バンキング・アズ・ア・サービス、ペイメント・トランスフォーメーション、中央銀行デジタル通貨：マドリッドで開催されたEBAday 2023におけるホットトピック

I recently attended EBAday 2023 in Madrid, the Euro Banking Association’s (EBA) annual summit for leading payments and transaction banking executives. The EBA is an industry forum for the European payments industry with close to 200 member banks and organisations from the European Union and around the world aimed at fostering and driving pan-European payment initiatives.

I always enjoy the event because it allows me to listen to some of the most senior European transaction banking and payments executives and hear firsthand what’s on their minds. This year’s event was no different. Some of the thought-provoking sessions and topics that were top of mind were banking as a service (BaaS), payments transformation, and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs),

The Rise of Banking-as-a-Service

I was honored to moderate a panel discussion on Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS). My panelists represented BPCE Payments Partnerships, PagoNxt Trade (A Santander company), BNP Paribus Global Cash Management, and Infosys Finacle Cash Management. The discussion centered around the benefits of BaaS for financial institutions, the potential for increased efficiency and new sources of revenue, as well as possible risks.

Payments Transformation

Not surprisingly for an organization that drives payment initiatives, several sessions discussed payments transformation, ranging from payments-as-a-service (PaaS), immediate cross-border payments, instant payments adoption, and real-time payment system interoperability. The keynote speaker, Carlos A. Sanz Luengo, head of payment systems, Bank of Spain, said that central banks are becoming increasingly concerned about privacy, cybersecurity, and reliability and are adapting policies to ensure that payments remain resilient, efficient, and inclusive. With the recent interest of the G20 in cross-border instant payments, panelists discussed the need to envision customer-centric propositions. PaaS panelists focused on reducing friction in payment processing, aiming towards the most efficient and standardized way of processing a payment in the cheapest way possible.

The Outlook for CBDCs in Europe

Panelists from Nexi, Deutsche Bank, J.P. Morgan (JPM), European Central Bank (ECB), and Quant discussed the outlook for CBDCs in Europe. Quant discussed their role as part of the vendor team for Project Rosalind, which has been testing how APIs can facilitate retail payments in CBDCs. The ECB is investigating whether to issue a retail-focused Digital Euro, a central bank digital currency, as an electronic equivalent to cash. JPMC discussed wholesale CBDCs, potentially used to settle large-value transactions between financial institutions, such as interbank transfers and securities transactions. One poll during the session asked the audience, “Why are wholesale CBDC’s needed?”

Most respondents said they aren’t needed, as we already have solutions such as real-time gross settlement (RTGS). Others felt that they could reduce costs and ease cross-border issues.

As I met with Celent's clients, they also expressed concern about a Digital Euro, the rise of Virtual Accounts 2.0, and upcoming legislation around PSD3, UK Open Finance, and a potential mandatory IBAN Name Check. Look for a forthcoming Celent report discussing these emerging themes from EBAday 2023.