The Banking Scene Director's Cut

Sára Hanniker, Head of AI Solutions and Research, and Josef Dvořák, Chief AI Officer (CAIO) at Finshape, shared their insights and experience in this candid interview. What emerged was not a story about rapid disruption or easy wins. It was a much more useful conversation. Their view was that agentic AI in banking is real, but the route to value is slower, more structural and more demanding than the current noise around the market suggests. For banks, the challenge is not simply adding smarter technology to existing processes. It is about redesigning workflows, rethinking customer journeys, clarifying accountability and deciding where human judgement should become more valuable rather than less.You can find a summary of the interview on our website here.

Martijn de Ruijter shares a clear view on where payment fraud is heading in Europe and why instant payments are forcing banks to rethink the balance between speed, customer experience and protection. Verification of Payee is helping, but fraud is adapting just as quickly.

Dharmesh Mistry is a veteran of banking with over 40 years of experience in the industry. His latest research into what he calls the "Quanvergence" suggests that we are moving past the era of digital delivery into an era of deep, structural change driven by four intersecting forces: Quantum computing, Digital Twins, Agentic AI, and Tokenisation. The challenge for European banks is that these are often managed as separate pilots or innovation labs. The real value, and the real threat, lies in their overlap.You can read the summary of the interview on our website here.

ClearBank's recent MiCAR notification does not represent a strategic pivot towards crypto, nor does it suggest a belief in a wholesale transition to new rails. It is an extension of an existing role. We reflect on the fireside chat with Tristan Kirchner, CEO of ClearBank Europe, at our event in Amsterdam.You can read the summary article on our website here.

We love to talk about technology developments and opportunities, but what often remains underexposed is the more difficult question: how do these innovations translate into something meaningful, usable, and trusted by customers?The final session at The Banking Scene Conference 2026 Amsterdam: “From Complexity to Clarity: How Banks Help Customers Keep Pace with Change”, was refreshing, because after an entire day talking about AI, Agentic AI, Fraud, Identity, Tokenised Assets and Digital Currencies, we tried to get a grip on a growing level of complexity in a panel moderated by Rik, with guests Ellen Van Acker, Chief Operating Officer for Client and Digital Services of ING Wholesale Banking, Laura Robertson, Head of Partnerships at Wise Platform and Erin Taylor, Partner at Finthropology.You can read the summary article on our website here.

The Benelux financial sector faces a decisive moment. Instant payments have become ubiquitous, Verification of Payee is fully operational, and a new generation of scams is being industrialised through artificial intelligence. Fraud is no longer defined merely by technical vulnerabilities, but by behavioural manipulation, identity trust gaps, cross-border information asymmetries, and the criminal weaponisation of payment speed.We provided an early preview of our latest white paper, "Fraud Prevention in a Real-Time Economy," in this webinar, where Rik and Andrew discussed the strategic shift required to combat modern financial crime.You can download the full white paper here.

Based on the conversations sparked by our recent quiz show on Agentic AI in Banking, and further conversations at our recent event in Amsterdam, it's clear that while we might use the same words, we are not all aligned on the definition of Agentic AI. We reflect on a definition provided by Peter van Hees, best-selling author of "AI Agents: They Act, You Orchestrate", during his keynote in Amsterdam and we also explore a few things that stood out for us from the quiz show.You can read the summary article on our website here.

We recently convened a round-table dinner with banking professionals in Belgium, on "Trust under quantum pressure", where we discussed the urgency (or not) for banks to implement "quantum safe" cryptography. In this episode, Rik and Andrew reflect on some of the more surprising aspects of the dinner discussions, during which Andrew shows his age by "being there" for the Y2K bug preparations (while Rik admits he was probably sitting at home, not old enough to join the millennium parties 🫣).You can find the summary article referred to on our website here.

Tokenisation, digital assets, stablecoins, new rails - these are no longer POC's, they are in production and gaining traction fast! Doing nothing, waiting, is no longer an option and the big question is what will banks need to do to remain relevant in this new reality?Rik and Andrew reflect on recent sessions at our event in Luxembourg, with added insights from Roel Van Noten, Associate Partner at Avantage Capital Markets, included in the second half of the episode.You can find the blog referred to on our website here.

