PAY360

Pay360 is the UK's largest dedicated payments event, organised by The Payments Association (formerly the Emerging Payments Association). Each year it brings together 6,000+ professionals from across the UK and European payments ecosystem — banks, fintechs, merchants, regulators, card networks, acquirers, processors, and the technology vendors that connect them. The agenda spans 200+ speakers and 150+ exhibitors across two days, focused on payments innovation, regulation, financial crime, and the commercial dynamics shaping money movement in the UK and beyond.

Pay360 is also the event where the UK regulatory community and the commercial payments community meet in one room — making it the year's most concentrated touchpoint for anyone whose work intersects with Financial Conduct Authority, PSR (Payment Systems Regulator), Pay.UK, or the Bank of England. It sits alongside FinTech Week London, FinTech Connect and Open Banking Expo UK & Europe as calendar anchors for the same audiences.

What happens at Pay360

• Multi-stream conference — keynotes, panels, and working sessions across acquiring economics, scheme strategy, open banking, financial crime, real-time payments, embedded finance, and regulatory updates. Sessions skew practical and policy-aware rather than purely visionary.
• Exhibition floor — UK and European PSPs, acquirers, gateways, fraud and identity vendors, scheme representatives, and infrastructure providers. For many vendors targeting the UK market, Pay360 is the single largest annual customer touchpoint.
• Awards and networking — The Payments Association's industry awards, structured networking sessions, and the established London-fintech-week fringe events that surround the conference.

Who attends

Heads of payments and treasury at UK and European banks (Lloyds, HSBC, Barclays, NatWest, Nationwide, Santander UK, Standard Chartered). Senior leadership at challenger banks (Monzo, Starling, Revolut, Tide, Wise). Acquirers and PSPs (Worldpay, Adyen UK, Mollie, Stripe UK, Checkout.com, GoCardless, Truelayer). Fraud and risk executives. Open Banking platform providers and TPPs. Merchant-side payments leaders from retail, hospitality, and online marketplaces. Regulators and policy staff from the FCA, PSR, Bank of England, and HM Treasury. Card scheme representatives from Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Discover. The Payments Association's own member community across the UK and Europe.

Pay360 is not a consumer-fintech event and is not crypto-led. It is the operational and regulatory planning forum for the UK payments industry — and its policy positions carry weight with HMT and the PSR in the months following the conference.

Dominant themes at Pay360

• UK real-time payments and the NPA — Faster Payments, the New Payments Architecture (NPA), Pay.UK roadmap, sunset of legacy schemes.
• APP fraud and the PSR reimbursement regime — Authorised Push Payment fraud, mandatory reimbursement rules, fraud prevention technology, behavioural biometrics.
• Open Banking and Variable Recurring Payments — VRP rollout, commercial VRP, premium APIs, OBL (Open Banking Limited) future structure.
• Cards and acquiring economics — interchange under the PSR, scheme fee reviews, merchant cost-of-acceptance.
• Cross-border payments — G20 roadmap implementation, correspondent banking changes, SEPA and SWIFT GPI interaction with UK rails.
• Embedded payments and fintech-merchant integration — embedded finance economics, B2B payments, marketplace payment flows.
• Financial crime and AML — sanctions, screening, AI-assisted detection, money-mule networks.
• Regulation and policy — the PSR's strategic priorities, FCA's payments perimeter, BoE's wholesale settlement work, UK CBDC discussion.

Planning to attend

ExCeL London is on the DLR (Custom House for ExCeL); plan for 45–60 minutes from central London depending on route. Hotels closest to the venue book out earliest — the Marriott Custom House, Aloft Excel, and Crowne Plaza Docklands fill first. For attendees flying in, London City Airport is a 5-minute taxi from the venue and is heavily used by European payments delegates; Heathrow / Gatwick / Stansted add 60–90 minutes via train or taxi. Most senior UK delegates also stack pre- and post-event meetings around the conference — request meetings 4 weeks in advance.

Use the expense calculator below to estimate the total cost of attending — registration, travel, accommodation, and meals — based on your origin city.