Where Cyprus and Europe Converge to Shape the Future of Payments & RegTech
#npf
27th NextGen Payments & RegTech Forum
19 NOVEMBER 2026
Four Seasons Hotel - Limassol, Cyprus
JOIN PAYMENTS, COMPLIANCE & REGTECH LEADERS FROM CYPRUS, EUROPE & BEYOND
LET’S CONNECT
“Well begun is half done”
Aristotle
Welcome to the NextGen Payments & RegTech Forum – Cyprus 2026!
Join us at the Four Seasons Hotel in Limassol for an energising one-day forum at the crossroads of payments, compliance, RegTech and AI. Building on the success of the 2025 Forum in Cyprus – which brought together leading banks, EMIs, PSPs, fintechs, legal firms, regulators and service providers from across Cyprus, Greece and the wider region – the 2026 edition will go even deeper into the technologies, regulations and strategies reshaping the European payments ecosystem.
Across a full day of keynote sessions, strategic panels and practical case studies, you will explore how instant and real-time payments, A2A transactions, digital wallets, open banking, crypto, stablecoins, the Digital Euro and embedded finance are transforming customer journeys and business models. You will also gain clarity on the evolving EU regulatory landscape – from PSD3/PSR and the Instant Payments Regulation to the EU AML package, MiCA, DORA, NIS2 and new expectations from supervisors – and what all this means for institutions operating out of Cyprus as an EU-regulated hub.
A special focus will be placed on AI and agentic AI in payments and RegTech – building on sessions such as The Age of AI is Now, Agentic AI in RegTech and The AI Shift: Reinventing Payments, Regulation and Compliance – examining how intelligent, goal-driven systems can orchestrate workflows, enhance fraud and financial crime detection, and support compliance teams while keeping governance, explainability and human oversight firmly in place.
Whether you represent a bank, EMI, PSP, forex or trading firm, crypto company, merchant, RegTech provider, consultancy, law firm or regulatory body, the Forum is designed to deliver concrete, actionable insights and open the door to high-value partnerships across Cyprus, Europe and neighbouring regions.
Reserve your place in Limassol and help shape the future of payments, compliance and RegTech from the heart of the Eastern Mediterranean.
OUR SPONSORS
![[VC] Horizontal Logo (1)](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/96eae3_3ad88bbce7014a3992429e5c61f9aac0~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_980,h_244,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/96eae3_3ad88bbce7014a3992429e5c61f9aac0~mv2.png)
OUR SPEAKERS
Our speaker line-up brings together leading voices from the global payments industry, the EU compliance sector, and top banking technology innovators. They will deliver high-value insights on driving innovation, meeting regulatory demands, and navigating the rapidly evolving payments landscape.
OUR CONTRIBUTORS
WHAT'S COMING UP
Cyprus as a Strategic Payments & Fintech Hub
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Instant, A2A & Open Finance in Practice – How instant payments, A2A schemes and open finance APIs are changing consumer and merchant experiences, settlement, and liquidity management for firms operating from Cyprus into the EU and beyond
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Cross-Border, FX, iGaming & Digital Commerce – Leveraging Cyprus’ position as a regional hub to power high-volume cross-border flows, FX, iGaming and e-commerce – while keeping customer experience, pricing and risk in balance
Regulatory Change, AML & Supervisory Expectations
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From PSD2 to PSD3, PSR, MiCA & the EU AML Package – What the new wave of EU regulation means in practice for Cyprus-based institutions: licensing, safeguarding, transparency, AML/CTF, sanctions and consumer protection
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DORA, NIS2 & Operational Resilience by Design – Translating requirements on ICT risk and cyber resilience into robust, scalable operating models that satisfy regulators while enabling innovation and growth
AI & Agentic AI in Payments & RegTech
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From Rules-Based to Risk-Based – and Now Agentic – Moving beyond traditional rules and static models towards risk-based monitoring and agentic AI systems that can coordinate tasks, triage alerts and support real-time decisioning in onboarding, fraud and AML
