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EBAday 2026: Zooming in on AI and digital assets as the key themes of the event
## /payments
News and resources on payments systems, innovations and initiatives worldwide.
#### Editorial
This content has been selected, created and edited by the Finextra editorial team based upon its relevance and interest to our community.
# EBAday 2026: Zooming in on AI and digital assets as the key themes of the event
The two final panels at EBAday 2026 explored how AI systems are rapidly evolving from passive tools to autonomous agents, and recapped the highlights of this year’s events.
4 Likes018 June 2026 [Be the first to comment](https://www.finextra.com/newsarticle/47948/ebaday-2026-zooming-in-on-ai-and-digital-assets-as-the-key-themes-of-the-event#comments)
#### Editorial
This content has been selected, created and edited by the Finextra editorial team based upon its relevance and interest to our community.
One of the penultimate sessions of the day: ‘From Automation to Autonomy: Agentic AI in the Payments Ecosystem’, explored how financial institutions can harness autonomous AI to drive innovation and efficiency. Moderated by Alexandre Havard, payments service leader, Deloitte, the expert panel included speakers Carlo Bovero, global head of cards and retail payments, BNP Paribas; Carlos Figueredo, global head of payments, SAP Fioneer; Nadish Lad, global head of product and strategic business, Volante Technologies; and Edwin Sanders, tribe lead innovation, Rabobank.
Havard opened the session and shared that some elements of agentic AI may seem like science fiction, but since the start of 2026, it has been the catalyst for an evolution in the payments market. Referencing the likes of Mastercard and PayPal, Havard said that "either you will have the agent, or they will have the agent, but there will be a change in the way payments are done. Your finance department will also have to reimagine the way they recieve information and exchange with peers and providers."
He went on to say: "All of that for now seems to be quite theoretical. In practice, we are not yet at the full production speed, because it's quite \[a recent development\] but it's something that is being discussed and you have to decide what you want to do, whether it's a pure black box managing your agent, or if you want a trusted contract with your agent.
Bovero responded and said there "is a lot we can do in terms of managing different kinds of flow through agentic commerce platforms, but technologically the standards are not yet there. From a regulatory point of view or better to say responsibility point of view, there is a lot more that we have to define."
Introducing the first audience poll, Havard asked: ‘which payment workflow is most ready for AI agents today?’, with the options being: ‘autonomous purchasing’ (44%), ‘exception handling and payment repair’ (33%), ‘treasury and payment optimisation’ (14%), and ‘disputes and chargebacks’ (10%).
On this poll, Figueredo mentioned that he sees it from a different perspective. "For us, as a software provider, we're entrusted by our customers that are tier one, tier two, and central banks to not only provide robust solutions but also to think about the way of things to come. In this case, AI is playing such an important role in how they are processing these messages, or these payments. I'm not surprised at the result for exception handling because that's what comes to mind first, \[because it is important to have\] that trusted partner that can look at risk."
He added: "If you are able to provide a service that reduces risks for banks, the rest comes along, the investments, the opportunities. The most important thing we need to tackle is having that trusted partner so when we talk about agentic AI and AI in general, our solution has to be around reducing risk as much as possible."
Lad was surprised that exception handling and payment repair weren't the top workflow, "because for autonomous purchasing, I would say that we don't have the regulation at this moment on whose fault is it in case something goes wrong. Whereas exception handling and payment repair, for example, is where operations can get self-contained.
"We are working closely with a few of our clients, where at this stage it is not autonomous, but it's more like suggestions, recommendations, and then approval by the operator or the supervisor. That way we think that in the next couple of years, the knowledge datasets will grow sufficiently for someone to take that risk in terms of the full automation.
"The other thing that we are seeing, or we think that is going to take off is smart routing. We are seeing increasingly that there is a number of options of how payment can be settled today. It can go via faster payments, it can go via RTGS, low value, and especially when it comes to cross border, you have so many channels.
"Increasingly, it's going to be difficult to understand the pros and cons of each of these channels. Honestly, \[all that\] the initiator of the payment wants is for the payment to be settled quickly, efficiently, cheaply. We think that AI can play a big part, and based on the currency pair, location, value, etc, AI can actually make a difference and recommend the best or the optimal route through which the payment can be settled," Lad explained.
Sanders agreed and concluded that "it's about a combination of adoption and trust. I think that the trust needs to grow before we can adapt. I love the enthusiasm in the room about autonomous purchasing, but I think it will take some time, because we probably need to build up some trust.
"If you look at the corporate side, it's actually not a really a big step to do things autonomously, because we already do quite a lot of financial decision making. We already delegate the systems, if you look at optimisation of treasury, or algorithmic trading, all these kind of things we already do, so I think that's not a really big step. It's more incremental on the retail side towards consumers. We still need to build that trust, and that will probably be some kind of progressive delegation curve."
**Bringing EBAday to a close**
The final panel focused in on looking back on EBAday’s highlights, which was followed up by a quick-fire round-up, exploring the key takeaways of this year’s conversations and looking ahead to what comes next. Moderated by Finextra’s Debi Bell-Hosking, the panel included Krister Billing, SEB; Sergio Dalla Riva, Intesa Sanpaulo; Thomas Egner, Euro Banking Association; Wolfgang Ehrmann, Euro Banking Association; and Kasper Sylvest Olsen, Danske Bank.
Bell-Hosking opened the session and asked the panel to share the themes they would like to see on the EBAday agenda next year. Olsen said digital assets; Ehrmann, developments in AI; Egner, fraud fighting activities; Dalla Riva, stablecoins; and Billing, AI breakthrough use cases.
And with that, another EBAday event came to a close, with a standout:
- 1442 Registrants,
- 120 Speakers,
- 23 Sessions and
- 7 FinTalks Sessions.
[**Register your interest today to join us on 15-16 June 2027 for next year’s event in Rome, Italy.**](https://www.ebaday.com/register)
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#### Editorial
This content has been selected, created and edited by the Finextra editorial team based upon its relevance and interest to our community.
