David Birch confirmed as EBAday 2024 challenge speaker

finextra.com:

Encouraging the audience of payments professionals and executive bankers to think differently, Birch will take to the stage – as many have done before him – to provide insight into the economic and political ramifications of the move towards digital money.

In 2023, for example, alumni of the Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum programme and founder and CEO of Stellar Capacity, Claudia Olsson was EBAday’s challenge speaker.

The ‘challenge speaker’ keynote gives an innovative thinker the space to share their true views on the contentious issues in the payments and transaction banking world. Olsson tackled the topic of ‘value in a connected world.’ Olsson’s work has focused on the impact of new technologies on citizens, society and global markets. She is a sought after speaker on exponential technologies, future trends, leadership and governance.

Ranked one of 2022’s global top 30 fintech influencers, Birch is one of the top three most influential people in London’s fintech community and rated Europe’s most influential commentator on emerging payments.

He is also a contributor for Forbes, a columnist for Financial World magazine and has written for publications ranging from the Parliamentary IT Review to The Financial Times. He also wrote a column in The Guardian for many years. A media commentator on electronic business issues, he has appeared on BBC television and radio, Sky and other channels around the world.

In 2022, Finextra sat down with Birch to discuss some of the evolving trends in digital identity; when asked why it is important that we strive toward a world where the consumer has full autonomy and control over their data, he said: “This comes down to the difference between implementing things using