The Banking Scene Director's Cut

AI agents are about to sit between you and your bank, and that changes everything about trust, authorisation, and who is accountable when something goes wrong. We sat down with Adam Preis, Director of Product Solution Marketing at Ping Identity, to unpack the new chain of trust emerging in financial services and why banks need to prepare for a world where your agent may be negotiating, switching,...

The Banking Scene LIVE webinar preview and highlights from our latest white paper, "Open Banking and Embedded Finance in Europe: A Benelux Perspective on Regulation, Sentiment, and the Road Ahead".Rik Coeckelbergs shares an early preview of our research on open banking and embedded finance, drawing on desk research, interviews with industry leaders, and years of conference discussions. H...

AI is not the hard part in finance. The hard part is human judgment, governance, and knowing where generative AI actually belongs and where it absolutely does not. Christophe Atten, author of Generative AI for Finance Leaders, shares the grounded playbook finance teams need before they automate the wrong things. We sat down with Christophe to unpack why he wrote the book now, why he intentionally...

PSD2 did not deliver the open banking revolution everyone expected, but it did something more important: it built the infrastructure, ecosystem, and mindset Europe now depends on. In this episode, Rik Coeckelbergs speaks with Karl Illing, Executive Partner Payments and Open Banking at MSG for Banking, about what PSD2 actually achieved, where open banking fell short, and why the next wave of open f...

Regulation and innovation are not opposing forces so much as two hands on the same steering wheel, occasionally fighting for control, but ultimately needed together if European payments are to remain safe, competitive and sovereign. Rik and Andrew discuss their favourite highlights from the event, along with the key takeaways outlined in the summary article you can find on our website here . There...

In this episode, Rik speaks with Lauren Jones, Open Banking Lead at Paylume, about the past, present, and future of open banking in Europe. They break down what PSD2 achieved, where adoption still lags, and why the next wave of regulation may need stronger standards, better governance, and a clearer commercial model. Lauren also shares why AI and open finance could finally make the user experience...

Rik Coeckelbergs speaks with David Demerie, Chief Marketing and Sales Officer, and Guillaume Boland, Head of Product Management at Isabel, about PSD2’s real impact, the promise of PSR standardisation, and why trust, consent, and security will matter even more as open finance expands. In this conversation, they also discuss why the biggest opportunities may now be in embedded finance, e-invoicing,...

This conversation with Samet Varlik, Head of Sales at Expleo Group focuses on how banks should test, govern, and monitor AI systems that are probabilistic rather than deterministic. The key takeaway is simple: once AI can change records, move money, or initiate actions, banks are no longer just testing software output - they are testing behaviour, responsibility, and risk. We discuss what good tes...

In this conversation with Gijs Boudewijn, chairman of the European Payments Council, we explored what PSD2 achieved, where it fell short, and why open banking has been slower to turn regulation into real market momentum. The discussion also covers SPAA, the move from directive to regulation with PSR, the challenges around FiDA, and how AI may reshape consent, fraud, and agentic commerce. Gijs brin...

While PSD2 was a game-changer for some organisations, its impact has been varied across the industry. Success isn't just about technology; it's about understanding customer behaviour and finding the sweet spot where business ambitions align with user trust. As this interview with Bratel Braeckman, Head of Department Open Bankinsurance at KBC Bank unfolded, it became clear that both busines...

In this episode, Rik speaks with Jasper Wolfs, head of product open banking at Rabobank, about the state of open banking 10 years after PSD2, to find out what worked, what didn’t, and where AI may take it next. They compare business and retail adoption, dig into premium APIs and real-world use cases, and look ahead to PSR, FIDA, and the role AI may play in shaping open finance. Jasper brings a use...

During the first content block of our Fraud and Compliance track at our flagship conference in Brussels this year, we heard from industry experts how AMLA, data and AI are reshaping the compliance function, during a keynote: "The Latest Trends in Compliance: AML and Sanctions and Screenings", delivered by Wendy de Meyer, Deputy Chief Compliance Officer at Belfius. Which was followed by a...

