Token.io was proud to join forces with our partners, Santander and BNP Paribas, at Money20/20 Europe 2025 to shed light on how leading banks are leveraging A2A payments to transform the future of how money moves across Europe.
We were thrilled to collaborate with Santander and BNP Paribas at Money20/20 Europe 2025, where—under the expert moderation of Melisande Mual, Managing Direcrtor of The Paypers—we explored how banks are “not just reacting to change, but building the next wave of payment innovation.”
Here's what stood out:
A2A is answering a real market need.
As Lirka Bibezic, Global Head of Product Management - Receivables at BNP Paribas put it:
“Our corporates and merchants are looking for a new way of getting paid. (...) Why? Because, especially in the B2B market merchants want to get paid immediately — and they want certainty they will get paid, irrevocably.”
Customer experience is king.
Gerry Davies, Payments Commercial Director and Cards Tribe Lead from Santander nailed it:
“We always put our customer at the centre of everything we do. (...) I always come back to the customer. Do they want to pay with a card, or do they want to pay with account-to-account? Whichever is better for the customer is ultimately where institutions like Santander will follow.”
Partnerships with the right providers are critical to delivering on the promise of A2A payments.
On why Santander partnered with Token.io, Gerry explained:
“In terms of picking a provider to help us on this journey (...) it’s important to make sure we have reliability and stability. But really, for me, what’s critical is breadth of service. Being able to look at different use cases (...) the ability to use open banking with Token.io makes perfect sense.“
Scale and security matter.
Lirka also elaborated on why BNP Paribas chose to partner with Token.io:
“Reach was also a very crucial aspect in finding the right partner — Token.io — having sufficient endpoints all across Europe. And of course, IT security (...) We needed to make sure our partner was reliable and at the highest level in terms of IT security standards.”
Beyond savings, open banking-enabled payments impact customer satisfaction.
Charles Damen, Chief Product Officer at Token.io, pointed out:
“Pay by Bank has a really positive impact on customer satisfaction. We power a lot of credit card repayment services (...) we’ve seen 100% improvement in customer satisfaction when they deploy Pay by Bank. In one use case, 92% of customers used it within six weeks, representing two-thirds of checkout volume. We often talk about the cost savings of Pay by Bank, but — particularly if you look at retail bank use cases — there’s some really positive elements around customer satisfaction, which I think are critical.”
And — the A2A payments landscape is continuing to evolve.
Charles shared:
“We announced last week we’re now part of the giroAPI scheme (..) which will enable use cases such as BNPL and VRP-type functionality — and we believe this is really good from a competition perspective. We see a multi-scheme world emerging — giving merchants and consumers real choice, and ultimately providing a sustainable business model for all participants in the ecosystem.”
The emergence of multiple schemes isn’t a threat.
Rather, as Lirka explained, it underscores that the future for A2A payments is bright:
“Many people ask: why are there so many A2A initiatives? But I believe it is a good thing. There must be free and fair competition across Europe — no one questions why there are multiple card schemes. (Having multiple schemes) is not a threat (...) Having so many initiatives rings the bell. But we need to ensure, with so many initiatives, we are bringing sufficient reach."
Melisande added:
“I think the difference is that open banking — Pay by Bank — provides European reach. (...) Wero is — for now — a couple of countries in Europe."
The future of payments is being built now — and, together with our bank partners, Token.io is right at the heart of it.
What’s next for Santander and BNP Paribas?
Lirka revealed that BNP Paribas, which currently offers its A2A payment solutions in France and Italy, will expand this capability into other European markets. The bank also intends to make it faster and easier for corporates to implement A2A payment solutions through the bank, and will integrate collection via A2A payments within its e-invoicing solution this year.
Gerry also revealed Santander intends to expand A2A payment capabilities for its retail customers:
“When I think about what we want to do with open banking, I think about those customer friction points we still have. We’ve already solved a number of friction points for customers that are lucky enough to have a Santander account. You can fund a savings account, your mortgage payments, pay your credit card — those journeys are really easy. We are trying to replicate that frictionless experience for customers outside of the bank, whilst keeping them in our ecosystem. There are a number of use cases we’re developing with Token.io to deploy A2A payment capabilities inside our own ecosystem to solve those customer needs. Beyond that — the sky is the limit. There’s loads of exciting stuff we can do and we’re trying to ensure we move at pace.”
The takeaway?
Our panellists made it clear: A2A payments and open banking are no longer buzzwords — they’re driving real impact, from faster settlement to happier customers and new business models for banks.
At Token.io, we’re proud to be powering this change with reach, reliability — and relentless innovation.