isn’t resilience, and how institutions must evolve.
Speaking at Money 20/20 Middle East 2025: Deep Dive: Agents of Change: AI’s Role in Autonomous Finance
David’s next session was on the Executive Summit Stage where he was joined by Georgios Kolovos of Nvidia, Daniela Braga of Defined.AI and moderated by Jim Marous of The Financial Brand. From personal finance co-pilots to self-executing contracts, AI agents are becoming central to the financial experience this panel explored the architecture, ethics and opportunities behind agent-led innovation in fintech.
As spectator Sanjiv Purushotham summarised on LinkedIN:
“Amazing session. It just grabbed my attention as I walked past. Stopped, gawked and was just bowled over by the awesome session with Jim Marous, Georgie Kolovos, Daniela Braga and David Birch. Incredibly powerful and intelligent discussion on the massive change in the role of finance coming out of the sheer cold logic of AI.”
Fireside chat at Money 20/20 Middle East 2025: Are We Designing Systems for People or for Machines?
David Birch’s last stage at appearance at Money 20/20 Middle East 2025 was on the infamous Off The Record stage (exclusive, private area at Money20/20 events where industry leaders have candid, unscripted conversations under Chatham House Rules, meaning what’s said there doesn’t get published elsewhere. To ensure privacy and candor, attendees’ phones are collected and locked in pouches upon entry and are only returned upon exit, preventing any recording or media presence. This confidential space is for senior professionals to share sensitive insights and discuss challenges like regulation, AI, and global expansion openly, making it one of the most exclusive stages at Money20/20).
David was joined on stage by Andries Smit of inDrive and their session explored AI’s impact on trust, identity, fairness, and financial systems.
