FURT2025
FR ANK
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INFRASTRUCTURE
FOR ONE, FOR ALL
Europe’s new Instant Payment Regulation poses challenges for financial services companies, SEPA-wide. And they’re just the sort of pain points that Italy’s CBI has been building a utility to address
18
COVER FEATURE
Smarter decisions, stronger operations Rebranding is tricky for a company as established and respected as Smartstream. But with AI broadening the customer base and transforming its relationships with existing clients, CEO Akber Jaffer has decided it’s time for change
20
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SEPA INST
Instant connection
The heavy lifting has been done. Now the moment of truth. SEPA Instant Credit Transfer is about to go live. Bank of America considers what the reality might be for banks and their corporate clients
24
29
REGTECH
Rewriting the rules
32
PAYMENTS
Passion project
We don’t just want to buy ‘stuff’ any more. We want to experience it. And Mastercard’s vision for an agentic future can help deliver that for consumers
DATA
Sharing is caring
Bank of Ireland’s payments data analytics team produces information that’s useful to the bank, its customers and the wider economy. But could it play an even more important role?
Eastnets’ Hazem Mulhim and Daoud Abdel Hadi on why they’re convinced AI is the enabler for effective compliance and enhanced fraud prevention
26
20
A2A PAYMENTS
To boldly go
Toine van Beusekom of Icon Solutions argues for banks to shape their own destiny by taking a future-facing approach to payments. A2A could be the key
37
ART DIRECTOR Chris Swales
GENERAL MANAGER Tom Dickinson
PRODUCT & CONTENT MARKETING Matt Sarkar
EDITOR Sue Scott SUB EDITOR Frank Tennyson
CHIEF REVENUE OFFICER Shaun Routledge
PRODUCTION TEAM Chloe Butler Tom Dickinson Matthew Burls Leksy Volkova Dylan Young PRODUCTION Taylor Griffin Laura Raimondi
THOUGHT LEADER
Stable and secure?
Simone Loefgen from Commerzbank addresses three of the big questions occupying banks’ minds at Sibos 2025
37
BRANCH BANKING
Face the truth
Restoring in-branch banking to thousands of UK communities is not just possible – it’s happening, with or without the banks, says Ron Delnevo
FRANKFURT 2025
DISCOVERSIBOSMAGAZINE EXECUTIVE EDITOR Ali Paterson
35
ONLINE EDITOR Lauren Towner ONLINE TEAM Lauren Hinton VIDEO TEAM Alexander Craddock Louis Jean La Grange David Hill Ethan Peck
PHOTOGRAPHER Jordan Drew FEATURE WRITERS Ron Delnevo David Firth Tony Fish Martin Heminway Tracy Mitchell James Tall Frank Tennyson
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4 DISCOVERSIBOS2025
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