“Relevance” is one of those deceptively simple words that everyone uses, but few define in the same way. At The Banking Scene Conference Luxembourg, the panel “Rethinking Relevance in a New Wave of Digital Banking” treated relevance as something dynamic rather than a fixed brand attribute, and we explored what it takes for banks to remain meaningful in customers’ lives as technology accelerates, fraud evolves, and expectations keep shifting.The panel, moderated by Andrew Vorster, Head of Growth at The Banking scene, consisted of:*Claire Lubnau, Head of Commercial and Digital Solutions at Banque RaiffeisenArnaud Clément, Head of Payments and Innovation at ABBLJosef Dvořák, Director of Artificial Intelligence at FinshapeIn the second half of this episode, we caught up with Arnaud to also get his reflections on the panel.You can read a summary of the key takeaways on our website here:https://thebankingscene.com/opinions/rethinking-relevance-in-a-new-wave-of-digital-banking/

Continuing with our "Fraud Files" series as part of our research for our fraud white paper, we sat down with Remy Knecht, Head of Anti-Fraud Services at Isabel, for a deep dive into current and future fraud-fighting techniques.From his position in a multi-bank ecosystem that processes around €2.3 trillion a year for some 50,000 companies across around 2,000 banks, Remy has a wide-angle view of how fraud is evolving in the Benelux region, and where banks need to adjust their approach if they want to shift from simply responding to incidents to building real fraud intelligence.You can find a summary of the conversation on our website here.

In this interview with of Frédéric Lebeau, Founder of Datavillage.ai we dig into the way #fraudsters and #scammers are adapting to changes in #banking and financial services and hear his advice on the steps that fraud fighters need to take in order to keep up - including where and how #ai can help with #fraudfighting If you prefer to read a quick summary of the interview, you can find it on our website here.

Following Rik's recent presentation in Luxembourg, Andrew questions Rik about the conversations he is having today about his book, exploring the same idea from the outside in: relevance, trust, and judgment under pressure. It is the same story as Rik originally told in his book, but seen from a different angle.You can read the blog referred to in this video on our website here.

In the first of our "Fraud Files" series, we follow up with Jorij Abraham, Managing Director of the Global Anti-Scam Alliance (GASA) with questions we ran out of time to cover during our recent webinar where he presented a Benelux focused view of the Global State of Scams.Jorij will be delivering a keynote at our flagship conference in Brussels on May 28 - secure your seat today to join in the conversations on our Fraud and Compliance stage https://thebankingscene.com/events/tbsconfbxl/ You can also find a summary of the interview on our website here.

For our first session of The Banking Scene LIVE in 2026 we had Jorij Abraham, Managing Director of the Global Anti-Scam Alliance (GASA) deliver a truly eye-opening presentation on The Global State of Scams, flavoured with local insights and statistics from Belgium and the Netherlands.You can find a summary article of the session on our website here and Rik and Andrew discuss some of the more provocative points arising from the session in this episode.

"Rethinking Relevance" in banking is our theme for our first three conferences of 2026 in Luxembourg on January 27, Amsterdam on March 24 and our flagship conference in Brussels on May 28. We don't do predictions, but we do discuss our views of the forces shaping 2026 in the lead-up to our first event of the year, inspired by the article that Rik wrote here.

AI has crashed into #banking with all the subtlety of a tidal wave over the last year. But if you look under the hood of most institutions, the reality is far less glamorous: fragmented systems, siloed teams and experimental AI use cases that never quite make it into production.We caught up with Deepak Pandey, Vice President of Technology at Backbase, who cut through the noise and laid out what it actually takes to turn AI into a real growth engine, not just another bolt-on to old architectures.You can read the blog summary of the session on our website here.

