Point Zero Forum 2025 Unplugged: What’s Next for Financial Innovation?

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Katherine: Hello and welcome to the latest episode of our Sound of Finance podcast.

Katherine: My name is Catherine. I'm a marketing manager at ZDB Consulting.

Katherine: And in today's special edition, we're taking you to Zurich for a deep dive into

Katherine: the Point Zero Forum 2025, one of the most influential gatherings shaping the

Katherine: future of global financial services.

Katherine: This forum brings together central bankers, regulators, tech pioneers,

Katherine: and financial leaders to explore bold ideas around digital assets,

Katherine: AI and finance, regulatory transformation and more. So, what's the buzz on the ground?

Katherine: What trends will shape our industry in the coming month?

Katherine: To answer these questions, I'm joined today by Julian Schmeing,

Katherine: partner at ZDB Consulting.

Katherine: Julian is an expert on digital assets, DLT and cryptocurrencies, just to name a few.

Katherine: Welcome, Julian. Thanks for taking the time to sit down with me.

Julian: Thank you, Catherine. I'm happy to be here.

Katherine: I'm glad to hear. Julian, you, or rather ZDB Consulting, have been a proud community

Katherine: partner of the PointZero Forum for the second year in a row now.

Katherine: What's the reason behind this commitment?

Julian: With ZDB, we are very much focused on financial institutions in the European

Julian: Union and Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Julian: We have a quite narrow focus on a global scale. And for us as ZDB,

Julian: it is very important also to have an idea of innovation, which is going on in Asia or the US.

Julian: And with the Point Zero Forum, we have an outstanding gathering of experts and

Julian: leaders in the financial services industry from all over the globe.

Julian: And that brings us some new ideas we can bring also to our European markets.

Katherine: Okay, thank you. Is there anything special? What stands out to you most at this

Katherine: year's Point Zero Forum compared to last year's meeting, for instance?

Julian: So we have been attending the Point Zero Forum for a couple of years,

Julian: and it's very interesting to see the shift between financial institutions as

Julian: incumbents and tech innovators of fintechs.

Julian: And with the rising boom of digital assets and DLT business models primarily

Julian: driven from the US perspective, we see quite a shift compared to last year,

Julian: where the forum was very much focused on financial institutions and incumbent players as sponsors.

Julian: And now again, we see a rise of the fintech companies and tech companies entering

Julian: the Point Zero Forum again, and that brings a lot of value in these discussions.

Katherine: We've heard a lot of talk around digital assets and CBDCs, and you,

Katherine: Julian, are an expert in this field.

Katherine: Where do you see the most immediate potential?

Julian: So, again, we have to compare the EU or the European view to the global view.

Julian: As Europeans, we made huge progress.

Julian: Since the last Point Zero Forum, Mika regulation turns into forces and formed

Julian: the biggest single European market for crypto assets,

Julian: also compared to other markets on a global scale.

Julian: And that means from the

Julian: european perspective we are very much on the

Julian: forefront of the overall market adoption

Julian: of digital assets and dlt but when it comes to innovation we also have to look

Julian: to on the other side of the pond to the u.s because with deregulation complete

Julian: different environment We see there a big change also when we talk about stablecoins.

Julian: CBDC projects were completely cancelled by the Trump administration.

Julian: On a European level, we are more focused on the CBDC projects rather than stablecoin projects.

Julian: And in an Asian point of view, we have been seeing a lot of discussions about

Julian: payments, cross-border transactions, etc.

Julian: Because there is a bigger need compared to the European level.

Julian: Because we have already a single European payment scheme where we don't have

Julian: those exact same complications in the overall market infrastructure and very

Julian: much still focused on the investment side.

Julian: And it's not that easy to say that there is only one immediate potential.

Julian: It's very different compared to the area where you would like to run your business.

Katherine: It really does sound like you are looking forward to the meeting, to the gathering.

Julian: Definitely, I do.

Katherine: Yeah. But are you expecting any big surprises or shifts in thinking among forum participants?

Julian: Not really, to be honest. The good thing is we see a steady progress when we

Julian: look back to the last 0.0 forums.

Julian: We do not see the big bang everyone is talking about, that the DLT,

Julian: for example, will completely turn the capital markets infrastructure, for example.

Julian: There is no big bang from my point of view, but it's good to see that there

Julian: is a steady progress from year to year.

Julian: And more and more banks and established financial institutions have really used cases live. Is it AI?

Julian: Is it quantum computing first ideas?

Julian: Is it stable coins or digital assets, business models?

Julian: We really see live projects, more and more live projects from year to year.

Julian: And that is a big asset for the overall industry, that there are learnings in each and every sector.

Julian: And we just have to bring the puzzle together.

Katherine: So it does make sense to come back again and again to this forum.

Julian: For sure. And I would give the advice not only focus on the workshops,

Julian: podiums, discussions, keynotes, also focus on the interaction between the participants

Julian: because you have participants from nearly every country in the world you would like to talk to.

Julian: And it's sometimes mind-blowing to connect to different cultures and to different

Julian: people with different approaches of doing business and also different complications

Julian: and solutions in their daily business.

Julian: So it's definitely worth talking to so many people as possible to bring in more

Julian: ideas and inspirations to your daily life.

Katherine: Well, thanks so much, Julian, for your insights.

Julian: Thank you so much for having me.

Katherine: Pleasure. That's all for this installment of Sound of Finance,

Katherine: a podcast series by ZDB Consulting.

Katherine: You'll find our contact information and on top of that, a promotion code for

Katherine: attending the Point Zero Forum in the show notes.

Katherine: We hope you have enjoyed today's conversation.

Katherine: Thanks for listening and please make sure to subscribe to our podcast and tune in again soon.

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