Biggest challenges facing Canada’s payments industry tackled on day 3 of The 2019 SUMMIT

With modernization as an urgent priority, record number of attendees came together to exchange views and ideas about the sector’s rapid transformation

After 1,800 people attended 23 keynote sessions and chose from 58 breakouts over three days, Canada’s largest payments conference – the 2019 Payments Canada SUMMIT – concluded on Thursday.

From open banking to cryptocurrencies, the many dimensions of today’s era of profound change were addressed.

“This has been the best SUMMIT we have ever had,” said Justin Ferrabee, Chief Operating Officer of Payments Canada. “We are grateful to everyone who attended.”

Highlights from the main stage on the final day included a number of keynote speakers:

• Eileen Mercier, Chair, Board of Directors of Payments Canada, outlined a vision for the future of the industry, tying together the key themes and messages that were articulated by the various speakers the conference hosted.
• Alan McIntyre, Senior Managing Director of Global Banking at Accenture, described how we are inevitably headed toward payments being instant, invisible and free.   
• Vivekanand Ramgopal, VP and Head, Financial Solutions of Tata Consultancy Services, explained the forces driving invisible payments, and how they need to be made secure, contactless and frictionless.
• Rod Garrett, Chair in Economics at the University of California Santa Barbara, emphasized how important trust has always been when it comes to money, and that means there are significant risks to consider in the cashless society of the digital era.   

There was also an insightful panel discussion on current developments in Europe’s payments sector, along with a variety of breakout sessions looking at, among other topics, digital innovation, regulatory dynamics, risk management, and the need to attract and retain talent in the payments sector.

Breakouts covered the latest topics payments in topics including corporate banking, digital ID, real-time payments, ISO 20022, cyber-security and industry trends and research.

To close the event, it was announced that next year’s summit will take place in Montreal. Registration is open now: thesummit.ca.

Recordings from the mainstage of the SUMMIT are now available on the Payments Canada Youtube channel. You can also view and download photos from all three days of the event here.

Read the recap from Day 1: Canada's largest payments conference kicks off with a record number of attendees & from Day 2: Canada's payments future explored, discussed and debated at a wide variety of sessions on day two of The 2019 SUMMIT.