The first Holland FinTech Meetup of 2018 was in partnership with Money 20/20 to welcome them to Amsterdam for their June conference and show. Money 20/20 is very keen to get to know the Dutch fintech ecosystem before they host the third Money 20/20.

The event is now in Amsterdam at the RAI, after two years in Copenhagen. The event gave us a sneak peak at what Money 20/20 may also be like, held also at the RAI and with a huge turn out of around 300 guests.

We stand together for spurring innovation.

Sophie Wawro, Event Director at Money 20/20 Europe, introduced Money 20/20’s project and said the Holland FinTech January Meetup was Money 20/20’s ‘Welcome to Amsterdam Party.’ It definitely had the party atmosphere with balloons decorating the venue and fast-paced agenda which kept everyone on their toes to the end. The party atmosphere was aided by the microphone cube which we enjoy throwing around the questions from audience.

Holland FinTech and Money 20/20 both want to help people and companies in the fintech industry to understand the increasingly international dynamics of the value chain. This allows us to see opportunities in the market.

To explain Money 20/20, we respond to quickfire questions:

What?

The future of money is the main concern. For 2018, banking and payments remain central to Money 20/20. In differentiator for Europe is regulation and regtech. This will be a ‘huge focus’ for 2018 Money 20/20.

Who?

Community building in the innovation and incumbent spaces is possible across the global platform. Money 20/20 seeks to bring together banks, payments solutions, NGOs, government branches, data companies, mobile, retailers, investors and more. In Amsterdam,  Money 20/20 is working with De Nederlands Bank (DNB) and Holland FinTech.

When and where?

The Money 20/20 conference will be help on the 4-6th of June at the RAI in Amsterdam.

Fireside chat with Don Ginsel and Pat Patel, Content Director of Money 20/20 Europe and Asia

Pat predicts that this year we will see the energy and bubbles of 2017 coming to the surface, resulting in accelerating innovation. He talked about the energy in Asia and particularly India where the ID and personal data system is blurring users’ social and financial lives. He said, ‘This has got to be the way forward, once we solve the data issue.’ Ideas of data protection are more conservative in Europe than in Asia.

Talking about 2018, Don’s drive is to deliver value to everyone. Holland FinTech’s member base is growing, so we are broadening our scope of events, research and insights. As part of this Don opened the discussion to the audience using an interactive audience survey. The screen then showed that Cybersecurity and open banking were the preferred themes of our audience. Also significant were the topics of DLT/Crypto, regtech and payments.

It is important to Pat to ‘create serendipity’ in the industry by bringing together different groups of people to ‘generate new ways of thinking’. Innovation reigns as king.