Industry leaders debate commercials, VRP, and the roadmap to 2026 at OBExpo UK & Europe

The Open Banking ecosystem has reached a critical inflection point, moving from a phase of regulatory compliance to a concerted push for commercial viability and mainstream adoption, according to key speakers who opened Day One of Open Banking Expo UK & Europe 2025.

During the first Powerhouse Debate of the Expo, titled ‘The roadmap to real impact: Progress, pressure points and 2026 vision’, a panel of industry leaders agreed that while the UK has pioneered the sector and achieved significant scale, the path to a truly ubiquitous and sustainable future requires a clear commercial model, a coherent regulatory roadmap, and a laser focus on delivering tangible consumer value. 

The debate, moderated by Anu Widyalankara director, payments strategy and technology at EY, brought together key figures from across the ecosystem, including Tom Carpenter, senior vice president, Open Finance and Open Banking policy at Mastercard, Labour Member of Parliament Luke Charters, Megan Coulson, UK public policy lead at TrueLayer, George Miltiadous Open Banking director at HSBC, and Henk van Hulle, chief executive officer of Open Banking Limited. 

The Powerhouse Debate was followed by an Opening Keynote ‘Pay by Bank: From hype to how Europe pays’, delivered by Todd Clyde, chief executive officer of headline partner Token.io.

Token.io chief executive officer Todd Clyde delivering his Opening Keynote at Open Banking Expo UK & Europe

According to Clyde, the era of hype and disillusionment for Open Banking payments is officially over. In his compelling keynote, Clyde presented a data-driven case declaring that account-to-account (A2A) payments have transitioned from a promising concept to a mainstream payment method.

Clyde referenced Gartner’s influential hype cycle, announcing that Open Banking payments have successfully navigated the “trough of disillusionment” and are now ascending the “plateau of productivity”.

Open Banking Expo UK & Europe brought together a record 1,650 attendees, including key players from banks, fintechs, regulators, retailers and technology providers, to discuss the transformative potential of data-sharing in the financial services industry, while more than 180 speakers took to the various stages.

Reflecting on the Expo, Clyde said: “This year’s Open Banking Expo was our most exciting yet. As headline partner for the fifth-year running, we were proud to bring together a record number of industry innovators – with leaders from our partners Antom, BNP Paribas, ACI Worldwide and Trust Payments joining us on stage, and our partners Global Payments and HSBC joining the Expo community as event partners.

“For Token.io, this event is about connecting our partners to the wider community to accelerate the flywheel of progress. And the buzz around Pay by Bank this year was unmistakable. Pay by Bank is no longer just hype – it’s how Europe pays, and we’re proud to be powering it.”

Progress and pain points

A series of key themes shaping the ecosystem emerged at the event, with notable sessions addressing the scalability of commercial variable recurring payments (cVRPs), the importance of building consumer trust in Open Banking payments, and the growing role of collaboration between banks, fintechs and payment providers.

In the opening Powerhouse Debate, Open Banking Limited’s van Hulle pointed to the over 15 million users of Open Banking in the UK, but also observed that, globally, more than 100 countries are implementing Open Banking.

“Also, you see the pendulum in the world moving from a regulatory angle towards a more industry-led angle,” he added.

HSBC’s Miltiadous told attendees that one in four of the bank’s digitally-enabled customers use Open Banking on a regular basis.

“With that, we have proven that we have a reliable and scalable infrastructure. And the infrastructure can now handle millions of API calls every month,” he said.

Miltiadous also noted that, within banks, there is “a mindset change from regulation, regulatory delivery, and compliance, towards using Open Banking for commercial enablement”.

TrueLayer’s Megan Coulson noted that Pay by Bank is “having that scale-up moment”.

She added: “As we’re thinking about, as an ecosystem, how are we going to progress and grow Pay by Bank even further, how do we create and design that really impressive user experience. Now, clearly, that’s going to need a combination and a really smart blend of things, so on the one hand, commercial incentives to drive a better user experience, but also that evolving baseline of regulation.”

Mastercard’s Carpenter said: “I think technical standards uniformity is going to be really important, especially as we move into Smart Data, to ensure that we are still using, as much as we can, a common set of standards.”

He said he had seen a lot of markets struggle to expand when those standards begin to diverge.

Further reading: Innovation celebrated as winners of Open Banking Expo Awards 2025 revealed