Point Zero Forum 2025
Zurich, Switzerland
Navigating the Future of Finance: A Critical Call for Policy Action in Europe and Beyond.
Digital Assets
Artificial Intelligence
ESG
Europe is facing the perfect storm. There's an urgent need for the region to redefine its regulatory stance, gain its digital sovereignty, and capitalise on untapped opportunities—while avoiding the risk of falling behind. To confront this reality, over 2,000 of the world's leading policymakers, central bankers, regulators, and industry experts are coming to The Global Finance & Technology Network's (GFTN) annual global policy gathering, the Point Zero Forum this May. Over three days of dialogue and collaboration, we will tackle pressing challenges and explore actionable policy, finance, and technology pathways forward to drive progress in sustainability, inclusivity, innovation, and efficiency across the global financial system.
Key Themes and Questions Guiding the 2025 Dialogue
Blockchain
How can stablecoins and digital assets seamlessly integrate into regulated banking and payments to drive efficiency across the financial value chain?
Artificial Intelligence
Will Agentic AI-driven intelligent systems redefine industrial productivity and unlock new frontiers of innovation?
Green Tech
Can cutting-edge data solutions accelerate sustainability efforts by ensuring transparent disclosures and seamless compliance?
Wealth Management
How will intergenerational wealth transfer, private and public market shifts, and the demand for alternatives reshape value creation in wealth management?
Path to Europe's Technology Independence
How can Europe establish a resilient foundation of policies and infrastructure to secure its digital sovereignty?
Demographics
What innovative policies can Europe adopt to promote social and economic inclusion in the face of demographic shifts?
Startup Founders Spotlight
How are Europe’s founders shaping the future - leveraging innovation, unlocking capital, and scaling solutions that drive economic resilience and global competitiveness?
Latest Updates

Watch Forum Sessions
Access three months of replays from the Forum and Insights stages via our app. Hear global leaders' perspectives on AI, ESG, and Digital Money at your convenience.
Programme Overview


2024 Featured Speakers
Forum Overview
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Innovation Tours
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Point Zero Forum Dinner
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Forum Stage
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FutureMatters Stage
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GFTN Insights
Public-private Roundtables
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Deep Dive Workshops
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1 - 1 Meetings
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Industry Networking Event
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SwissHacks
2025 Featured Speakers
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Alan Marquard
Executive Vice President, Commercial & New Payment Flows , Mastercard
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Andrea Maechler
Deputy General Manager, Bank for International Settlements (BIS)
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Antonio Alvarez Lorenzo
Chief Compliance Officer, Crypto.com
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Ari Redbord
Global Head of Policy and Government Affairs, TRM Labs
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Audrey Metzger
Director of Innovation and Financial Market Infrastructures, Banque de France
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Caesar Sengupta
Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Arta Finance
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Carmen Hett
Corporate Treasurer, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
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Catrin Hinkel
Chief Executive Officer, Microsoft Switzerland, Microsoft
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Cecilia Skingsley
Head of the BIS Innovation Hub, Bank for International Settlements (BIS)
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Christian Kettel Thomsen
Chairman of the Board of Governors, Danmarks Nationalbank
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David Brear
Founder & Chief Executive Officer, 11:FS
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David Rutter
Chief Executive Officer, R3
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Doug Feagin
President, Ant International
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Dr. Alessandro Curioni
IBM Fellow, Vice President, Europe & Africa and Director, IBM Research - Zurich, IBM
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Dr. Axel Weber
President, Center for Financial Studies
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Dr. Dirk Klee
Chief Executive Officer, BlackRock Switzerland
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Dr. Mampho Modise
Deputy Governor, CompanySouth African Reserve Bank (SARB)
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Dr. Nicola Jentzsch
Head of Innovation, Deutsche Bundesbank
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Dr. Wolfram Seidemann
Chief Executive Officer, Currency Technology, Giesecke+Devrient
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Elise Soucie Watts
Executive Director, Global Digital Finance
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Emma Butterworth
Head of Innovation & Payments Policy, Bank of England
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Frederik Gregaard
Chief Executive Officer, Cardano Foundation
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Friederike Lange
Head of Digital Finance, Payment Services and Cybersecurity, German Federal Ministry of Finance
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Gregor Kaelin
Head of Financial Services, Google Cloud Switzerland
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Guy Parmelin
Minister at the Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research (EAER), Government of Switzerland
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Hans Koning
Global Chief Industry Specialist Digital Finance, World Bank Group
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Holger Neuhaus
Head of Market Innovation and Integration Division, European Central Bank
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Johann Kerbrat
Senior Vice President & General Manager, Crypto, Robinhood
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Karen Pepper
Head of Strategic Initiatives, Payments, Amazon
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Laust Bertelsen
Chief Executive Officer, Banking Circle SA
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Leong Sing Chiong
Deputy Managing Director, Markets and Development, Monetary Authority of Singapore