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Governance, Explainability & Human-in-the-Loop – Designing AI and agentic AI with the right guardrails: model governance, documentation, bias and fairness controls, and human oversight that regulators, boards and customers can trust
Financial Crime, Fraud, Crypto & the New Payments Infrastructure
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Next-Generation Fraud & AML Defences – Using AI, advanced analytics and collaborative intelligence to combat scams, mule accounts, APP fraud, cyber-enabled crime and cross-border money laundering, building on real examples from banks, EMIs and PSPs in Cyprus and Europe
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Crypto, Stablecoins, CBDCs & the Digital Euro – What MiCA, CBDCs and the Digital Euro mean for payments, trading and treasury: integration of crypto payments, evolving regulatory expectations and how to prepare infrastructure, controls and customer journeys for the next phase
THE AGENDA
19 NOVEMBER | LIMASSOL | CYPRUS
The 27th NextGen Payments & RegTech Forum will bring together senior leaders to explore the future of payments, compliance, and financial innovation in Cyprus and Europe. The agenda highlights AI and blockchain in compliance, cryptocurrency and CBDCs, instant and account-to-account payments, cross-border innovation, and financial crime prevention, offering insights into the opportunities and challenges shaping 2026.
19 NOVEMBER 2026
08:30-09:00
REGISTRATION & WELCOME COFFEE
Participants arrive, register, and enjoy welcome coffee
Sponsored by Vivox AI & UMCA Technologies & Solanteq
09:00-09:05
WELCOME ADDRESS
Opening remarks
Lilly Pavlou, Executive Director at QUBE Events
09:05-09:10
CO-CHAIRS OPENING ADDRESS
Key themes for Cyprus and Europe in 2026 and how to maximise the day
Robert Courtneidge, Payment Industry Expert
Malek Mroueh, International President at Profit Insight
09:10-09:40
PANEL DISCUSSION + Q&A
Agentic AI in Payments & Regtech - Practical Use Cases,
Governance & ROI
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Agentic workflows in onboarding, monitoring, chargebacks and investigations
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Human-in-the-loop controls, auditability and model risk management
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Operating safely at speed: explainability, thresholds, and escalation design
Moderator: Malek Mroueh, International President at Profit Insight
Ioannis Chrysanthou, Deputy Group Chief Technology Officer at INGOT
Menicos Mavrommatis, Technology Lead, Cyprus & Malta at IBM
Vladimirs Kovalovs, Founder & CTO at Recomply
Stefanos Marcou, Chief Operating Officer at HFM
Iryna Theodoulou, Chief Compliance Officer at eToro
09:40-10:05
FIRESIDE CHAT + Q&A
Who Should Actually Hold the Keys? Custody, Control and Trust in the Age of Digital Assets
Moderator: Robert Courtneidge, Payment Industry Expert
Artem Stopnevich, CEO at The Vault
10:05-10:30
KEYNOTE DISCUSSION + Q&A
Certification is a Moment, But Resilience is Continuous - Compliance in the AI Era
Andrius Minkevičius, CTO & Co-Founder at Copla
10:30-11:00
PANEL DISCUSSION + Q&A
DORA & NIS2 Readiness for Payments - Operational Resilience by Design
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Third-party risk, cloud oversight and critical service mapping
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Incident response, testing and reporting: meeting DORA timelines in practice
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Cyber resilience for payments and RegTech stacks: what to prioritise in 2026
Moderator: Panos Panayiotou, Founder & CEO at circl3.tech
Demetrios Papaconstantinou, Head of Risk Management at StoneX Europe
David Garland, Business Development Manager at Veracloud
Anatolii Makovetckii, Chief Information Security Officer at Unlimit
Savvas Panayiotou, Chief Information Security Officer at National Bank of Greece, CY
11:00-11:30
NETWORKING COFFEE BREAK + ONE-TO-ONE MEETINGS
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Opportunity for attendees to network, connect and discuss insights from the morning sessions
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Pre-qualified one-to-one meetings
