Las Vegas welcomed tens of thousands of payments enthusiasts for this year’s Money20/20 over October 26 to 29. Delegates gathered to debate and dissect the emerging technology, regulation and consumer trends in payments, and of course agentic commerce, AI, fraud, regulation, stablecoins and more.
With the agentic revolution expected this year, trust was a major theme. While it’s tempting to get carried away by exciting new trends or hype, ensuring trust in the system is critical. After all, we’re operating in a highly regulated industry, and nothing is more important than safely handling customer data and funds. If consumers don’t have trust in the system, global commerce itself is at risk. That said, I’ve always found fintech to be the most inspiring of industries – its bravery, boldness, and belief in the positive impact of technology are simply motivating.
Here’s my roundup of the main themes covered at this year’s Money20/20 Las Vegas.
Fraud fighting in the age of AI
Several panels addressed the challenges of modern day payments fraud. Speakers acknowledged the increasing scale and sophistication of modern-day fraudsters: boosted by AI, scammers are still largely using targeting social engineering. However, the operationalization of mass fraud means data theft attempts are only growing. This week, UK-based Starling Bank launch an AI tool engineered using Google’s Gemini models to help customers detect whether images and messages are likely to be scams.
In light of AI-powered fraud, Ben Coon, Chief Intelligence Officer at Unit 221B, emphasized the need to use continually upgrading fraud protections. He also promoted the notion of business competitors working together to combat fraud, given the enormity of challenges faced.
Complexities of fighting chargebacks arising from BNPL drew focus in a dedicated panel. Roenen Ben-Ami, Co-Founder and Chief Risk Officer of Justt highlighted that a lack of standardized MCC code for BNPL payments can cause fragmentation in chargeback strategy for merchants.
Across panels, experts recommended various fraud-fighting strategies, including:
- Pre-purchase fraud scoring
- Customer verification
- Transaction monitoring
- Collaborating with card networks for improved data sharing and insights
- Consider how to use AI for data collection to fight chargebacks
Learn more: Recover revenue with Checkout.com Disputes
Building trust and great customer experiences with agentic commerce
One of the central talks of the conference was on cultivating trust in online transactions powered by AI agents. Industry leaders in fintech Guillaume Pousaz, Founder and CEO at Checkout.com, Avritti Khandurie Mittal, VP and Global Head of Product for eBay Payments, David Nicholls, Director, Strategic Payment Partnerships at Uber, joined Eimear Creaven Co-President, Global Partnerships at Mastercard for a frank and probing discussion.
Consumers are increasingly ready to embrace AI to help them discover and shop. It presents a new channel to market for brands, but it comes with new risk of commoditization, and every brand, just like it did in the ecommerce era, must think through the right distribution strategy to reach these agents. Getting the best price or deal available emerged as the top use case for consumers in the UK and US, according to new consumer research on agentic commerce from Checkout.com.
“AI is about removing the benefit of asymmetric intelligence” said Guillaume, clarifying that the power of modern AI is to efficiently synthesize information, and present buying options to consumers in a more useful way than ever before. “It’s just going to create a complete new equilibrium in commerce.”
David explained that Uber is excited to build intuitive experiences that smoothly merge service discovery and payment. Yet panelists were all clear that trust, accountability, and responsible use of protocols were all top priorities for any new AI-based developments.
“We need to remain grounded, and maintain trust at the center of any merchant-consumer interaction,” said Avritti.
The architecture of trust in agentic commerce
For decades, trust has been about downside protection: compliance, fraud prevention, and risk mitigation. In the agentic era, trust becomes the primary enabler of upside potential. Meron Colbeci, Chief Product Officer at Checkout.com and Ignacio Segovia, Global Head of Digital Engineering at Altimetrik, sat down to discuss what consumers really want from agentic buying journeys.
The multi-trillion-dollar opportunity in agentic commerce will only be unlocked if users trust agents to act on their behalf. This shift in thinking requires leaders to invest in what’s becoming known as the 'architecture of trust.'
In the agentic era, it’s no longer enough to have KYC (Know Your Customer); we need KYA, 'Know Your Agent.' This will enable us to programmatically verify an agent's identity and authority, and build trust directly into the architecture of agent-powered transactions.
Stablecoins: The new infrastructure currency of the digital economy?
Digital currencies became a mainstream topic of discussion in 2025, catalyzed by the GENIUS Act – the first major piece of US legislation to regulate stablecoins – passed in July 2025. More than a dozen panels considered the emerging implications of new regulation and technology surrounding decentralized finance.
Kash Razzaghi, Chief Commercial Officer at Circle, noted the increasing interest from merchants on how stablecoins could solve for questions of speed, cost and transparency in online payments.
Renewed interest in blockchain technology for mainstream payments was palpable. Whereas early blockchain solutions were seen as clunky, confusing and difficult to trust, the new wave of international regulations are bringing about tangible possibilities for innovation.
Navigating payments complexity in regulated sports betting
As anyone who works in the world of sports betting knows, regulations vary hugely by region, and changes come in unpredictable waves. Since a key legal ruling in 2018, US states have been introducing new laws to license and regulate sports betting. Newly proposed laws, such as the SAFE Bet Act, complicate the picture, and underline the need for awareness and adaptation.
Christopher Granger, Lottery and Gaming Lead at Visa joined Mark Shaw, Managing Director, Global Payments Strategy at Flutter Entertainment, and Emilie Mathieu, General Counsel at Checkout.com for a reflective discussion on regulation in sports betting moderated by Drew Edmond, Associate Partner at Glenbrook Partners.
Panelists reflected that online betting has become less of a taboo in recent years, and this is largely due to education in this space. Mark highlighted that regulation gives clarity on expectations. Emilie noted that regulation – done well – benefits everyone by creating a level playing field. Working together with regulators, payments experts can block inappropriate transactions and allow the legitimate ones through.
All agreed on the importance of working closely together; card networks, issuers, and merchants, all need to reach a common understanding of legal elements at play. Partnerships offer a lot in terms of covering blind spots, particularly on local nuances and cross-border payments. “No two markets are the same,” observed Emilie.
Learn more: Dabble Sports on a winning streak with a 10% higher acceptance rate
Final take: Strategy, as always, is the differentiator
My main takeaway from this year’s Money20/20 is this: Guillaume Pousaz put it best, agentic commerce is both hype and potential. There is great potential and opportunity to expand merchant business with a new channel powered by AI.
No two merchants will adopt agentic commerce in the same way. Just like Ikea’s ecommerce strategy was different to Chanel’s, and like eBay’s was different to Amazon’s, merchants and brands will need to optimize their strategies first.
True leadership is not about chasing the hype, but cleverly matching opportunity with results. Our merchants’ success is our priority. That’s why we are spending time building partnerships with everyone in the agentic ecosystem, from LLMs to software vendors to Visa and Mastercard, our role is to abstract the complexity, find partnerships and help solve merchant problems or optimize for their opportunities. We recognize the need to put merchants in the center of any ecosystem and design services for them.
An amazing week, with the wonderful minds of the payment industry, thank you to everyone that stopped by the Checkout.com x Gjelina experience and witnessed our invisible concierge.
We are Checkout.com. And we are where the world checks out.
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