How can Europe’s commercial banks and payment firms harness the power of programmability to transform the way money moves and operates? The Quant team returned to the Euro Banking Association’s annual summit for leading payments and transaction banking executives last month with answers.
Last month, members of the Euro Banking Association gathered in Paris for their annual conference. Several members of the Quant team attended – as both exhibitors and speakers – to share their perspectives.
Over the course of the two-day event, the Quant team met delegates at our stand to share more about our work on the Regulated Liability Network, the Digital Euro and how Europe’s commercial banks and payment firms could leverage our technology to power programmable accounts, automate workflows and unlock innovative use cases.
As well as our presence at the event, our Founder and CEO, Gilbert Verdian, joined a panel of experts in a session on day one: ‘Optimising the fintech-bank collaboration’ to discuss what a successful partnership looks like, the challenges that can arise and how to overcome them.

Moderated by Teresa Connors, Payment Matters, the other panellists were Alistair Brown, Global Head of Open Banking & Payments, EPAM, Jenni Himberg-Wild, Barclays and Karim Ahmad, Bain & Company.
Teresa began by asking whether fintechs can now be considered a pillar of modern banking systems, to which Gilbert responded: “For banks, resilience, security and compliance are critical. By partnering with an agile fintech, banks can innovate and bring in change using a partner’s model, rather than doing it holistically within the bank.”
Similarly, Jenni highlighted the benefits of partnership from a bank’s perspective, “they are a commercially attractive way of engaging with the wider ecosystem. There is an opportunity cost if banks don’t do it.”
So, what makes a partnership successful for both parties? “Banks gain capabilities they don’t currently have, but for fintechs, partnership is the holy grail, it creates a step function change by allowing them to access the distribution of a bank,” said Karim.
The conversation then shifted to how the partnerships between banks and fintechs has evolved. Alastair pointed out that historically, there has been confrontation between the two. However today, both parties recognise the relationship to be mutually beneficial.
Looking to the future, Gilbert echoed Alastair’s point, “fintechs were once seen as a competitor, but through collaboration and identifying the right business case, banks now recognise how beneficial partnership can be,” he continued “we’re now seeing a new threat from Big Tech. As a result, we may see banks using fintech as a competitive advantage to compete with these new entrants.”
Legacy technology was introduced as a topic, with Teresa asking whether this can be an issue for banks. Gilbert added, “The financial system was developed back in the 1960s, and has been running on the same rails since – because it has to be resilient. However, now we’re seeing a shift from electronic money to digital money, with the introduction of programmability that is creating new rails that will co-exist alongside our legacy tech.”

Teresa then asked Karim to share his perspective on this from a global standpoint. “Across the global landscape, partnership differs considerably. The ones that are successful are the ones who can keep up with the pace of change by balancing regulation, market momentum and a supply of ideas.”
The panel discussion concluded by identifying what makes a fintech-bank partnership a success. Gilbert had a clear message: “Ultimately, it’s about making the customer look good internally, and it’s about ensuring that the bank’s objectives are valid and achievable. Success requires a win-win mindset in everything you do.”
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