Discover how open banking is shaping the future of financial services through the lens of Deutsche Bank's Open Finance Lead, Joris Hensen. This episode explores the successes, challenges, and opportunities within open finance, with expert insights on regulation, technology, and the role of AI. You can read the interview summary on our blog here . Key topics: The evolution and success of open b...

Most banking as a service stories are about quick wins and shiny new APIs. Joe Wilson reveals how Bunq is quietly building a robust infrastructure layer designed for long-term partnerships, not just quick integrations. Unlike traditional banks, Bunq as a Service is about extending their platform into B2B, empowering other fintechs and companies to innovate without the heavy lifting of compliance,...

A recent panel session at the European Payments Council, moderated by Andrew, explored the impact of agentic commerce from the perspective of issuers, acquirers, merchants and customers. Rik summarised his key takeaways from the session in his blog here and discussed some of the gaps in the debate with Andrew in this episode. For more insights on Agentic AI and The Future of Banking, download our...

In our first ever book review, we invited guests, Julia Streets and Wasim Mushtaq to join us along with Chris Skinner, for a dive into Chris Skinner's first foray into fiction, "Diary of a Ponzi Scheme". It's a unique blend of finance and fiction (a completely new genre that Chris calls "Finction"), that challenges conventional thinking about trust and social proof in i...

The Banking Scene LIVE webinar preview of highlights from our latest white paper, "AI and The Agentic Future of Banking". This session explores the monumental shift in financial services from passive Generative AI assistants to fully autonomous, goal-oriented AI agents. Discover how leading financial institutions like ING, Rabobank and Revolut are scaling agentic architectures in product...

Agentic AI is currently one of the most discussed topics in banking, but the conversation is moving beyond the excitement of new technology. For banks, the real question is no longer whether agentic AI has potential, it is how to deploy it safely, measure it properly, govern it effectively and turn experimentation into enterprise value. This was the central theme of a recent conversation we had wi...

Most banks are currently talking about Agentic AI, ING is actually deploying it at scale and seeing real results. In this episode, Thomas Geerinck, ING’s Groupwide Retail Chief Data Officer, shares how the bank is turning AI into tangible business value through agentic AI, beyond just experiments. Discover why scale, infrastructure, and strategic deployment are the key differentiators for banks ai...

"Are we there yet?". When it comes to Open Banking and Embedded Finance, are we still debating if we should, instead of implementing what we can? How do we (the Benelux Banks) stack up against the rest of the world and what can we learn from them? Is regulation a help or a hindrance? We have so many questions and we are sure you do too, which is why we invited Nicola Breyer, an internati...

Stablecoins are often discussed through the lens of crypto, payments innovation and customer experience. But at Money20/20, one conversation stood out: the geopolitical impact of stablecoins and what their rapid growth could mean for Europe’s financial sovereignty. In this episode, Andrew and Rik reflect on the last 2 weeks and discuss Money20/20, the rise of US-denominated stablecoins, the implic...

What does agentic AI actually mean for banks, and where can it deliver real value today? In this episode of The Banking Scene Director’s Cut, Andrew Vorster speaks with Rachael Hadaway, Vice President of Product Management at FICO, about the practical reality of agentic AI in banking. Their conversation explores where AI agents can genuinely improve workflows, why human oversight remains essential...

What does agentic AI really mean for banks, and where does the reality differ from the hype? In this episode of The Banking Scene Director’s Cut, Andrew Vorster speaks with Wesley Wuyts, Senior Customer Advisor at SAS, about how banks are approaching agentic AI, where the biggest opportunities lie, and what it will actually take to move from promising demos to reliable production use in a regulate...

Rik and Andrew discuss the key takeaways from a round table Think Tank session held under the Chatham House Rule with senior financial services professionals on the topic of Agentic AI in banking. You can find a summary of the discussions on our website here if you prefer to skim-read the highlights.

Sára Hanniker, Head of AI Solutions and Research, and Josef Dvořák, Chief AI Officer (CAIO) at Finshape, shared their insights and experience in this candid interview. What emerged was not a story about rapid disruption or easy wins. It was a much more useful conversation. Their view was that agentic AI in banking is real, but the route to value is slower, more structural and more demanding than t...