Federal Reserve Financial Services (FRFS) remains steadfast in its commitment to payments modernization, instant payments adoption and fraud mitigation through education, evolving innovative tools and industry collaboration. Reflecting on the fall 2025 conference season, several key insights and takeaways stand out from discussions about the future of payments and the industry’s changing landscape.
The Evolution of Instant Payments: A Glimpse into the Future
The landscape of instant payments is rapidly evolving, driven by growing demand for immediate transactions. Financial institutions increasingly are adopting these services. Projections indicate that by 2028, 70% to 80% of all financial institutions will be able to receive instant payments and 30% to 40% will be able to send them. Moreover, there is notable interest in data quality and reconciliation rather than solely the speed of instant payments, highlighting the importance of ISO® 20022 standards and robust data management practices. As companies and customers continue to embrace instant payments, the focus remains on enhancing both transaction speed and security, ensuring a seamless and reliable payment experience for all users.
Sibos 2025
Sibos is a premier gathering of over 10,000 international payments experts, making it a pivotal event to engage with decision-makers and thought leaders across the ecosystem. This year’s conference, themed “The next frontiers of global finance,” featured more than 250 sessions delving into cutting-edge topics, such as artificial intelligence (AI), quantum computing, digital assets, payments, securities, foreign exchange, interoperability, cybersecurity and environmental, social and governance (ESG) topics.
Among the conference highlights, sessions with Mark Gould, FRFS chief payments executive, and Nick Stanescu, chief FedNow® executive, captivated audiences with their insights on instant payment adoption, the Fedwire® Funds Service’s successful migration to the ISO 20022 message format, and FRFS fraud mitigation and educational tools, such as the FraudClassiferSM model, ScamClassifierSM model and fraud mitigation toolkits.
Gould emphasized, “This is the most exciting time to be in payments in a generation,” capturing the essence of the innovations and collaborative efforts transforming the industry.
Money20/20
Money20/20, one of the largest gatherings of the global money ecosystem, proudly dubs itself as “fintech’s preeminent event.” This year’s conference, themed “Create the Future in 2025,” granted opportunities to join discussions with banks, payments providers, tech companies, startups, retailers, fintech firms, financial service firms and policymakers to discuss the future of payments and financial services. The event highlighted a fundamental shift in the world of money, driven by unprecedented AI-boosted generational change.
Nick Stanescu, chief FedNow executive, and Bernadette Ksepka, senior vice president and deputy head of product management for the FedNow Service, delivered insights during their sessions on the momentum and opportunities with instant payments. Stanescu, who recently spoke on a popular fintech podcast (Off-site), also dove into the evolving landscape of AI payment systems. Stanescu emphasized the transition from passive AI assistants to autonomous agents that can perform complex tasks independently. This shift is evident in cross-border payments, where AI is reducing complexities and accelerating processes. Additionally, AI is breaking down organizational silos, streamlining workflows and enhancing compliance.
One focus was AI’s ability to automate customer payments and personalize experiences. AI is revolutionizing risk management by creating a seamless and safe transactional environment to set a new standard in efficiency and security. This can enhance the customer experience but also reduces decision-making friction.
AFP®
At this year’s Association for Financial Professionals (AFP) conference, themed “Ideas into Impact,” over 7,000 corporate financial professionals gathered to network, learn and transform ideas into tangible results. The ISO 20022 standard and what comes next was a significant focus during this event. Discussions highlighted how a diverse spectrum of businesses, including small enterprises, are leveraging this standard to enhance their payment processes.
Firms use ISO 20022 to convert payments data due to its rich message format that significantly boosts the efficiency of operations processing and reconciliation. Amid growing concerns about the impact of AI on fraud, sessions explored how key verification methods can address vulnerabilities in payments instructions.
The conference also delved into AI-driven fraud prevention, emphasizing the use of chat agents, aliases and tokenization to combat fraud. Additionally, fraud modules are being enhanced using data from ISO 20022 messages, offering new ways to mitigate invoice fraud through request for payments (RFP) data on the collections side. The adoption of RFPs also opens up opportunities beyond traditional bill pay, including business-to-business vendor payments, employee purchases, e-commerce and point-of-sale transactions, showcasing the transformative potential of ISO 20022.
Chicago Payments Symposium
This event, sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, continued its 25-year streak of excellence. In-person and virtual attendees explored payment trends, enjoyed fruitful networking and left with actionable insights. Keynote addresses and panel discussions focused on our digital future; innovation; the payments market outlook; risk management; open finance; global, instant, retail and wholesale payments; fraud and information sharing. Read more about the event here.
Looking Ahead
These fall conferences underscored the industry’s collective commitment to advancing the U.S. payment system. Federal Reserve Financial Services remains dedicated to engaging with stakeholders, sharing insights and collaborating to advance the future of payments.
Stay Connected
Explore upcoming events and FRFS participation on our Industry Events page (Off-site).
Note
The Federal Reserve Banks do not sponsor or endorse any of the non-Federal Reserve Bank-related products, parties or entities mentioned in this publication.
“AFP” is a registered trademark of the Association for Financial Professionals.