SPEAKER

David Birch is an expert in the field of digital financial services and an accomplished speaker who not only delivers outstanding opening or closing keynotes but also works hard to make your event a success by leveraging social media and other channels.

David Birch educating on stage at The Banking Scene Event

Educate

Workshops and moderating – David Birch is an experienced moderator capable of bringing out the best in his panellists and has chaired at Money 20/20 around the world, Mobile World Congress, Merchant Payment Ecosystems and SIBOS. His workshops are known for being both educational and fun, helping both individuals and organisations to evolve their strategic responses to key digital finance trends.

Inform

David’s content is backed by years of pragmatic support for leaders in the fields of digital identity and digital money. A TEDx speaker, author of three books with a fourth on the way, a long time Forbes contributor and Financial World columnist, he writes well-respected blogs and white papers, is an in-demand podcast guest and is frequently interviewed for global television, radio and online media.

Entertain

David is renowned for his ability to entertain audiences both virtually and in person whilst delivering serious messages and explaining often complex topics in an engaging manner for global, multi-cultural audiences.

HOW TO BOOK

To book David for any online or in person event, please complete the form on our Contact page, or email us direct at enquiries@dgwbirch.com.

Contact Us

It was great working with you! We very much appreciated your insight and natural skill on stage keeping the room engaged.

Chloe Bass

Marketing Director - Operations, LexisNexis Risk Solutions

David was fantastic. He was well prepared and provided a magnificent session. It was wonderful. David is clearly knowledgeable and gave us the most amazing insights of all! It was one of the most interesting sessions this week.

CEO, African Bank

From the 5 star feedback we have had, I think it is fair to say that the event was a huge success. Demand for the topic was enormous and we saw a lot of new faces as well as existing experts in the field!

Helen Disney

Founder & CEO, Unblocked

On behalf of the Organizing Team, for the 6th Annnual Fitspa Conference 2024, I thank you for delivering a phenomenal Speaker and person in Dave Birch. There was more knowledge than time and conversations continue to unpack his delivery online and offline.

Tinah Byaruhanga

Program & Activities Lead, Fitspa

I’m very disappointed not to have had the opportunity to see your keynote as I’ve had rave reviews from multiple people! Thank you for your valuable contribution.

Andrew Vorster

Head of Growth, The Banking Scene

Best speaker at MPE is Dave Birch! Calls it as it is and no bs taken from other speakers! #mpe2019

Kevin Murphy

He truly is a master of informative, entertaining and thought provoking speeches.

Mel Tsiaprazis

Sharp

I had the enormous pleasure of hearing David Birch for the first time at Digital Jersey yesterday. Not only does he talk sense he lulls the audience in to a false sense of security by pretending that he’s doing stand up.

Miranda

Sharp

How #identity can be explained by what sounds like standup comedy from the extraordinary @dgwbirch – but isn’t. Dead serious, lucid analysis.

Andrew Bud

Dave is a great speaker and has profound insights, sometimes dressed as jokes. They remain profound.

Clara Durodie

Such an entertaining and thought-provoking presentation, thank you!

PaymentsNZ

Dave was, as always, absolutely fantastic! His presentation was engaging and we had a very stimulating panel discussion. It is always such a pleasure with Dave.

Liza Beach

PaymentsNZ

Dave Birch gave one of the most hilarious and original talks I ever listened to.

Matteo Rizzi

Co-Founder, Swift Innotribe

A hybrid of a late night entertainment show and eureka-moment… unique humor and vision.

Frank Muller

Editor, Paytechlaw

Thanks a lot Dave for today’s conversation. It was extremely inspiring!

Dominika Blaszak

Net Guru

The No 1 Storyteller in Fintech today.

Breaking Banks Radio Show

It was very much appreciated that our guests could continue to talk with you during the subsequent breaks and lunch… and of course many attendees told me you were their favorite speaker!

Thibault de Barsy

Payments Association EU

We enjoyed the introduction to the world of tokens. Thought provoking which is what we wanted.

Payments Company

Thanks for taking the time to do the podcast with us today Dave. There was clearly mileage for a lot more discussion!

Passfort Podcast

Thanks Dave – super interesting and provocative which we like!

Insurance Company

It was a pleasure to have you at the conference and your opening keynote definitely hit the spot.

Ian Lancaster

Reconnaissance International

David is also fortunate to have been invited to speak and commentate on radio, TV and digital media with global coverage.

Typical talking points include Digital Identity, Agentic AI, Stablecoins, AI Payments, Open Banking, Digital Financial Services, Payments, Fintechs/Techfins, Cryptocurrencies, Central Bank Digital Currencies, Blockchain, NFTs, Tokens etc.

All David’s keynotes are personalised to your event and audience and are designed to encourage delegates to be left inspired debating what they need to do next in their industry.