Alan Marquard
Executive Vice President, Commercial & New Payment Flows
Mastercard

Andrea Maechler
Deputy General Manager
Bank for International Settlements (BIS)

Antonio Alvarez Lorenzo
Chief Compliance Officer
Crypto.com
Antonio is responsible for leading worldwide regulatory compliance across Crypto.com's entire product ecosystem. His compliance background expands across payments, remittances and cryptocurrency offerings. Prior to joining Crypto.com, Antonio led a successful Anti-Money Laundering (AML) program that was deployed across European and Asian markets at Coinbase. Antonio also served as senior business leader at Visa and has held senior roles at a number of other payments companies including Western Union. During a 13-year tenure at American Express, Antonio was responsible for leading the business transformation and compliance governance programs across multiple business lines and geographies.

Ari Redbord
Global Head of Policy and Government Affairs
TRM Labs

Audrey Metzger
Director of Innovation and Financial Market Infrastructures
Banque de France
Audrey Metzger is the Director of Innovation and Financial Markets Infrastructures Directorate. Previously, she was Director of the Strategy Directorate at Banque de France.
She joined Banque de France in 2003 after being graduated from EDHEC business school and receiving a master in civil law from Paris Descartes University. After several positions in financial markets law and implementation of monetary policy fields, she has worked intensively during more than 8 years in oversight of financial markets infrastructures and in developing a strategic understanding and vision of those infrastructures.

Caesar Sengupta
Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer
Arta Finance

Carmen Hett
Corporate Treasurer
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
Carmen Hett is UNHCR's Corporate Treasurer and a Corporate Finance Professional with vast expertise in devising capital structures and directing resource allocation to meet organizational strategic objectives. She has responsibility for managing globally financial delivery of aid assistance promoting direct and easy access for the recipients to global financial ecosystems and markets. She is a leader in using financial transformational technologies at scale for deployment of digital value transfers and payments to strengthen readiness and preparedness in emergencies, promoting economic and financial inclusion for ALL. Her career spans more than 25 years at blue-chip companies and public sector organizations at both the director and board level.

Catrin Hinkel
Chief Executive Officer, Microsoft Switzerland
Microsoft

Cecilia Skingsley
Head of the BIS Innovation Hub
Bank for International Settlements (BIS)

Christian Kettel Thomsen
Chairman of the Board of Governors
Danmarks Nationalbank

David Brear
Founder & Chief Executive Officer
11:FS
David is the CEO of 11:FS and since his dream of being a sportsperson was crushed (along with the ligaments in his knee!) and he had to get a proper job, he has worked in pretty much every angle of the financial services industry never losing that competitive desire to drive forwards and win.Having pitched, established and run billion-pound transformations for some of the biggest FS companies on the planet the realisation that Digital Financials Services Is Only 1% Finished has spurred his desire to establish an organisation that can actually support the industry through its greatest challenge.

David Rutter
Chief Executive Officer
R3
David founded R3 in 2015 and in his role of Chief Executive Officer is responsible for the strategic direction of R3. With 40 years of experience leading some of Wall Street’s top institutions, David is a longtime creative thought leader in financial markets and innovation and has played a significant role in the adoption of electronic trading in the global OTC derivatives industry.

Doug Feagin
President
Ant International

Dr. Alessandro Curioni
IBM Fellow, Vice President, Europe & Africa and Director, IBM Research - Zurich
IBM

Dr. Axel Weber
President
Center for Financial Studies

Dr. Dirk Klee
Chief Executive Officer
BlackRock Switzerland
Dr. Dirk Klee, Designated Country Manager BlackRock Switzerland and Senior Advisor to the BlackRock EMEA Wealth business, has established himself as an experienced, innovative leader who is passionate about building and leading client-focused businesses. Throughout his 25+ year career, he has held key leadership positions at some of the world's leading financial institutions. Most recently, he was Board Member at VP Bank and CEO of Bitcoin Suisse. Prior to that, he ran Barclays’ Wealth Management & Investments business as CEO and served as COO for International Wealth Management at UBS. Before his previous tenure at BlackRock, as Country Head for Germany from 2008 to 2013, Dirk led PIMCO’s business development in Germany for a decade. Dirk is a lawyer, holds a Master of Law from the London School of Economics (LSE) and graduated Dr. jur. from the University of Mainz.

