Speakers

Jan Vermeulen

Coordinator Retail payments, prudential supervision and oversight, National Bank of Belgium
Holds a master in Economic sciences and a master in IT, both from the University of Louvain (Belgium). He coordinates the team responsible for prudential supervision on payment institutions/electronic money institutions and oversight on payment systems at the National Bank of Belgium. His team also monitors Fintech and other new trends in the European payments ecosystem, including crypto-assets. Previously he was responsible for the daily management of the Center for Exchange and Clearing (CEC), the Belgian Automated Clearing House (ACH), of which he was Chairman for several years. He held the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) Program Office in Belgium during the migration period to SEPA. Currently, he participates as a member in the following international fora: • Member of the “Standing Group on Payment Services” of the European Banking Authority. • Member of the “Market Infrastructures and Payments Committee” (MIPC) of the European System of Central Banks (ESCB/European Central Bank). • Member of the “Commission Expert group on Payments” CEGBPI of the European Commission. Published and contributed to various publications on payments business in the “Banking- and Finance bulletin” of the Belgian Financial Forum, the Economic Review and the Financial Market Infrastructures report of the National Bank of Belgium.

Basil Bailey

General Manager Europe, TrueLayer
Basil is General Manager and CEO of Truelayer’s European legal entity. Prior to Truelayer Basil held a number of senior roles in the payments industry. He was Managing Director of JPMorgans Acquiring business in EMEA and was also CEO and Director of their two European Acquiring and Issuing entities. He has also held senior positions in PayPal where he was Global Director of Financial Services as well as Borderfree where he was Director of Global Consumer and Commercial Payments. Basil has also held senior positions in Fiserv as well as spending many years with MasterCard where he held a number of senior roles, most latterly as VP of Global Strategic Alliances.

Sophie Claessens

Director, EU Public Policy, Tax & Payments, Amazon

Andreas Widegren

Head of Public Affairs, Digital & Payments Advocacy, Nordea
Andreas is a seasoned executive with a wide experience in regulatory strategy, risk management, and public affairs within the financial services sector. Andreas has developed the ability to bridge complex regulatory landscapes with strategy and practical risk management solutions, and is dedicated to advancing innovation and digitalisation in financial services. He currently serves as Head of Public Affairs Sweden at Nordea, where he leads regulatory strategy in areas such as payments, digitalization, and cloud technologies. As a member of Nordea Sweden Branch Management and a senior advisor to the banks senior leadership team, he plays a strong role in shaping policy and the regulatory eco-system. Andreas also acts as the co-moderator for the European Cloud User Coalition (ECUC) and is a member of the Swedish Central bank’s Retail Payments Council Working Group for Legislation, Supervision and Policy, and a member of SEPA Payment Account Access Scheme (SPAA) Multi Stakeholder Group. Previously, Andreas held the position of Head of Regulatory Advisory at Swedbank AB, where he managed regulatory strategies and collaborated closely with risk and compliance teams. His leadership extended to leading the PSD2 project implementation and establishing a Cloud Centre of Excellence. During his tenure at the Swedish Ministry of Finance, he represented Sweden in Council negotiations and focused on securities markets and the first Capital Markets Union initiative in 2014. Complementing this experience, he served as Executive Director at the Swedish Securities Markets Association (SSMA), managing teams and industry-wide regulatory implementations like PRIIPs and MiFID II.

Boris Martinovic

Director Government Affairs, Mastercard
Boris has been Director of Government Affairs for Hungary and Slovenia at Mastercard since May 2018, and temporarily also for Austria between 2020-2023. He is responsible for the development and implementation of Mastercard’s local public policy strategy in Hungary and Slovenia, as well as the local execution of Mastercard’s European and global public policy agenda. In his work at Mastercard his main focus has been the reduction of shadow economy through electronic payments, promotion of financial awareness and digitalization both at national and regional levels, enablement of smart city collaborations with local authorities, and public policy support for the topics of instant payments, strong customer authentication, the Payment Services Directive and e-mobility. In addition, Boris manages Mastercard’s Hungarian „BeyondBAU” strategy, which focuses on non-traditinal topics such as CSR, education, data philanthropy and sustainability. Prior to joining Mastercard, Boris worked for ten years at the Hungarian Competition Authority, first in antitrust, and later in merger control, where he was Head of the Merger Section for a year. Boris graduated from the Budapest Corvinus University in 2008, acquiring a masters degree in finance. He later studied public policy in Tokyo between 2014 and 2015.

Jimmie Franklin

Vixio
Jimmie Franklin is a senior journalist at Vixio Regulatory Intelligence and a subject matter expert in EU and UK regulatory developments. He has spoken at events across Europe on issues including AI, crypto, and the future of open banking. Passionate about payments modernisation and the opportunity to innovate, he has authored reports on key compliance challenges, including enforcement measures and evolving fraud trends.