Here are a few examples of David in action:

CNN: David Birch on the Michael Smerconish show

In London, a mobile phone is stolen every 6 minutes. "If I steal your phone, I'm stealing a thousand dollars," says digital identity expert David Birch. But "If I can get into your bank account, I can steal $100,000. So that's what they really want."https://t.co/NI4Dz1ubkY
— Michael Smerconish (@smerconish) June 16, 2024

2026 Key Themes

Five Strategic Drivers Shaping Digital Financial Services

This keynote offers a sharp, strategic view of the five forces shaping financial services right now: AI, resilience, digital identity, digital assets and stablecoins. It explains why these are not separate technology trends, but tightly coupled drivers that together reshape how trust is created, how risk propagates and how value moves.

Incorporating recent work on resilience with Lionel Grosclaude, the talk makes the case that resilience has moved from the operational margins to the strategic core. AI determines who makes decisions, digital identity determines who is allowed to act, digital assets and stablecoins redefine what money is – and resilience determines whether the system holds together when it is stressed. A concise, board-level perspective on what really matters next, and why.

Agentic ID: KYA - the Key to Agentic Finance

As finance becomes automated, the most important question is no longer “Who are you?” but “Who is acting for you?” This keynote explores why Agentic ID: Know Your Agent (KYA) is the missing foundation of agentic finance. Drawing on my paper with Jelena Hoffart, it explains how intelligent agents making decisions, moving money and negotiating on behalf of humans and organisations fundamentally break today’s KYC, authentication and liability models.

If banks are going to serve bots, regulators are going to regulate bots, and wallets are going to be operated by bots, then those agents must have identity, authority, accountability and constraints. This talk sets out what Agentic ID actually means in practice, why it is central to trust in AI-driven finance, and why without it, agentic finance is not innovative – it’s simply dangerous.

What will Agentic Commerce Mean for Payments & Money?

Agentic commerce marks the moment when transactions stop being initiated by people and start being executed by machines. This keynote explores what happens when intelligent agents negotiate, buy, sell and pay other agents at speed, at scale and without humans in the loop, drawing on my paper with Debbie Gamble.

As agents become economic actors, wallets become autonomous and money shifts from a passive store of value into an active control system. The talk explains what this means for banks, payment providers and regulators — and why the biggest change is not new technology, but a fundamental rethink of how money works when software, not people, is doing the shopping.

Your Banks AI Strategy is Wrong

Banks are racing to deploy AI to cut costs, automate call centres and polish the digital lipstick on the same old products. That’s a mistake. This keynote argues that the real AI revolution in banking does not come from banks using smarter machines, but from customers doing so. Drawing on my work with Kirsty Rutter on non-human customers, the talk explores a near-future in which your “customers” are no longer people at all, but intelligent agents acting on their behalf – bots that compare, negotiate and transact relentlessly in pursuit of financial health. In that world, brand, loyalty and margin look very different, and many current AI strategies are not just inadequate but actively misdirected. This keynote sets out what changes when banks stop selling to humans and start serving machines, and why getting this wrong is an existential error, not a technology one.

2025 Key Themes

Five Key Technology Drivers in Digital Financial Services

A concise exploration of how five interconnected technologies (AI, digital identity, tokenisation, the metaverse and quantum computing — combine to reshape digital financial services, with trust and identity as the critical linchpin.

KYA: New Approaches to Digital Identity in the Era of AI

Why “Know Your Agent” is the next evolution of digital identity – shifting trust, accountability and risk management from verifying people to governing the AI agents that now act, decide and transact on their behalf.

Will Robots Need Credit Cards? - The Rise of Agentic Commerce

A forward-looking exploration of how agentic AI will drive machine-to-machine commerce, autonomous wallets and new payment rails, and what financial institutions must do as robots start paying robots.

Why Customer AI, Not Bank AI, Changes Everything

This shift raises profound questions about the future role of banks. Given that digital identity is a key enabler in this AI-driven future, allowing consumers to engage securely and seamlessly with various financial services perhaps gives a clue to the future role of banks.

2024 Key Themes

Metamoney: Virtual Worlds, Web3, Digital Identity

This presentation explains the metaverse as the convergence of virtual worlds, digital assets and digital identity, and shows why the trading of digital assets inevitably creates economies that pull financial services into web3-era proto-metaverses.

Really Smart Wallets: The Next Frontier Of The Global Economy

This presentation cuts through the hype to explain what the metaverse is, why it now matters to financial services, where real value will be created, and why the wallet will sit at the centre of the consumer experience.

Data, Payments, ID: The Digital Infrastructure That Every Country Needs

This presentation explains how the data economy really works, debunks the myth that “data is the new oil,” and sets out a concise manifesto for regulators and financial services to create shared value from data.

Innovation In Digital Finance: Where Should Strategists Focus?

This presentation uses findings from the Payments Innovation Jury’s global survey to highlight current innovation sentiment and identify three areas where progress can be accelerated.