The BPFI National Payments Conference 2026 on Thursday 5th March brought together more than 370 leaders across banking, fintech, policy, and payments technology for a compelling day of insight, debate, and forward‑looking discussion on the forces reshaping payments in Ireland and across Europe. We were delighted to feature an impressive line-up of Irish and international speakers, who shared fresh perspectives throughout the day on our central theme: The Payment Shift: Moving Money, Minds & Markets.
The conference was chaired by Barry Manning, Chair, Irish Payments Council and Head of Transaction Banking, Danske Bank Ireland, with a welcome address from Brian Hayes, Chief Executive, BPFI followed by the opening keynote address delivered by Minister Robert Troy T.D who underscored Ireland’s strategic opportunity to lead in the next era of digital payments.
Setting the Scene for the first panel discussion was Diego Perez, CEO & Co-Founder, SMU Investments and President ABFintechs – The Fintech Association of Brazil with his presentation One System, a Nation Transformed — Inside Brazil’s PIX Journey whose insights illuminated how PIX reshaped Brazil’s payments landscape. Diego joined a lively panel discussion on Instant payments across borders – Lessons from PIX for Ireland with Kira Magennis, Head of Electronic Payments, Payac Services CLG and Túlio Iannini, CEO, Inspire4U and investor in TribeX Financial Technology and moderated by Sharon Brennan, Head of Technology and Business Change Projects, BPFI. The panel explored what Ireland and Europe can realistically adopt from Brazil’s success.
Continuing the day’s exploration of payment innovation, Diana Halder, EY Canada Payments Practice Leader, and Jonathan Ryder, EY Ireland Banking Technology and Payments Leader, shared their perspectives on Payments reimagined – Today, tomorrow & beyond exploring how innovation, customer expectations, and emerging technologies are collapsing the boundaries between payments, commerce, and digital identity.
The session on AML opened with an interview by Niamh Davenport, Head of Financial Crime with Derville Rowland who spoke about the mission and goals of AMLA – the new EU Anti‑Money Laundering Authority (AMLA). This was followed by a powerful panel AML Beyond Compliance – Protecting people, not just systems with Karen Bissett, Head of Financial Crime Compliance and MLRO, Bank of Ireland; Tony Cahalan, Head of Financial Integrity Division, Central Bank of Ireland; Suzanne Gunn, Head of Serious & Organised Crime Policy, Department of Justice; Roger Kaiser, Head of Tax and Compliance, European Banking Federation (EBF) and moderated by Niamh Davenport. The speakers emphasised that AML evolution must focus on protecting people, not just systems and explored how legislative change can translate into practical, people centred action, including stronger protection for individuals, improved detection of exploitation and more coordinated engagement between industry and public authorities.
Looking to future payments, Beyond transactions – Agentic commerce and tokenisation in tomorrow’s payments panel was moderated by Sara Savidge, CEO, Fexco International Payments who discussed recent advances in these emerging areas and examined the challenges ahead as we consider how payments will evolve in the future with panellists Colombe Hérault, Fraud and Authentication Business Manager, Worldline; Michelle Houston, Senior Regulatory Counsel, Stripe; Paul Mortby, Head of EMEA Policy, Square; and David Quin, Head of Global Seller Risk Operations, PayPal.
One of the most impactful moments of the day came from Serhii Makarenko, Head of Merchant Services, PrivatBank Ukraine who shared a frontline view of sustaining payment services during extreme crisis, bringing a profound real‑world dimension to the conference’s exploration of operational resilience. This lead into the panel Operational resilience in payments – Building a strong, secure and connected ecosystem across Europe moderated by Aoife Langford, Head of Function, Crisis Management & Analytics, Central Bank of Ireland with panellists Adam Bealey, Chief Executive, UK & Ireland, Swift; Sharon Keogh, Head of Operational Resilience, Payments & Enterprise Change, PTSB; Simon McConnell, Managing Director, Head of European Clearing and FI Payments, Citi and Serhii Makarenko, Head of Merchant Services, PrivatBank Ukraine. During the discussion, the panel examined practical strategies for building a European payments ecosystem that is not only resilient, but also capable of preventing and withstanding disruptions.
The final session of the day was a much-anticipated fireside chat on Aligning the rails: How EU payment priorities shape Ireland’s next moves moderated by Erwin Kulk, Head of Service Development and Management, EBA Clearing delved into the critical current and future policy and regulatory agenda shaping Ireland’s payments landscape who with panellists Billy Kelleher MEP, European Parliament; Vasileios Madouros, Deputy Governor, Monetary and Financial Stability, Central Bank of Ireland; and Brian Corr, Head of International Financial Services Unit, Department of Finance.
We would also like to thank all our conference sponsors Square, Swift, Visa, EY, EBA Clearing, American Express and Institute of Banking (IOB) for their support.
View this short video which captures the voices, insights and key themes from the conference on here.
