Dr Thaer Sabri, the CEO for the EMA was participating in a panel discussion on “How should I pay?”and the numerous ways to pay already (cash, card, cheque, e-money, paypal), and more ways to come (VCs, PIS, Zapp) and what are the trade-offs. The panel discussed “Security vs. consumer protection vs convenience.”
FCA Project Innovate’s Payments event took place on 25 – 26 May 2017 in London
Dr Qazi Jalisi gave an overview on PSD2 at Conference on E-money, cards and payments, specifically discussing:
· Payment initiation services
· Account information services
· Interaction with the GDPR
· Sensitive payment information
The Conference aimed at delivering the most up-to-date information on e-money, cards, mobile banking and payment systems in the context of emerging economic, legal and technological advancements. Read more about the conference here.
4th International conference on E-money, Cards and Payments, 7- 8 June 2017, Bratislava, Slovakia
EMA media partner at 4th Int’l conference on e-money, cards and payments
Thaer Sabri, CEO of the EMA was speaking at PSD2 Implementation congress in London on 29 March 2017
The main topic of Thaer’s presentation was to investigate how a post-PSD2 will look like and understand its wider implications on banking and financial services, and:
Discuss strategic options for banking and FinTech organisations and best course of action
What will this mean for banking? Discover likely forms of how banks will be organized in a Post-PSD2 market
Understand the structural changes within the market and weigh up aggressive vs. defensive PSD2 strategies
Thaer Sabri, CEO of the EMA was speaking at 13th Annual AML & Financial Crime Seminar in London on 21st of March 2017, where he talked about tackling the ML/TF risks related to payment services under the spotlight.
On behalf of AMLP Forum – The Financial Crime & Corruption Association:
Appreciating that everyone’s schedule is tight, this is an excellent opportunity for busy AML/CTF & financial crime prevention professionals to get key updates and answers for 2017. The programme will cover major AML/CTF & financial crime changes expected in 2017. The Criminal Finances Bill 2016/17 introduces a failure to prevent the facilitation of tax evasion offence, bringing new corporate liability for business. The new HMT OFSI Monetary Penalties Guidance (coming into force 1 April 2017) for breaches of financial sanctions sets out a new enforcement & compliance approach for all sectors, whether regulated or not. The 4th EU Money Laundering Directive/5th Money Laundering Directive & EU Funds Transfer Regulation are currently being implemented and will result in new UK AML regulations in Q1 2017. Our keynote speakers include senior experts from the Home Office, HMT, Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, JMLSG, ESA, HMRC (on tax evasion), Charity Commission, Met Police, Barclays, Citibank, Credit Suisse, Circle, Investec Bank, RSA Group, RBS, Sonali Bank, Western Union among others.
Thaer Sabri, CEO of the EMA was speaking at Merchant Payments Ecosystem conference on 15 February 2017 in Berlin
Thaer was presenting on:
1) likely evolution of payment services over the next few years
2) regulatory trends and the increasing need for a global regulatory arrangement
3) Brexit and immediate impact
Payments trends and takeaways from MPE Berlin 2017 – by Payvision
Gijs op de Weegh, COO of Payvision & Acapture, a data-driven omnichannel enterprise, shares an overview with the hottest payments trends and takeaways from this year’s MPE edition.
The 10th anniversary of the Merchant Payments Ecosystem conference, known as MPE Berlin, tackled all the essential themes: payments trends, ecommerce developments, regulation, fraud fighting techniques and, ultimately, what the future holds for the industry. Attending such an exciting forum helped us start the year well informed and focused. We returned more inspired, with new ideas and practices ready to be implemented and with great enthusiasm to create even more value for our merchants and partners. We have compiled a short overview with the hottest payments trends and takeaways.
The overall impressions? MPE Berlin was lively, captivating and insightful. The buzzwords of this edition were data science, IoT, frictionless payments, PSD2, consumer behavior, and machine learning.
As the industry finds itself in a state of constant change and development, we have reached the stage where payments are no longer a dull aspect of commerce. With the evolving technology, payments have acquired a strategic element, turning as Ron Kalifa, chairman of Worldpay said, “from boring to boardroom”.
Data science
As I have mentioned during my presentation, payment providers should focus on creating seamless payments by taking a closer look at authorization flows, reducing fraud and creating a complete payments experience. Additionally, be it local or cross-border ecommerce, it is within the payment providers’ role to ensure that the end consumer experiences seamless payments.
Philip Robinson, EMA’s Terrorist financing expert gave the presentation at Counter-Terrorism awareness day on 19 January, held at Empress State Building – MET Police, London.
The 13th China International Finance Forum, Shanghai, 15 to 16 December 2016
Forum theme: Open financial services in the era of shared economy
Dr Thaer Sabri, the EMA’s CEO was a speaker at this international financial event presenting his vision of the future of payments, specifically new payments infrastructure, the new payment intermediaries enabled by APIs, thoughts on digital currencies and finally the need for a new global regulatory model.
E-money seminar on Malta as a leading European payments and e-money destination, 8 November 2016 in London,
Dr Thaer Sabri joined a number of speakers, discussing the impact of Brexit on the industry UK
The seminar did also provide delegates with information on Malta as a jurisdiction and how one would go about setting up a PSP / EMI, covering also a debate on the opportunities and challenges in relation to: the industry; regulations such as PSD II; and financing such as raising capital, exit strategies, mergers and acquisitions.
We set out our position on the implementation of customer due diligence and local point of contact provisions in 4MLD in a letter sent to the Latvian Ministry of Finance on 27 September.
The letter made a number of comments similar to those set out in previous responses to other EEA member states. These included:
Article 12exemption from CDD for some e-money products: we set out a compelling argument for the retention of this provision. While the exemption does not create vulnerabilities, products issued under this Article benefit, for example, the financially excluded segment of the population;
Articles 15, 16 and Annex IIthat allow SDD for low-risk products; we emphasised the importance of these provisions for EMIs that rely on the risk-based approach under Article 15 to onboard new customers;
disproportionality of the local point of contact requirement under Article 45(9), highlighting that someone located at the central office (e.g. compliance officer or MLRO) would be more knowledgeable and better able to engage with the Latvian regulator.
We submitted a letter to the Austrian Ministry of Finance on 27 September, welcoming their proposals to no longer include EMIs passporting into Austria on a cross-border basis within the scope of the AML laws.
Although the draft law included the SDD provisions set out in Article 15, it did include the Article 12 e-money exemption. In setting out our arguments, we urged the regulator to consider implementing the exemption.
Regarding the requirement for a local point of contact, we provided arguments similar to those in previous EMA responses to member states’ 4MLD consultations, highlighting that the exchange of information can be facilitated effectively without imposing such a requirement.