NiCKEL has expanded rapidly across France, not with a digital-only strategy as most neobanks, but with a conscious choice to rely on human contact; not through its own branches but through what they called “buralistes” in France: tobacco and newspaper shops. Earlier this year, they announced a partnership with bpost in Belgium - we caught up with Emmanuel Legras, CEO of Nickel Belgium, to find out how this fits into their expansion strategy and what he considers to be the key secrets to their success.You can read the summary of the interview on our website here.UPDATE: We are excited to announce that Emmanuel has confirmed to speak at our flagship event, The Banking Scene Conference 2026 Brussels on May 28 - join us there to hear more insights!https://thebankingscene.com/events/tbsconfbxl/speakers/

In cybersecurity, conversations today tend to focus on tools and threats, and rightly so. But Sofia Pogrebynska, IT & Cloud Officer at PayPal brought something more subtle to the surface during our discussion: the biggest shift in cybersecurity today has less to do with technology and far more to do with how organisations behave and operate.Sofia will be delivering a keynote at The Banking Scene Conference 2026 Luxembourg on January 27: “Rethinking Governance in a World of Agentic AI” - secure your seat today to debate the topic with her.In the meanwhile, you can find out how PayPal approaches #cybersecurity awareness and training in order to shift their culture to instinctively deal with threats in this episode.If you prefer to read the summary of the session, you can find it in our blog here.

If you were to ask any banking executive today whether innovation is a priority, the answer would be a resounding "yes". Yet, if you were to look into the internal processes of that same organisation, you would likely find an engine designed to do the exact opposite.This is the "Innovation Paradox" in banking: institutions that know they must evolve to survive yet operate within structures explicitly engineered to prevent that evolution.I explored this concept with Wasim Mushtaq, the founder of 1CG and a veteran of the financial services industry, after reading his paper that was published in The Journal of Digital Banking (which he has kindly allowed us to make available for our readers to download for free in our summary blog post found here). With over two decades of experience, ranging from the coalface of business banking at Abbey National (now Santander) and credit operations at Barclays, to leading global transformation at Standard Chartered and serving as the interim COO of the Centre for Finance, Innovation and Technology (CFIT), Wasim offers a rare, holistic perspective. He has seen the industry from the lender’s desk, the operations floor, and the regulator’s office.Our conversation went beyond the usual platitudes about "digital transformation" and "agile working". Instead, we dug into the structural, cultural, and leadership mechanisms that stifle innovation, change and transformation and, more importantly, how to dismantle them.Grab a coffee and get settled in for an epic episode!

In the rapidly evolving landscape of financial services, the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming increasingly prevalent. However, as banks embrace this innovative technology, they face unique challenges in governance, ethics, and risk management. We sat down with Seppe Housen, Senior Responsible AI Engineer, and Dimitri De Rocker, AI Director at Datashift, to hear their suggested best practices and insights on the topic.You can find the key insights summarised in our blog post here, which also includes a link to the free "cheat sheet" from Datashift.

In a very relaxed "behind the scenes" session, Rik and Andrew discussed their highlights from The Banking Scene Art Night 2025 and went a bit deeper into some of the points raised by the speakers, sharing their own views and a couple of nuggets not included in the summary article on our website here.The full presentation by Guido Ronchetti is available on YouTube here.

When Paul Maskall, Strategic Fraud Prevention and Behavioural Lead at UK Finance, asked the audience what the difference between fraud and marketing is during his talk on “The Psychology of Online Fraud” at the recent Open Banking Expo in London, it sounded a bit provocative.As Rik found out, the similarities are much more than most marketeers would like to admit!Rik summarised the key insights from the session in this blog post here, which inspired Chris Skinner to publish his own take on the topic here.Rik caught up with both of them in this two-part session to dig deeper into the topic.

In our deep dive with Francesco Aghemio, Head of Belgium and Netherlands branches at Revolut, he made it very clear that Revolut doesn’t design products to impress the media or regulators. It builds for customers!From Belgian Bank accounts (not just IBANs) to partnering with Wero, Revolut has tailored its offering specifically to the needs of the local market. Find out how they are redefining banking, one day at a time and what's in store for the future.You can find a summary of the key points on our website here.

