01
Kwame Álvarez
Head of Instant Payments · Aurora Payments
Singapore
Why they are included
Led a publicly documented migration of a national scheme to instant settlement with measurable adoption results.
Fintech
10 Payments Experts to Watch in Europe
Instant payments, open banking mandates and a new generation of account-to-account rails are remaking European payments. These practitioners are at the centre of it.
ExpertProfile.AI Editorial 1 min read 10 experts Europe Information checked 3 Sept 2026
Photo: Unsplash
European payments is in a rare period where regulation, infrastructure and consumer behaviour are moving in the same direction at once. Instant payment mandates, the maturing of open banking, and merchant appetite for lower-cost rails are creating a genuinely new competitive landscape.
The ten people below are recognised for public, verifiable contributions to that landscape. Entries are listed alphabetically by organisation and are not ranked.
The experts
Listed in editorial order, not ranked
Verified 13 Sept 2026
02
Leila Fraser
Open Banking Lead · Bankline Europe
New York, US
Why they are included
Author of open technical guidance on variable recurring payments adopted by multiple banks.
03
Mateo Delacroix
Chief Technology Officer · Tessera Pay
Dublin, IE
Why they are included
Regularly publishes engineering deep-dives on payment reliability and scheme connectivity.
04
Ingrid Ortega
Scheme Manager · Nordic Rails Initiative
Zurich, CH
Why they are included
Manages a cross-border scheme working group whose outputs are public and widely cited.
05
Rafael de Vries
Head of Fraud Strategy · Sable Risk
Lisbon, PT
Why they are included
Known for openly sharing fraud typologies and countermeasures across the industry.
06
Yuki Solberg
Product Director, A2A · Quill Checkout
Stockholm, SE
Why they are included
Shipped an account-to-account checkout adopted by large European merchants, documented in public case studies.
07
Noor Cardoso
Policy Director · European Payments Forum (sample)
Toronto, CA
Why they are included
Frequent, on-the-record contributor to European payments policy consultations.
08
Callum Hassan
Founder · Payline
Dubai, AE
Why they are included
Founded a payments company recognised for transparent pricing and public status reporting.
09
Beatriz Byrne
Head of Merchant Solutions · Marchant Group
Sydney, AU
Why they are included
Publishes practical guidance for merchants on routing, cost and conversion.
10
Oskar Marchetti
Principal Engineer · Ferro Systems
London, UK
Why they are included
Maintains open-source tooling used by several payment institutions.
Themes across the ten
The strongest through-line is interoperability: almost everyone here has spent public effort on standards, schemes or reference implementations rather than proprietary lock-in. The second is a pragmatic view of fraud, treating it as a design constraint rather than an afterthought.
Methodology
How this list was compiled
Profiles were selected from public conference programmes, scheme working groups and published work between May and August 2026, and verified against employer pages and professional profiles. No commercial consideration was involved.
Corrections & nominations
Help us keep this list accurate
Profiles are compiled from public sources and re-checked periodically. If a role has changed or something is wrong, tell us. If someone is missing, nominate them and we will research the public record.
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