After a bit of a hassle with a cancelled flight, Allevo managed to land in Copenhagen just in time for Money20/20 Europe, and we’re now bringing you “Day 1 Highlights” as seen through our lens.

Before diving into the engaging debates and interviews quoted below, we must say that representatives of banks and FinTechs alike agreed that the primary focus in the years to come should be on the customer and on the overall collaboration in the financial industry. We’ll raise a glass to that!

Now, let’s take a peek at the main topics and statements that have caught our attention:

“Collaborating within the industry is important because it really is the only way to push new ideas ahead. […] It’s critical that we reach outside, that we collaborate with others, that we embrace the external innovation.”

– Carlos Torres Vila, CEO, BBVA –

• “Through technology, we can help people make better decisions around money, providing them with peace of mind.”
• “What excites me about the future of banking is that we now have the ability to provide a magical experience, like self-driving banking, where people can really forget about their finances if they so wish, and the decisions will turn out to be the right ones for their particular situation.”
• “The biggest hurdles: we have increased regulation, negative interest rates, as well as the normal hurdles associated with innovation in a large corporation.”
• “People do not like banking. Millennials would rather go to the dentist than go to a bank. What’s even worse is that we don’t like to manage our finances, we don’t dedicate time to it.”
• “More than a third of people in the middle class don’t have the most basic financial habit, which is to save for an emergency.”

“It’s difficult to know where to place your bets, but it’s foolish to think you can do it all yourself. In this interconnected world, we need to collaborate.”

– Ashok Vaswani, CEO, Barclays UK –

• “With all the technology that’s virtually sitting in our pockets, we’re getting into a truly connected world, and finance underlines virtually everything we do.”
• “We have to deliver upon truly connected finance. How we do that and how we make it easy for our customers to deal with, that is what it’s really all about.”
• “Collaboration is really, really important. I don’t think that anyone can have a copyright on innovation. I have to go out and see what’s the best that’s going around the world.”

Also Caught our Ears

Jack Dorsey, CEO, Square:

• “We’re super excited about continuing to power people into the economy and enabling them to participate wherever they are, whoever they are and whatever their background.”
• “You don’t have to be first. You just have to be best.”

Mok Oh, Vice President, Samsung Electronics:

• “The 3 INs: Intelligence, Internet of Things, Interdependence.”

Mark Barnett, President UK & Ireland, Mastercard:

• “As a technology provider in the payments space, we have to go where our customers are taking us, and that includes to new ecosystems, such as AirBnB and other sharing economy.”

Before wrapping it up, we must say that the top trends in payments and FinTech were also revealed, but that’s such a generous and ardent subject that we’ve decided to dedicate a whole blog post to it, once this conference reaches the end and we get to sift through all the conclusions and wonderful ideas that keep springing up.

We’ll get back to you tomorrow with “Day 2 Highlights” from Money20/20 Europe.

In the meantime, feel free to follow our Twitter feed, to keep up to date.