Money 20/20 Europe 2025
Last week, David Birch was back on the road at Money 20/20 Europe 2025 back on stage at the RAI, Amsterdam, speaking about everything from payments to digital identity to artificial intelligence (AI) with a host of friends new and old.
Speaking at Money 20/20 Europe 2025: Robot-to-Robot (R2R) Payments Are The New Frontier
His first stage appearance this year was with his good friend, Debbie Gamble – Group Head, Chief Strategy & Marketing Officer at Interac Corp on the Horizon stage in the Mastercard Lounge. The pair have a lot of experience sharing the stage together so the session did not disappoint!
David and Debbie discussed their paper on “Payments and Agentic Commerce: Exploring the business of robots paying robots” (which is now published in the Journal of Payments, Systems and Strategy) and helped the audience to understand the excitement around this new frontier for money.
Key takeaways brought to you by Money20/20’s Aiana:
“The future of payments will be driven by AI-to-AI transactions, where autonomous bots will handle routine financial tasks on behalf of consumers, eliminating the need for human intervention in most payment scenarios.
Digital public infrastructure for bots is crucial, requiring new frameworks for digital identity, smart wallets, and secure protocols that enable safe and efficient AI-to-AI financial interactions.
Businesses must fundamentally rethink their approach to payments, moving away from human-centric models to prepare for a world where bots negotiate, optimize, and execute transactions with minimal human involvement.”
As their friend, Andrew Vorster pointed out:
My favourite session at money2020 so far – David Birch kicking off with a history lesson about the American ice trade in the 1800’s followed by he and Debbie Gamble, ICD.D relating that back to how “Robot to Robot (R2R) Payments are The New Frontier” – entertaining and insightful wake-up call 💥💥💥
Moderating at Money 20/20 Europe 2025: Do I Have The Right To Be A Dog Online?
David’s next session was on the Summits Stage where he was joined by Marie Austenaa – Head of Digital Identity, Visa, Esther Makaay – VP of Digital Identity, Signicat and Lisa Forte – Partner, Red Goat Cyber. The panel unpacked the human rights and privacy questions behind Europe’s digital identity shift.
Key takeaways brought to you by Money20/20’s Aiana:
“Digital identity is about privacy preservation, not just anonymity, allowing individuals to control their data exposure and prove specific attributes (like age) without revealing full personal details.
The European Digital Identity Wallet aims to provide a secure, context-specific way to share credentials, enabling transactions that require verification while minimizing unnecessary personal information disclosure.
While promising, digital identity technologies require ongoing vigilance to ensure robust security and prevent potential misuse, with mutual authentication and data minimization being critical design principles.”
Panellist at Money 20/20 Europe 2025: A 1 in 50 story: Preventing Childhood Identity Theft
David Birch’s last stage at appearance at Money 20/20 Europe 2025 was again on the Summits Stage where this time he was joined by Aravind Narayan – Director of Digital Identity & Fraud Prop, LSEG Risk Intelligence and Riten Gohil – Digital Identity, Fraud & AML Orchestration Evangelist, Signicat. The team were brilliantly moderated by Renata Furst Galvao – Partner Manager, LSEG Risk Intelligence who bravely shared her won story of child identity theft and the struggles she went through to prove her innocence!
Key takeaways brought to you by Money20/20’s Aiana:
“Childhood identity theft is a widespread issue, with 1 in 50 children having their identity stolen, often by family members who have access to their personal information.
The current identity verification system is flawed, forcing victims to prove their innocence, and requires a complete reimagining of digital identity using cryptographic techniques and verifiable credentials.
Preventing child identity theft will require a comprehensive approach involving technological innovation, mandatory secure verification processes, and collaboration across industries to create a more robust digital identity ecosystem.”
Convera Podcast Recording: Stablecoins at Money 20/20 Europe 2025
After a million meetings with old friends and new, David Birch sat down with Akash Patel – Principal Product Manager, Convera to chat all things stablecoins for their upcoming podcast series.
