Our Story

Two key factors quickly became evident:

With government and regulator support in the US and UK, P20 brought together leading industry players representing banks, networks and processors.  They agreed a strategy and in 2017 in London, P20 was officially launched with the help of Jack Lew, the former US Treasury Secretary and the UK City Minister, Steve Barclay. Former British Prime Minister David Cameron headlined the P20 Global Payments Conference in 2018 in Atlanta, epicenter of America’s Transaction Alley where 70% of US payments are processed.

As P20’s journey gathered speed, payments started to become an issue that touches everything.  New technologies emerged, companies with no history in payments began to develop platforms and fintech startups skyrocketed.  The effect of this technological advancement on reducing the use of cash has elevated payments on the global political agenda.  Safe access to at least one mainstream form of payment has become a signature issue for governments, both national and local. New technology is evolving has created a situation where it has advanced beyond regulation thus causing an increasing reliance, by government, on the goodwill of the private sector to act responsibly and collectively when appropriate.

P20, with its leading industry players and its established political, governmental and regulator relationships, sits at the junction where these roads meet.  Our priorities – non-competitive issues under the umbrellas of combating fraud & criminal transactions, cyber security, financial inclusion and ESG – are the leading issues of the day.