I’d long heard of Money 20/20 as the premier financial / fintech conference on the planet but never attended – until this year. After all, Your Best Credit Cards is a fintech (we currently have 5 people working on the platform) and I’m aways on the lookout for things like partnerships, new technologies, new perspectives and networking. Who knows, maybe you’ll want to go yourself next year!
And I’m so glad I went because as much as there was a ton of B2B content that went way beyond my B2C brain, there was a ton of consumer oriented content. The conference felt a bit to me like SXSW for fintech in that there was endless content by day and endless branded events and parties at night. Truly a sight to behold with over 10,000 attendees at the Venetian convention center (great timing to hit that Venetian Tier Match!)
I wanted to focus on that here since I’ve been told countless times that you enjoy when I write about things like personal finance and financial technology.
So with that in mind, here are all the things that I found most interesting at Money 20/20 in 2024:
Speakers
It’s truly amazing the kind of speakers one could find at Money 20/20 – everyone from Brian Kelly (The Points Guy) talking about the Credit Card Competition Act – something that I railed against endlessly this year with any journalist that would listen and, in my opinion, probably not something we have to worry about the incoming administration prioritizing – to financial rockstars like Rohit Chopra, Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and Gary Gensler, the current SEC chair.
Other notable speakers included:
- Daniela Amodei, President at Anthropic (AI)
- Sheri Haymond, Co-President of Global Partnerships at Mastercard
- Raj Dhamodharan , EVP, Blockchain & Digital Assets at Mastercard
- Cuy Sheffield , VP Global Head of Crypto at Visa
- Chris Britt , CEO & Co-Founder at Chime
That’s just a *taste* of the caliber of the speakers. Of course, the content was the star of the show and there sure was plenty.
Below I’m going to briefly summarize both the sessions I found most interesting and some companies to keep an eye on.
The first and I think most important thing that was awesome to listen to was Rhohit Chopra of the CFPB talking about what is known as Rule 1033. This rule, which was just finalized ahead of Money 20/20 is the cornerstone of what is known as Open Banking.
Do you remember when cell phone numbers could not be brought from one carrier to another? I sure do. If you were dissatisfied with your cell phone service and wanted to change carriers, you had to get a new phone number! It’s crazy to look back at that time, but I remember it well. Then they introduced “number portability” and carriers became required to let you take your number with you acknowledging it should be yours and not theirs.
Rule 1033 / Open Banking
Open Banking is similar in that while the crux is that your financial institution will be required to share all of your own data with you (everything they have about your accounts), they are also now going to be required to allow you to grant third party access. So if you want to change banks or simply move part of your banking relationship to a fintech, that fintech will be able to directly integrate your data rather than you having to try to figure it all out and give to them manually.
It goes a long, long way in eliminating what executives and marketers alike call “switching costs” – how hard is it for you to move your business from one company to another (in this case from one bank to another or from a bank to any kind of fintech).
Now, this won’t rollout tomorrow despite the rule being final and it also won’t apply to every financial institution. If the institution has less than $850 million on deposit, they will be exempt from this.
Otherwise, this will need to be implemented by institutional asset size as follows:
- April 1, 2030, for banks with assets between $850 million and $1.5 billion
- April 1, 2029, for banks with assets between $1.5 billion and $3 billion in assets
- April 1, 2028, for banks with assets between $3 billion and $10 billion in assets
- April 1, 2027, for banks with $10 billion to $250 billion in assets
It was great to hear Mr. Chopra walk us through all of this from the main stage.
Gary Gensler – Head of the SEC
While he may not be for long, based on incoming President Trump’s very public disdain for Mr. Gensler, it was super interesting to watch this interview.
He shared his perspective on a range of topics, but a big one was around crypto. Loathed by many crypto investors for his history of going after unregulated crypto as securities, he did take care to eplain that there are so many scams out there and his mission is purely to protect consumers – not stifle innovation. He used a phrase along the lines of crypto being “fully compatible” with the SEC’s mission, but within guardrails.
I guess we’ll see what happens there!
Ascenda
Closer to home, I spent quite a bit of time at the Ascenda loyalty marketing booth. Ascenda used to be called Kaligo and is a loyalty platform that can be white-labled in  order to allow a company to create a loyalty platform including points transfers to airline and hotel platforms. They have pre-negotiated agreements with the partners that you most commonly see from credit card issuers, and you can also negotiate your own agreement with one outside of that pre-set list and they will facilitate the transfers.
You used to need to be a *gigantic* company to be able to work with Ascenda, but they are now open to partnering with smaller companies than before thanks to the white label system they have built. That doesn’t mean they’ll work with a “small” company and your company will need to be willing to reinvest a decent part of ongoing revenue into the platform – but it’s great to hear that it will make points transfers (of course they have all the other things that don’t get mad excited like gift cards) available to more startups and smaller companies.
If you think you have one of those companies and want some help figuring out if they would be a fit for you and how, please contact me.
Is Congress Going to Kill Credit Card Rewards?
I thought I’d spend time talking about this act, which I have talked a lot about (here, for instance) with various media throughout 2024.
I am 1,000% against this act which would likely demolish credit card rewards just like predecessor of this bill by the same sponsor, Dick Durbin, did to debit card rewards.
The Points Guy has been lobbying against this on a large scale and the arguments against were presented in this session with Brian.
However, I do not see the incoming administration prioritizing this and therefore I do tend to think this will be DOA – at least for now.
Of course, there was a ton of AI
One session that covered this particularly well was one called “Gen AI Agents: Your New Work BFF?” which touched on productivity increases, enhanced customer service experiences, and ethical implications.
There were many companies that were financial-AI focused and this is no doubt a trend that will continue. Regardless of whether or not certain AI related stocks are overvalued or not, the technology, like the Internet in 2000, is here to stay.
More…
Big data, digital wallets, digital banking, crypto / stable coins, SOC compliance, AML (anti money laundering), you name it – it was covered here.
Networking
The best part of Money 20/20 for me was the networking.
From a speed-networking session that kicked off the event on opening day, to what seemed like hundreds of sponsored events and parties throughout 4 days, left endless opportunities for meeting people from all walks of industry. There were even three sponsors of the bars/restaurants each day from 12-4 and against from 5-11. More networking!
While only a handful of these were truly in my wheelhouse, there’s something to be said for network effect and “I don’t work in that, but you know, I know someone you should meet…”
TwentyFold
TwentyFold is “Money20/20’s Fintech Intelligence Platform.”
I had no idea what it was going into the show but after a great demonstration at their booth, I think it’s an invaluable tool for startups and growing companies alike.
Essentially, (for a fee, to be clear), you can deep dive data on over 68,000 companies and get targeted information on things like who invested in companies like yours to suss out VCs that may take an interest in your startup, get ideas on potential partnerships, learn more about not just company investors, but key players of companies you are interested in and much more. You can get more information and ask for a trial here.
Coming in 2025 – The Money 20/20 Awards
They won’t be called the Money 20/20 awards, but they will be essentially that. I actually met with the people tasked with getting this all together for its debut (they currently run the Cannes Lion awards which you may have heard of 😉 ) and I think these will be done amazingly well. I can’t wait to see how it turns out.
Bottom Line
I loved Money 20/20 and can’t wait for the event in 2025. The show seems to grow meaningfully every year and with the awards launching next year, it should be that much more in the public light.
See you there next year!