Dr. Mampho Modise
Deputy Governor
CompanySouth African Reserve Bank (SARB)
Dr Modise is a deputy governor of the SARB and a member of the Monetary Policy Committee. She oversees the Financial Stability Cluster, which includes the Corporation for Deposit Insurance (CODI), the Economic Statistics Department, the Risk Management and Compliance Department, and the Fintech Unit.
Before joining the SARB, she was the Deputy Director-General of Public Finance at National Treasury, responsible for fiscal and financing monitoring and evaluating policy proposals across national departments. She was also responsible for assessing the performance and overseeing public and state-owned entities. Formerly a chief director for strategy and risk management at National Treasury’s Asset and Liability Management Division, she was responsible for implementing a strategy and risk management framework and managed the government’s relationships with global rating agencies. Deputy Governor Modise is the Chair of the CODI board and oversaw the successful launch, and continuous public engagement of the Corporation for Deposit Insurance.

Dr. Nicola Jentzsch
Head of Innovation
Deutsche Bundesbank
Dr. Nicola Jentzsch is the newly appointed Head of Innovation at the Deutsche Bundesbank, where she leads the InnoWerk within the Department of Strategy and Innovation. Before joining the Deutsche Bundesbank, she was the first appointed Chief Data Scientist at the BMBF, Germany's Ministry of Education and Research. Nicola also worked at the Federal Chancellory in particular on Germany's Data Strategy. She is an economist with more than 25 years of work experience and research in digital innovations and digital markets, data analytics and depersonalization. She holds a doctorate in Economics from the Freie Universität Berlin and was a Research Fellow at Yale University and Georgetown University. Dr Jentzsch has also served as adviser to the European Commission, the World Bank, CGAP and GIZ and various Central Banks in Africa and Asia. Just recently she was reappointed to the Board of Trustees of Fraunhofer ISST.

Dr. Wolfram Seidemann
Chief Executive Officer, Currency Technology
Giesecke+Devrient

Elise Soucie Watts
Executive Director
Global Digital Finance

Emma Butterworth
Head of Innovation & Payments Policy
Bank of England
Emma is responsible for developing domestic and international policy in relation to traditional payment systems as well as more innovative forms of payment and settlement, including the Digital Securities Sandbox and stablecoins.
Emma has 20 years of experience across a wide range of policy roles at the Bank of England. Prior to her current role, Emma worked in the Bank of England's financial stability area and supported the establishment of the Bank's Financial Policy Committee.
Emma holds undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in economics from Durham University and University College London.

Frederik Gregaard
Chief Executive Officer
Cardano Foundation
Frederik Gregaard is CEO of the Cardano Foundation, the Swiss-based not-for-profit organization which exists to ensure the advancement of the Cardano protocol, while also contributing to the positive advancement of blockchain as a world-changing technology. A leader in fintech and blockchain, Gregaard previously served as Director and Head of Digital in PwC's Financial Services Advisory practice and as Director and Head of Institutional Business at Saxo Bank Switzerland. Whilst at the Cardano Foundation, Gregaard has overseen the advanced integration of state-of-the-art blockchain technology in a variety of fields that address real-world problems through collaborations with Switzerland for UNHCR, veritree, University of Zurich and Georgia’s National Wine Agency, among others.

Friederike Lange
Head of Digital Finance, Payment Services and Cybersecurity
German Federal Ministry of Finance
Dr. Friederike Lange is Head of Digital Finance, Payment Services and Cybersecurity at the German Federal Ministry of Finance, Berlin. Before stepping into her current position, she headed Financial Market Regulation Strategy and Capital Markets Union at the Ministry. She has a background in public law: Prior to joining the Ministry, she worked as an Administrative Court Judge, as a Law Clerk to the former President of the German Federal Constitutional Court, and as a researcher on comparative Constitutional Law.

Gregor Kaelin
Head of Financial Services
Google Cloud Switzerland
Gregor Kaelin leads the Financial Services Enterprise sector at Google Cloud Switzerland, supporting the biggest banks and insurance companies in Switzerland with their digital transformation.
Before joining Google Cloud, Gregor worked at Salesforce in the Financial Services sector driving some of the most innovative transformation projects within the Swiss banking industry. He holds an Executive Masters degree from University of Zurich.