Sponsored by Infocredit & Copla & Inventi
11:30-11:55
KEYNOTE DISCUSSION + Q&A
AI Budgets Are Being Cut: What the 6% Seeing
Real Returns Did Differently
Tim Khamzin, CEO at Vivox AI
11:55-12:10
LIGHTNING TALK + Q&A
5 Months Since MICA Transition Deadline - Where is the Industry Now?
Justine Scerri Herrera, Partner at MK Fintech Partners Ltd
12:10-12:40
PANEL DISCUSSION + Q&A
EU AML Package (AML/AMLR), Sanctions & Supervisory Expectations - What Changes for Cyprus - Based Firms
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AMLA supervision and the practical operating-model changes for EMIs, PSPs and VASPs
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Sanctions screening at scale: reducing false positives while staying audit-ready
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Outsourcing, group structures and cross-border risk: controls regulators expect
Moderator: Nassos Paltayian, Head of Compliance, Risk and Information Security at Abacus Limited
George Apostolides, Deputy CCO/AMLCO at Eurobank Ltd
Elena Kontou, Chief Executive Officer at Sepaga EMI
Bruno Carneiro Leão, Chief Regulatory Officer at payabl.
Harout Der Bedrossian, Head of Compliance & AMLCO at DECTA
Thanos Christou, Head of AML Advisory, Regulatory Intelligence at Infocredit
12:40-13:05
KEYNOTE EXPERIENCE
Levels of Connection 4.
Stephanos Papadopoulos, Founder & CEO at Spatzia.eu
13:05-14:05
NETWORKING LUNCH
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Refuel and expand your network at the Networking Lunch
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Hosted tables and curated introductions
Sponsored by BPC
14:05-14:35
PANEL DISCUSSION + Q&A
Fraud & Scams 2026 - APP Fraud, Mules & Real-Time Defence
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Preventing APP scams and social engineering: customer protection and intervention models
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Mule detection and network signals: collaboration across banks, PSPs and merchants
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Real-time decisioning with accountable automation (incl. agentic defence)
Moderator: Demetra Kalogerou, Former Chair of CySEC | Independent Financial Consultant and Non-Executive Director at DKA Financial Consultants Ltd
Andreas Christodoulides, Head of Compliance & MLRO at Admirals Europe Ltd.
Pavel Davydov, Chief Security Officer at Freedom24, Freedom Finance Europe Ltd.
Christoforos Livadiotis, Group Chief AML Officer at XM
Georgios Panagiotou, VP Engineering at Plum
14:35-15:05
PANEL DISCUSSION + Q&A
Cross-Border Payments, Remittance & Treasury - Cyprus as an EU HUB
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Transparency, tracking and reconciliation: ISO 20022 and end-to-end status visibility
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FX, liquidity and treasury impact for EMIs, forex and trading firms
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Compliance-by-design for cross-border risk, fraud and sanctions
Moderator: Dorina Mastora, Deputy Compliance Officer at Elias Neocleous & Co LLC
Marina Shartdinova Logkra, Head of Banking Cyprus at payabl.
Pavel Laptev, Co-Founder & Chief Product Officer at Unipesa
Eracles Hadjieracleous Andreou, Head of Finance Operations at Pay.com
Artemis Rossides, General Manager at Profee
15:05-15:35
PANEL DISCUSSION + Q&A
From MiCA to Mainstream: Stablecoins, Tokenised Money & the Future of Payments in Europe
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MiCA in practice: responsibilities for issuers, PSPs and crypto payment providers
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Stablecoins and tokenised money: settlement, treasury and B2B use cases
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Risk, safeguards and interoperability: what must be solved for mainstream adoption
Moderator: Elina Mantrali, Counsel at Harneys
Kyriakos Christofidis, Executive Director (Digital Assets) at Capital Vault Ltd.
Jürg Baltensperger, Managing Director at JayBee Ltd.
