Dr Michael Salmony is an internationally recognised authority on payments, FinTech and tokenised money, including CBDCs and stablecoins. Board-level adviser to major banks, the ECB, European Commission and central banks worldwide, he served a decade as Executive Adviser to the Worldline Board. He teaches at Oxford and studied at Cambridge.

Payments Innovation Consulting is a specialised consultancy focusing on regulation and technology-driven payment innovations, with particular expertise in tokenised money, CBDCs, stablecoins, Open Finance and FinTech. We advise central banks, regulators, commercial banks, neo-banks, processors and global consultancies, offering business consultancy, market research and training on the future of payments.

Debunking Myths around Blockchain and Tokenised Money

Blockchain is presented as — for the first time — enabling instant, free, transparent, programmable, immutable and decentralised systems. CBDCs such as the Digital Euro are promoted as delivering sovereignty, resilience, inclusion, privacy, efficiency and innovation. Stablecoins are sold as a direct, cheap, transparent, instant way of sending money across the globe without banks. Are these claims actually true? Which survive scrutiny, which collapse on closer inspection, and what are the genuine advantages of blockchain and tokenised money once the hype is stripped away? Join this session by an industry practitioner for an evidence-based, myth-busting perspective.

 

Panel Discussion: Lego for Finance

This panel will examine how Stablecoins, Tokenized Deposits, and CBDC will change the payments landscape. Composability is a defining characteristic of tokenized money. In blockchain-based and tokenized financial systems, composability refers to the ability of a financial asset, once represented as a digital token on a programmable platform, to be seamlessly combined, integrated, or interoperated with other tokens, applications, and smart contracts. This modular design enables financial components to be assembled and reassembled in numerous configurations, creating flexible, scalable, and innovative financial products—much like building blocks for finance. So Lego for finance that can be assembled in multiple combinations.

• How will this change the treasury / financial operations?
• What new systems, administration and control should be in place to manage?
• What about the supervisions and regulatory regulations?