Guy Parmelin
Minister at the Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research (EAER)
Government of Switzerland
Political activities
2021: President of the Swiss Confederation
9 December 2015: Elected to the Federal Council
2003–2015: Member of the National Council
2000–2004: President of the Swiss People’s Party (“SVP”) in the Canton of Vaud
1994–2003: Member of the Cantonal Parliament of the Canton of Vaud
1993–1999 President of the Municipality of Bursins

Hans Koning
Global Chief Industry Specialist Digital Finance
World Bank Group

Holger Neuhaus
Head of Market Innovation and Integration Division
European Central Bank

Johann Kerbrat
Senior Vice President & General Manager, Crypto
Robinhood
Johann Kerbrat is the Senior Vice President and General Manager of Robinhood Crypto. He oversees and leads strategy for the crypto business. Johann joined Robinhood to support the company in its mission to democratize finance for all and open up access to crypto to everyday investors. Prior to joining Robinhood, he held engineering roles at Airbnb, privacy-focused cryptocurrency startup Iron Fish, and founded an e-commerce and payments platform company. Johann grew up in Nice, France and holds an MSc in Software Engineering from Oxford Brookes University.

Karen Pepper
Head of Strategic Initiatives, Payments
Amazon
Karen Pepper is the Head of Strategic Initiatives, LATAM for Amazon. She has more than 20 years of experience leading global teams that innovate on behalf of customers at the intersection of financial inclusion, payments and technology. At Amazon she has held leadership roles in London, Seattle and Mexico City. Prior to Amazon she held regional leadership roles at JP Morgan and American Express. Outside of the corporate world, she founded and led a venture-capital backed chain of Spas for young families. She is also a passionate board member on charities that support Social Entrepreneurship and Anti-Trafficking. She holds an MBA from London Business School.

Laust Bertelsen
Chief Executive Officer
Banking Circle SA
As co-founder of Banking Circle SA, and with almost two decades experience in the banking and financial services markets, Laust Bertelsen has an innate understanding of the challenges that have existed in the cross-border payments space. Utilising his experience in the application of technological innovation, combined with his knowledge of the FX and currency markets, he has driven the development of Banking Circle’s propositions to ensure payments are more accessible, faster and more secure regardless of geography or currency.

Leong Sing Chiong
Deputy Managing Director, Markets and Development
Monetary Authority of Singapore
See What Others Have Said About the Forum

"These forums can only be the tipping point or starting point of further collaborations, so it’s a good way to start something new, starting new endeavours, and to find new partners to discuss things first."
Karmela Holtgreve
Director General Strategy & Innovation,
Deutsche Bundesbank

"These forums can only be the tipping point or starting point of further collaborations, so it’s a good way to start something new, starting new endeavours, and to find new partners to discuss things first."
Karmela Holtgreve
Director General Strategy & Innovation,
Deutsche Bundesbank
"I am not aware of any other conference where the right people can competently discuss in a dedicated circle the importance of the use of technology and innovation in the financial sector against the backdrop of geopolitical challenges. The Point Zero Forum is unique."
Christoph König
Deputy State Secretary for international finance,
Switzerland
"The topics that are chosen for discussion, are things that will be done in the future, and thats very important to us as policymakers because it helps us keep our eyes on what there is to come, and to prepare ourselves for that future."
Tommaso Mancini-Griffoli
Division Chief of the Payments, Currencies, and Infrastructure,
International Monetary Fund
"I am not aware of any other conference where the right people can competently discuss in a dedicated circle the importance of the use of technology and innovation in the financial sector against the backdrop of geopolitical challenges. The Point Zero Forum is unique."
Christoph König
Deputy State Secretary for international finance,
Switzerland
"The topics that are chosen for discussion, are things that will be done in the future, and thats very important to us as policymakers because it helps us keep our eyes on what there is to come, and to prepare ourselves for that future."
Tommaso Mancini-Griffoli
Division Chief of the Payments, Currencies, and Infrastructure,
International Monetary Fund
Forum Highlights
FutureMatters Magazine:
Europe Edition
*This publication features articles, interviews and analysis that capture the essence of Point Zero Forum 2024.
- July 2024 - A Beacon for Thought Leadership in Finance
Welcome to the first European edition of Future Matters Magazine, focused on thought leadership in finance related to the Point Zero Forum 2024 in Zürich. This publication offers insights on the future of finance from a European policy perspective and shares global insights from Global Finance & Technology Network (GFTN) 's initiatives.
GFTN brings together a diverse community of regulators, tech experts, and industry leaders to drive innovation and sustainable growth in finance. Their goal is to bridge knowledge gaps and harmonise regulatory frameworks with technological advancements.
The Forum promotes global policy alignment, leveraging Europe’s regulatory expertise, and connects to events like the Singapore FinTech Festival. The Point Zero Forum 2024 gathered over 2, 000 key stakeholders to discuss and influence industry trends.