Join us as we delve into the fascinating world of quantum computing and its potential impact on the banking industry with insights from a panel with IBM, BBVA, and CWI at SIBOS and beyond.We discuss the complexities of quantum technology, its dependence on AI, and the hybrid future of computing. Discover insights from industry experts on how quantum computing could revolutionise financial services and the importance of collaboration in navigating this technological frontier.You can find the article discussed in this session on our website here.

Rik shares insights and opinions from the recent Open Banking Expo, where he moderated a panel featuring representatives from Brazil, Saudi Arabia, Australia, and the UK, who all approach Open Banking & Open Finance from different angles.We also explore the psychology of fraud and the future of consumer finance as presented by Paul Maskall and Marko Sjoblom respectively.You can read Rik's key takeaways in his blog post here.

Is #blockchain finally shedding its image of "The Wild West of Technology" within the #banking and #financialservices industry? In his extremely colourful article based on moderating a session at Sibos with Co-Pierre Georg, Director at the Frankfurt School Blockchain Centre, (and stepping into the shoes of Rita Martins, Head of Products Ecosystem, Digital Assets at London Stock Exchange Group, who unfortunately couldn't make it due to travel troubles), Rik paints a picture of the evolution of blockchain over the years: From a dusty, lawless frontier where coders were gold diggers and algorithms their pickaxes, to blockchain being the plumbing of a modern civilisation.In this episode, Andrew digs into the stories behind the story (and it is a particularly good story) published here. While most of his scepticism around #cryptocurrency remains, Andrew felt positively buoyant about the future of blockchain. Where do you sit on the spectrum?

Rik had a deep dive with Joris Hensen, the Founder and Co-Lead of the Deutsche Bank API program, to find out how Deutsche Bank approaches FiDA as an opportunity, following our visit to the evening session showcase after a full day FiDA Data Studio workshop held in collaboration with TechQuartier at their Eintracht Lab in Frankfurt.See our event recap, including our key conclusions in our article here.

Is your AI culturally aligned with the region it is deployed in, or is it a "copy and paste" implementation from wherever it was created? Andrew moderated a panel on Culturally Aligned AI during Sibos 2025 in Frankfurt, with perspectives provided by: Ammar Younas (Associate Research Fellow at the Centre for Long-term Artificial Intelligence in China) Patricia Shaw (Global AI/Data & Governance Advisor, Beyond Reach Consulting) andLisa Russell (Emmy-Award-Winning Filmmaker and AI Artist, ArtsEnvoy.ai)In this deep dive, Rik and Andrew dig into some of the key points raised during the panel.In this deep dive, Rik and Andrew dig into some of the key points raised during the panel.You can find the key action points and takeaways in the full article on our website here.

FiDA – the proposed Financial Data Access Regulation, has been a bit of a contentious topic over this year. During Sibos 2025 in Frankfurt, Rik and I were invited by Joris Hensen, the Founder and Co-Lead of the Deutsche Bank API program, to join an evening session following a full day FiDA Data Studio workshop held in collaboration with TechQuartier at their Eintracht Lab, to see and hear the output from the day.You can read our own thoughts and insights on the blog here, but for this episode we go behind the scenes with two industry experts who actually participated in the full day programme.First up we hear from Nicola Breyer, Open Finance Advisor and Expert from the Open Finance Ecosystem organisation, who some of you might remember from our conference in Amsterdam earlier this year. Then we hear from Anne-Sophie Morvan, Chief Commercial Officer at Luxhub, who will be a familiar face and voice to those who attended our conference in Luxembourg earlier this year. We have a date in the diary to take a deeper dive into the topic with Joris Hensen himself, so stay tuned for more updates and don’t forget to subscribe!

We recently held a round table Think Tank session with senior leaders from fraud, payments, and cybersecurity, in collaboration with our partner XTN Cognitive Security. The session focused on scams and how the Belgian banking sector is evolving to the age of instant payments and more advanced fraud tactics.After attending Sibos this week, we reflected back on the dinner with a few added insights from conversations and sessions we moderated and attended.You can read the blog summary of the Think Tank session, along with the key learnings on our website here.

