The PAY360 Conference 2023
The Clear Junction team recently attended The Payments Association’s PAY360 Conference 2023, which took place at London’s Old Billingsgate Market on 21 and 22 March 2023. This year saw Clear Junction become a Silver Sponsor of the conference for the second time and while it might be pure coincidence, this year’s event was the best yet!
We have long known that The Payments Association is capable of putting on some of the best payments events anywhere in the world. Last year, there was the Digital Currencies 360 event, which took place at the Business Design Centre in London and was a huge success – not least because of the havoc the pandemic played the previous year. So the entire Clear Junction team was very much looking forward to what is often the highlight of the year – The Payments Association’s PAY360 Conference.
This year’s conference was a little different for Clear Junction – not only were we a Silver Sponsor again, we also decided it made perfect sense to exhibit there; what better way to meet and greet financial institutions who could reap the rewards of partnering with Clear Junction to access the various payments solutions we offer across our platform!
PAY360 CONFERENCE 2023 PANEL SESSION
In addition to sponsoring the event and exhibiting there, our CEO, Dima Kats, was also invited to participate in a panel session. The session was entitled ‘Determining effective regulation for digital currencies’ and featured speakers from the Financial Conduct Authority, Kraken and JP Morgan.
It was a lively session to say the least and judging by the numbers in attendance and their response to the discussion, it was very well received. There were many talking points, including whether cryptocurrencies should be regulated as high-risk securities; can CBDCs and stablecoins eliminate some of the risks of crypto; what might be the unintended consequences of digital currencies in the UK; and should payment systems rely on a trusted central authority.
The different viewpoints provided food for thought for all concerned, and it was interesting to see the participants arrive at the same questions from different perspectives. The next year or two will certainly reveal more about the state of digital currencies and whether they will be regulated, so the panel discussion will serve as a backdrop to developments in the future.
OTHER SESSIONS AND SPEAKERS
Of course, there were many other sessions and speakers across an extraordinarily broad range of subjects. Given that we were exhibiting, team members had to take turns to join the audience for the topics that particularly appealed to them. The beauty of events such as these is that while our team were there to explain the benefits of working with Clear Junction and how we can help financial institutions realise their growth ambitions, there was also ample opportunity for us to consider various ideas and perspectives from the wider world of payments.
The hope is that we take these learnings and considerations and use them to inform future products and services we develop. So much of recent history has been spent speaking to people via screens, but it can hardly be overstated how much better it is to meet with people face to face and have informal chats.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Having attended various other Payments Association events in the past, our expectations for this year’s PAY360 Conference were high to say the least. However, it is fair to say that every team member went away feeling that the two days had surpassed what was expected. It really was a brilliant couple of days, with many key learnings and new relationships formed.
It only remains for us to say that we could not be more excited about the 2024 event, which is changing venue to ExCel London on 19 and 20 March 2024. Roll on next year!