Charlotte Hogg, CEO, Visa Europe, began her keynote speech in The Big Top stage at Money 20/20 EU, Amsterdam, with an apology for the massive service disruption that affected businesses across the UK and Ireland on Friday evening.
“I want to say sorry to you all, as partners, as cardholders”, Hogg began.
“Our mission is to provide you all with the most secure network, allowing you all to thrive”
“For a few hours on Friday we fell short of those expectations.”
“First of all, I want to say sorry – to our partners, to our cardholders…”
Charlotte Hogg @Visa apologises for Friday’s massive service disruption across UK and EU at #M2020EU pic.twitter.com/iuKnIrbFsM
— Michael Hocking (@mphocking) June 4, 2018
Hogg confirmed that the service disruption was the result of a “hardware failure”, though didn’t provide any precise details during her presentation.
The keynote, entitled, ‘The age of invisible payments’, focused on learning from history – including Hogg, conceded, the history of Visa’s last few days – and begged the question, how can consumers feel the security and certainty of cash in a cashless future?
“We are moving into a world where the moment of payment is almost invisible”, Hogg continued.
“Data needs to be secure and systems need to be resilient.”
“The beautiful thing about cash was that it was simple … consumers must feel in control of their financial lives and it’s our job to provide that for them”, a statement perhaps marred a little by the recent hardware failure, an irony that can’t have been lost on the Money 20/20 audience.
The importance of regulation was also an integral part of Hogg’s keynote.
“I think Europe is an incredibly uniqe intersection of tech, consumer behaviour and regulation”, Hogg cotinued, “I think the world is watching.”
“The combination of Open Banking and GDPR is a special one, we welcome both, as one opens up the banking system to allow consumers control and visibility, and the other engenders a really important debate over what happens with their identity and their data.”
Hogg also revealed that Visa are focusing on “two further commitments” to Europe, a “fast track program for fintech”, and a “$100 million investment into fintech in Europe”, to allow fintechs to innovate their own solutions effectively with the support of Visa.
Hogg ended her keynote by welcoming Nikolay Storonofksy, CEO, Revolut, and Jim Magats, Head of Global Core Payments, Paypal, to the stage, to a backing of The Beatles’ ‘Come Together’, to discuss the importance of collaboration in innovation.
“We’re a network that is open and reliant on our partnerships – that’s our heartland”, Hogg said.
Charlotte Hogg @Visa welcomes Jim Magats @PayPal and Nikolay Storonsky @RevolutApp onstage at #m2020eu to talk consumer focused invisible payments #m2020eu pic.twitter.com/BHY8axa71A
— Michael Hocking (@mphocking) June 4, 2018
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