Mette Gade, Chief Product Officer, Lunar
Tom with Mette Gade, Lunar
Mette Gade discussed how trust is evolving as banking becomes increasingly intelligent and automated.
Rather than positioning banks as advisers, she argued that the future lies in building invisible infrastructure that is reliable, secure and fast, while allowing customers to remain in control of their own financial decisions. AI should be used to provide clarity and insight rather than replacing human judgement.
The conversation explored how personalisation should focus on helping customers understand their own financial behaviours rather than directing them towards particular actions. By presenting spending patterns and useful comparisons, banks can support better decision making without becoming overly prescriptive.
Mette also highlighted the growing importance of collaboration across the industry in tackling fraud and financial crime. Sharing intelligence and identifying evolving fraud patterns collectively will become increasingly important as AI raises both the sophistication of attacks and customer expectations around security.
Looking ahead, she believes trust will continue to be built through countless small interactions, where customers remain informed, in control and confident that their bank will always provide secure and dependable financial services.
Breno Oliveira, Chief Product Officer, payabl.
with Breno Oliveira, Chief Product Officer, payabl.
Breno Oliveira explored the growing role of digital identity in reducing fraud while improving customer onboarding across Europe.
He explained that although digital identity will not eliminate fraud entirely, it represents an important step towards making payments both more secure and more convenient. Drawing on examples from the Baltic states, Breno highlighted how digital identity can streamline financial services while maintaining strong verification standards.
The discussion examined the challenges surrounding adoption of the European Digital Identity framework. Breno believes successful implementation will depend on regulatory alignment, robust infrastructure and selective disclosure, ensuring organisations only access the information required for each individual transaction.
The conversation also focused on data fragmentation within financial services. Breno argued that businesses already possess valuable data but often struggle to connect it effectively. AI has the potential to bridge these gaps, helping merchants make better decisions while improving fraud detection and customer experiences.
Looking ahead, he discussed the rise of agentic commerce and the need to establish trusted digital identities not only for individuals but also for AI agents acting on their behalf. As autonomous purchasing becomes more common, verifying both the customer and their authorised agents will become increasingly important.
Bankole Falade, Chief Legal, Regulatory Affairs and Public Policy Officer, Flutterwave
with Bankole Falade, Flutterwave
Bankole Falade shared his perspective on building payments infrastructure across Africa’s diverse regulatory landscape.
He explained that Flutterwave approaches each market individually, recognising that every country has its own regulatory framework, payment ecosystem and customer needs. Close collaboration with regulators and local stakeholders has become a fundamental part of the company’s infrastructure strategy rather than simply a compliance exercise.
The discussion explored what other regions can learn from Africa’s payments ecosystem. Without significant legacy infrastructure, African regulators and innovators have been able to build payment systems collaboratively, creating solutions such as mobile money and real time payments that have rapidly expanded financial inclusion.
Bankole also examined the growing role of stablecoins in cross border payments. While he believes stablecoins offer significant opportunities, he stressed the importance of harmonised regulation, interoperability and strong anti money laundering controls to ensure they develop safely across multiple jurisdictions.
Looking ahead, he identified global harmonisation as the industry’s biggest opportunity. A more connected payments ecosystem would allow businesses and consumers to move money across borders as seamlessly as mobile networks operate today.
Conny Ploth, Vice President, Global AI Transformation, Santander
with Conny Ploth, Santander
Conny Ploth discussed what it takes to become an AI native organisation, explaining that successful AI transformation extends far beyond deploying new technology. Instead, it requires embedding AI across every level of the business, equipping employees with the right tools while fundamentally changing the way organisations think about their processes and operations.
She highlighted Santander’s approach to AI adoption, from providing employees with generative AI and low code tools to identifying larger transformation programmes that span front office, back office and customer operations. Rather than viewing AI as an IT project, Conny argued that it should be treated as an organisation wide cultural transformation.
The conversation also explored the risks of implementing AI without first addressing inefficient processes. Simply adding AI to outdated workflows rarely delivers meaningful value. Organisations must first understand the root causes of inefficiency, build strong business cases and ensure AI is solving genuine problems rather than adding unnecessary complexity.
Looking ahead, Conny suggested that leaders will increasingly become managers of both people and AI agents. While AI will continue to automate routine tasks and improve productivity, she stressed that human oversight and trusted customer relationships will remain essential, particularly in high value financial services. She also emphasised the importance of industry collaboration, encouraging financial institutions to share research and innovation to strengthen fraud prevention and help build a more responsible AI ecosystem.
Antoine Dauchy, Head of Product Development, FLOA
with Antoine Dauchy, FLOA
Antoine Dauchy explored the challenge of balancing fraud prevention with customer experience in the buy now, pay later sector, where high approval rates are essential for both merchant growth and customer satisfaction.
He explained that false positives not only result in lost sales but can also damage merchant relationships, as providers must strike the right balance between accepting legitimate customers and protecting themselves from fraud. With tight margins across the BNPL industry, preventing losses remains critical without creating unnecessary friction.
The discussion highlighted how fraud within instalment payments differs from traditional card fraud. Rather than relying solely on stolen payment credentials, fraudsters increasingly exploit credit products by making an initial repayment before abandoning the remaining instalments. Antoine also outlined the growing challenges posed by synthetic identities, stolen identities and organised fraud networks, while noting that existing tools such as 3D Secure offer limited protection for recurring repayment models.
Operating across multiple markets adds further complexity, as fraud patterns often vary between regions and customer segments. Rather than applying the same controls everywhere, FLOA adapts its fraud models based on the behaviours and attack patterns it observes, allowing additional verification measures to be introduced only when required.
Looking ahead, Antoine believes agentic commerce and the continued growth of payment tokenisation will introduce a new generation of fraud challenges. As AI agents begin making purchases on behalf of consumers and payment credentials become increasingly tokenised, organisations will need to develop new approaches to customer verification while maintaining high approval rates and seamless payment experiences.