We've had numerous conversations about the future of payments over the last week, from The Banking Scene BBQ Night to a roundtable Think Tank dinner on scams and fraud, and a few more in between.We share our key takeaways (and Andrew has a bit of a rant about why banks have taken so long to address cross-border payments speed and cost problems) in this episode.You can find far more structured thoughts in our blog summary of BBQ Night here.

A short intro that Rik and Andrew recorded off-the-cuff to explain what The Banking Scene Director's Cut is all about and why they like doing it ..... and why we hope you enjoy listening to it too! Feel free to get in touch directly with one of them if you'd like to join us in the studio to share your views.

Hot on the heels of the 2025 collaborative study by Argenta, Deloitte and Ghent University on the state of Financial Health in Belgium, we look at what BBVA and ABN AMRO (via BUUT) are doing to improve their customers' financial health.Rik and Andrew called on industry experts Anette Broløs, Director and Co-Founder, Finthropology and Els Lagrou, Co-Founder, Dagelijks Geld, to share their insights on the topics of Financial Education and Financial Health, during a discussion where Andrew posed a potentially inflammatory question to Rik..........You can read the article and find links to the report referenced in the discussions here.

Monzo recently announced that they are considering offering eSIMs to their customers - what has that got to do with banking? Quite a lot it turns out! Andrew invited Chris Skinner, CEO of The Finanser (and well known Chief Trouble Maker) for a Director's Cut Debrief Session to dig into the story behind the story.As can be expected by those of you who know Chris, he got the session off to a fiery (off-topic) start, before sharing his insights :)You can read the article that sparked this discussion on our website here and as always, please share your views in the comments.

Revolut made an announcement on August 22 that could have wider implications than is evident at first glance. What does Revolut's announcement mean for Belgian Banks?After running a poll on LinkedIn, we included views from a few members of our community in this Director's Cut Debrief Session, where we explored what this means for the incumbent banks and speculated as to what might happen next. You can read the summary article on our website here: https://thebankingscene.com/opinions/from-instant-payments-to-instant-savings-how-revoluts-daily-payouts-challenge-belgian-banks/ and please feel free to share your views in the comments!

This time, we're "In Conversation With" Adam Preis, Director Product Solution Marketing at Ping Identity, to explore the critical aspect of third-party access in today's world. The rapid growth of embedded finance, open banking and interconnected ecosystems has dramatically reshaped the traditional perimeter of trust in financial services. As third-party providers become indispensable to delivering modern banking experiences, the concept of identity and access management (IAM) is undergoing a fundamental shift.Adam shares insights into how financial institutions are rethinking security, managing risk, and preparing for a future where AI agents, not just humans, interact on behalf of customers.And a few eye-watering stats!You can find a summary of the key concepts, along with a link to download a free e-book "3 Ways to Accelerate Embedded Finance with Digital Identity" in this post here: https://thebankingscene.com/opinions/identity-in-flux-securing-the-future-of-access-in-financial-services/

In the "story behind the story", Rik explains why he (briefly) blamed his bank for missing the kickoff of the Belgian Jupiler Pro football competition and what lessons bankers can take away from this.Find out why "digital is a dissatisfier" for some customers and how providing services beyond banking could influence customers in the future.The original article discussed can be found here https://thebankingscene.com/opinions/what-missing-the-football-season-kickoff-taught-me-about-digital-banking/

A Director's Cut Debrief session where Rik and Andrew debate the impact of #agenticai on #banking in the #future. Most banks have been quick to adopt #ai for their own internal purposes - but are they considering the (near?) future possibility of their customers making use of agentic ai to fulfil their financial needs?The article published here was inspired by a white paper written by Dave Birch (Principal, 15Mb Ltd) and Kirsty Rutter (Group Strategic Investment Director CVC, Lloyds Banking Group), which outlines the strategic elements banks must address in order to survive in this new environment.During this debrief, Rik challenges some of Andrew's opinions that lead him to write the article (which is worthwhile giving a quick read after you've watched or listened to the show).