Sophia Nearchou, Head of Regulatory Compliance at Revolut
Oren Danziger, Managing Director at Finvasia Wealth
Shimon Kogan, General Counsel at Xoala
15:35-16:05
NETWORKING COFFEE BREAK + ONE-TO-ONE MEETINGS
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Opportunity for attendees to network, connect and discuss insights from the afternoon sessions
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Pre-qualified one-to-one meetings
Sponsored by Veracloud & Damex.io & Axia Search
16:05-16:35
KEYNOTE DISCUSSION + Q&A
Why Intelligent Orchestration Will Define the Winners of The Next Payment Race
Julian Farley, Sales Director UK and Europe at BPC
16:35-17:05
PANEL DISCUSSION + Q&A
Agentic Payments - The Companion to Agentic Commerce
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Delegated authority in practice: consent, limits, identity and how agents change the payment journey
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New risk patterns: liability, scams, AML/sanctions and governance for autonomous transactions
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Infrastructure implications: tokenisation, orchestration and A2A rails built for agents
Moderator: George Kleanthous, Head of Banking at Enalian Consulting
Loukas Priovolos, Head of Office & Financial Reporting Manager at Deriv
Georgia Kyprianou, Senior Director Product Development at FIS
Sotiris Prokopiou, Product Strategy Manager at Mastercard
Panayiotis Theodosiou, Chief Operating Officer at Moneygate Solutions
17:05-17:30
PANEL DISSCUSION + Q&A
Who Owns Your SEPA Access? Direct Connectivity vs Sponsor Banks
Moderator: Robert Courtneidge, Payment Industry Expert
Asta Meskereviciute, Co-Founder at Inventi
Olga Bespaļko, Chief Expert in Payment Systems Operations at Latvijas Banka
17:30-17:35
CO-CHAIRS CLOSING COMMENTS
Summarising the key takeaways from the conference and addressing final questions from attendees
Robert Courtneidge, Payment Industry Expert
Malek Mroueh, International President at Profit Insight
17:35-20:30
NETWORKING PARTY
Join us for an unforgettable evening of music, cocktails and celebration at the stunning Garden Pool of the Four Seasons Hotel, as COLIBRIX ONE hosts the Official Networking Party!
Enjoy the sounds of a live DJ, an open bar featuring signature COLIBRIX ONE drinks and cocktails, and a specially curated food menu, all set against the backdrop of a vibrant and elegant poolside atmosphere.
Bringing together participants from this premium event, this exclusive gathering offers the perfect opportunity to make new connections, strengthen existing relationships and celebrate the success of the Forum in style!
Proudly Sponsored & Hosted by COLIBRIX ONE
MEDIA PARTNERS
KEY BENEFITS FOR PARTICIPATING
Interactive Hybrid Platform
Hybrid events enable you to put a virtual face to your organisation or come actually face-to-face by speaking to your viewers, attending meetings and networking
Build Thought Leadership
Showcase expertise and establish yourself as an industry thought leader
Generate Leads
It is the most cost-effective way to generate qualified leads of key B2B decision makers
Targeted Audience
Meet & engage with your target group
Global Reach
Hybrid events enable you to connect with your target audiences both locally and globally
New Prospects
Engage with new prospects and support existing relationships thus helping to drive leads into your sales funnel
PAST EVENT VIDEO
BECOME A SPONSOR
Sponsoring an event like The 27th NextGen Payments & RegTech Forum provides you with a perfect opportunity to secure new clients, showcase your products & solutions, interact directly with your target audience and grow your international business network.
You can expect to build new partnerships and expand your network with key decision-makers and industry influencers.
Our Sponsorship package takes on a holistic approach and includes:
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An integrated international marketing & branding campaign strategy
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20 minute keynote presentation
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Inclusion on an industry-expert panel discussion
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Access to The Meeting Point which includes pre-qualified one-to-one meetings
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Various dedicated social media campaigns
MEANINGFUL NETWORKING
The time to connect with our colleagues and peers in the Payments and RegTech sector is here! Our aim with the 27th NextGen Payments & RegTech Forum is to facilitate key discussions and create a platform for meaningful networking. No spamming, no irrelevant conversations, just quality conversations that promote business growth.
