Money20/20 USA 2026: Full Event Recap

Money20/20 USA ran October 18 to 21 in Las Vegas, and Financial Narrative was on the ground all week. Head of Financial Narrative, Ashley Jones, filed a video recap each day and recorded interviews with marketing and communications leaders from Plaid, CSI, Green Dot and the Financial Technology Association. Link to all the reporting and video content below!

Trust, AI and agents

Trust ran through the week. On Day 1, Vested Managing Director and FNN Contributing Editor Ted Birkhahn wrote that innovation is outpacing regulation, which makes credibility the deciding factor for scale. See the full report >>>

Day 2 turned to moving AI from ambition to execution. On Tuesday night, at a JPMorgan Payments and Axios event, Zack Anderson, chief data and analytics officer for JPMorgan Payments, asked who is responsible when an AI agent makes a purchase it was not authorized to make. See the full report >>>

Marketing Wednesday

Wednesday, October 21, was the marketing day, with three panels on how financial brands communicate.

In “Explain It Like the Money’s Yours: Clarifying the Complex Products,” Mary Sacchi of the World Gold Council and Greg MacSweeney of The Clearing House talked about turning complex financial products into stories people understand. Kimberly Hatton of Databricks moderated.

In “Breach, Response, Recover: The How To of Fintech Crisis Comms,” Erin Bruehl of Current and Shirley Powell of Finastra walked through the first hours after a security breach: how quickly to speak, how much to say before the facts are known, and how to manage regulators, customers, partners and the press. Vested Managing Director Jacqueline Gogel moderated.

In “How to Build Narratives the Locals Will Trust,” Hannah Hughes of Plaid, Michael Marinello of JPMorgan Chase, Stephanie Cadman of the World Gold Council and Candace Davies of i2c talked about keeping a brand consistent across markets with different regulatory rules.

Watch all three panels and Ashley’s Day 3 recap >>>

Interviews from the floor

Plaid CMO Hannah Hughes on Building Trust as a B2B Brand
Hughes on Plaid’s first fully integrated campaign, Innovation Needs Infrastructure, and why trust is a product decision.

CSI’s Brandi Meredith on Selling Fintech to Community Banks
Meredith on CSI’s plan to bring Qolo’s enterprise products to community banks losing commercial deposits.

FTA’s Sarah Mamula: Banks and Fintechs Agree on Fraud
The Financial Technology Association’s policy agenda, from open banking to the fight against fraud.

Green Dot’s Alison Lubert: AI Search Demands One Brand Story
Why Lubert runs marketing and communications as one team, and how AI search raises the cost of mixed messages.

Your voice counts

Our Annual Pulse Check is now open. The survey takes less than 10 minutes and helps the industry gauge where priorities are shifting as we look ahead to 2027. All respondents receive a copy of the completed report in January and are entered to win a complimentary Executive Membership, valid for one year and valued at $995. Take the survey >>>