#18: The Future of Money and Payments: Balancing Innovation, Regulation, and Resilience

12 Dec

12th December 2024

With:

| Matthew Hunt (Deloitte, Currency Research)

| Valeria Gallo (Deloitte)

| Ben Thornhill (Deloitte)

In Session #18, Matthew Hunt, Valeria Gallo, and Ben Thornhill from Deloitte provide a strategic deep dive into the forces reshaping the financial nervous system. As we move through 2025, the industry is shifting from a focus on individual "innovation pilots" toward building a unified, resilient ecosystem.

The discussion centers on the "Great Convergence": the point where real-time payment rails (like FedNow and the UK’s New Payments Architecture), digital assets (stablecoins and tokenized deposits), and AI-driven operations meet. Our guests explore the delicate act of "Regulatory Recalibration"—how authorities in the UK and EU are attempting to foster competition through PSD3 and the National Payments Vision while simultaneously tightening the screws on operational resilience and fraud liability.

This Session Covered:

The New Baseline: Why real-time, 24/7/365 settlement is no longer a "feature" but the foundational requirement for modern financial market infrastructure (FMI).
Stablecoins to Utility: Analyzing the shift of digital assets from speculative instruments to core treasury tools for instant cross-border liquidity.
Programmable Compliance: How modular policy engines are beginning to automate regulatory logic directly into the payment flow, reducing the manual burden of AML and KYC.
The AI Double-Edged Sword: Assessing the efficiency gains of Agentic AI in liquidity management versus the systemic risks of AI-powered "super-scams."
Positive Friction: Re-thinking consumer protection by introducing intelligent, data-driven "checkpoints" that stop fraud without destroying the user experience.
The 2026 Regulatory Wave: Preparing for the impact of the EU’s Single Rulebook and the UK’s strategic shift toward a more outcomes-based regulatory environment.

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