Cecabank, a wholesale bank that offers payment services under any scheme, has organised the "1st Payments Conference: a vision for the future"
The event featured the participation of representatives from public bodies, such as the European Central Bank, and leading executives from payment institutions and payment systems in Spain: Mastercard, VISA, Discover Financial Services, Iberpay, STMP, EURO 6000, Bizum and Cecabank
MADRID, 10 FEBRUARY 2023.- Cecabank, the Spanish wholesale bank that offers specialised services in securities, financial markets and payments, has organised at its headquarters in Madrid, the "1st Payments Conference: a vision for the future", which featured a total of fourteen speakers and four talks. The way we execute payments and monetary transactions has undergone a huge transformation over the past decade. New customer demands and the expansion of mobile payments entail profound operational, regulatory and technological changes that are impacting the business, together with major challenges such as the digital euro.
During the keynote speech, Juan José Gutiérrez, Cecabank's Corporate Director of Technology Services, pointed out the importance of payments as a driver of the economy and the role to be played by banks, which must rely on innovation and cooperation to continue to perform a relevant role in an increasingly disruptive environment. "Cecabank has distinguished itself as a payment provider by bringing together different banks to generate economies of scale and scope".
"The future of payments, global market" was the first round table discussion, moderated by Nuria Mohedas, Director of Payments and Digital Banking at Cecabank, with the participation of Paloma Real, CEO of Mastercard España, Eduardo Prieto, Country Manager at VISA, and Sara Villanueva, Country Manager International Markets at Discover Financial Services, which emphasised the importance of making payment security compatible with the necessary usability that will lead us to payments with less and less friction. Attention has been drawn to the major changes expected in the coming years, including the digital currencies of central banks, which, depending on how they are configured, are set to change the behaviour of stakeholders in the payments market.
The second debate forum, "The future of payments, domestic strengths", which brought together Juan Luis Encinas, Managing Director of Iberpay, Juan Carlos Martín Guirado, CEO of STMP, Ángel Nigorra, CEO of Bizum, and Anayansi Ramírez, CEO of EURO 6000, and was moderated by Julio César Fernández, Director of Business Development and Operational Support for Technology Services at Cecabank, highlighted that domestic schemes and solutions have an important role to play in the evolution of payments. The opportunities analysed include payment deferral, digitalisation of receipts, loyalty programmes in collaboration with retailers, as well as immediate payments and the extension of Bizum to new regions and uses. Spain leads Europe in the use of immediate payments, which now account for 49% of all transfers channelled in Spain.
The conference also featured talks by Ignacio Terol, Digital Euro Manager at the European Central Bank, on "The digital euro. The ECB's vision", and Ángel Pascual Ramsay, ESADE professor and Director Global Risks ESADE´s Center for Global Economy and Geopolitics, entitled "Geopolitical risk and payments". Both speakers addressed issues that are transversal to all payment instruments and which will affect the payments sector in the coming years.
José María Méndez, CEO of Cecabank, closed the conference by highlighting the role that Cecabank, as a wholesale bank for the financial sector, has been playing over the last ten years of banking transformation, both in the field of Securities Services and payments. "Cecabank is a one-stop shop for payments, which is ready to continue accompanying its customers through the changes ahead, blending alliances with strategic partners, expert knowledge and economies of scale".
This first Payments Conference has been established as a benchmark forum in the financial sector, bringing together the leading representatives of the main payment systems institutions in Spain and other financial sector experts with the aim of laying the foundations for the coming year in this segment. The event brought together more than 170 professionals from 80 entities.
Cecabank, a benchmark company in B2B financial and technological services
Cecabank offers access to all card schemes, Swift and national and international clearing houses. The bank stands out as a specialist provider of flexible and innovative solutions for retail payment processing, ATMs and mobile payment solutions.
In addition, its service offering ranges from comprehensive solutions for the management of payments, exchanges and bill discounting to foreign exchange solutions for international payments, through the Global FX Payments service, as well as dynamic currency conversion solutions for retailers and ATMs, using the latest technology in artificial intelligence. The availability of Swift's Service Bureau solution and Cecabank's network of correspondents enables customers' payments to be sent anywhere in the world. And because it is a bank, Cecabank guarantees the highest standards of security and regulatory compliance.
In line with this, Cecabank, in its role as a wholesale processing bank, has processed more than 1,000 million card transactions issued by financial institutions and 123 million Bizum transactions.
