Tom Golding – Chief Operating Officer, LSEG Risk Intelligence
chatting with Tom Golding, LSEG Risk Intelligence
Tom Golding kicks off the episode with an in-depth look at the rapid pace of change in the payments and financial crime landscape. According to Tom, the past two years have brought more complexity and transformation than the previous decade. The rise of faster, seamless payments and client expectations have contributed to operational challenges and increased vulnerability to fraud.
Tom explores how regulatory divergence – especially between the US, EU, and UK – is creating greater challenges for global financial institutions. Sanctions regimes have become more fragmented, and organisations are required to respond faster than ever to changes such as executive orders or new enforcement guidelines.
On the technology front, Tom characterises AI as a “triple-edged sword”, enabling innovation, enhancing operational efficiency, but also expanding the attack surface for bad actors. AI offers a significant opportunity to redesign compliance models – moving away from linear workflows to more real-time, adaptive systems. However, the regulatory and governance frameworks are not keeping pace with the technology, and this presents a real challenge for those deploying AI in financial crime prevention.
A key takeaway from Tom at Sibos? For organisations to benefit from AI, they must first take control of their data. Strong, timely, and structured data is no longer an afterthought – it’s the foundation for any successful AI-enabled compliance strategy.
Sulabh Agarwal – Managing Director, Global Head of Payments, Accenture
with Sulabh Agarwal, Accenture
Sulabh Agarwal brings a forward-looking perspective on the payments landscape, predicting that the next 3 to 5 years will bring richer customer experiences, more payment options, and a greater role for intelligent agents. These agents, powered by AI, could soon automate financial decisions for consumers – from optimising savings to making investment choices – based on pre-defined instructions and trust frameworks.
He highlights the potential of agentic AI in enhancing convenience, while also raising questions around security, permissions, and fraud prevention. Sulabh notes recent industry momentum, referencing new protocols being developed by major players like Google and Stripe.
In addition to agentic AI, Sulabh points to the growing influence of stablecoins, CBDCs and tokenised deposits in delivering real-time, programmable settlements. Meanwhile, cloud infrastructure has become the baseline for innovation, with firms exploring multi-cloud strategies to improve resilience and compliance.
AI is also becoming integral across the entire transformation journey – from strategy and development to marketing and operations. But with this transformation come new risks. Fraud, especially APP fraud, is rising with the growth of real-time payments. Financial institutions must not only invest in AI, but also ensure their defences evolve at pace with technological advancement.
Elena Philipova – Director, Sustainable Finance & Investment, LSEG Data and Analytics
with Elena Philipova, Director, LSEG Data & Analytics
Elena Philipova offers a timely and passionate perspective on the state of ESG and sustainable finance. Far from being a fading trend, she argues that sustainability is now about rethinking business models to remain competitive and resilient in the face of macroeconomic, digital and regulatory change.
While media scrutiny and political discourse around ESG have intensified, Elena views this as a positive development. It is helping to move sustainability discussions beyond marketing and into the boardroom, where meaningful, strategic decisions are made.
She addresses concerns about the burden of sustainability reporting, particularly under the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). Elena emphasises that when done correctly – not as a box-ticking exercise – ESG reporting can unlock long-term strategic value, helping firms manage risks and uncover new opportunities.
Data remains a core challenge, with availability still patchy across many sustainability topics. Elena sees mandatory reporting standards like those from the IFRS’s ISSB and the EU’s CSRD as key to improving the quality and consistency of ESG data.
Her message to companies: get on the journey now. Emerging market SMEs are already investing in ESG capabilities, and those who delay risk falling behind. Building in-house expertise and scalable reporting processes will be a competitive differentiator in the years to come.
Toine van Beusekom – Strategy Director, Icon Solutions
Toine van Beusekom, Icon Solutions
Toine van Beusekom discusses the state of the payments ecosystem as the industry reaches the final stages of ISO 20022 regulatory deadlines. While most banks are technically ready for today’s traffic, the real test lies ahead: Can these systems handle the scale of the future?
Toine urges financial institutions to step back and assess whether they’ve built the right infrastructure, not just to comply with regulations, but to leverage ISO 20022 for long-term strategic value. With real-time payments now a reality, resilience and performance at scale become critical.
He highlights the potential risks of unprepared infrastructure, referencing publicised outages and the need for documented ecosystems and efficient operating models. Additionally, the conversation touches on fraud prevention and the increasing need for banks to function as trust institutions. In a world of stablecoins and emerging digital currencies, trust may evolve from a baseline expectation into a differentiating, premium service offering.
Andrew Blair – Head of Global Solutions, Kyriba
Andrew Blair, Kyriba
Andrew Blair provides insight into how Kyriba is helping corporates improve liquidity performance by solving long-standing friction in treasury operations. He explains how Kyriba evolved from an e-banking platform into a sophisticated solution addressing cash visibility, forecasting, and payments execution.
Ahead of his Sibos panel session on front-end payments transformation, Andrew emphasises the importance of the end-user experience. This includes not just the application interface but also the richness and accessibility of payments data. APIs are key enablers of real-time access and automation, but still face challenges in standardisation.
Andrew also explores how AI is already influencing treasury and payments. Use cases such as fraud detection, payment routing optimisation and workflow orchestration are just the beginning. He notes the pace of AI adoption is accelerating rapidly, with significant progress seen even within months of launching Kyriba’s own trusted AI solution.
On emerging risks, Andrew warns of the growing complexity around alternative currencies like crypto and the necessary oversight that must accompany them. He believes regulation and human oversight will remain essential, at least in the short-to-medium term, as innovation unfolds.
Radha Suvarna – Chief Product Officer, Finastra
Radha Suvarna, Finastra
Radha Suvarna offers a global view of the evolving cross-border payments space. He outlines three horizons of development: traditional Swift-based transfers, emerging alternatives like Visa Direct and Thunes, and now a third horizon featuring regional real-time payment interconnections and stablecoin-based solutions.
Radha highlights several key initiatives reshaping the landscape, including the ASEAN Regional Payments Connectivity (RPC), the Nordic P27 project, and the Bank for International Settlements’ Project Nexus. He also touches on Finastra’s collaboration with Circle on stablecoin-powered cross-border payments.
While this diversification of options offers exciting opportunities, it also introduces complexity. Radha suggests that different payment methods will need to coexist, driven by specific customer needs around speed, cost and transparency.
For banks to succeed in this environment, Radha stresses the need to modernise their payment processing engines. He describes how Finastra is helping institutions decompose and modularise their payments architecture to allow for flexible routing, compliance, and future adaptability. This foundation is crucial for experimenting with innovations like AI and for adapting to whichever rails and standards ultimately prevail.
