Point Zero Forum

Over a week ago, we wrapped up the fifth edition of Point Zero Forum. A new venue in the heart of Zurich, three full days of content for the first time, and a programme built around the questions institutions are actually working through. Over 1,500 attendees from 72 countries filled the Forum Stage, the roundtable rooms, and the corridors in between.

Four themes emerged from those conversations:

🔸 A multipolar financial order is taking shape. Europe defines the regulatory standards, Asia accelerates deployment, and the United States anchors global liquidity.
🔸 Financial infrastructure is entering production. Stablecoins, tokenisation, AI, and quantum are moving beyond experimentation into scalable infrastructure.
🔸 Switzerland is positioning itself as a trusted bridge, connecting payments, securities, and compliance infrastructure.
🔸 Trust is becoming a system design challenge, as policymakers work to preserve monetary sovereignty and embed accountability into autonomous systems.

To everyone who made the journey to Zurich, our speakers, sponsors, partners, and attendees, thank you for making the fifth edition what it was. These conversations continue at Singapore FinTech Festival (@sgfintechfest) and the Insights2040 Annual Meetings this November.

🔗 Register interest 2027: pointzeroforum.com/register-your-…
🔗 Singapore FinTech Festival: fintechfestival.sg/registration?u…
🔗 Insights2040 Annual Meetings: gftn.co/insights2040an…

"We don't see them competing. We see them reinforcing each other. The development of tokenisation in finance will occur only if there is enough central bank money in that space. And if this market grows, there will be space for everyone."

Piero Cipollone, Member of the Executive Board of the @ecb, joined the Forum Stage virtually yesterday’s afternoon for a stocktake on the digital euro, days after the EU Parliament passed a major milestone on its path to legislation. The session covered the ECB's design choices, how the digital euro addresses financial stability concerns, its approach to privacy, and where it sits alongside stablecoins and tokenised deposits in the emerging digital money landscape.

"There's a little bit of overconfidence. The impression I get is they think it's, I'll just wait for the patch, which is the problem. I believe this is existential. The regulators have to move. And I think there needs to be some declassification of this information across Western governments, because when people start to understand what is really going on, it is going to change the way people view things."

The 𝗤𝘂𝗮𝗻𝘁𝘂𝗺 𝗛𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘇𝗼𝗻 session on the Forum Stage yesterday's afternoon covered where the industry genuinely stands on post-quantum cryptography migration, why overconfidence is the real risk, and what regulators, insurers, and institutions all need to do before the window closes.

The final day and the programme does not let up. The Forum Stage closes out with sessions on stablecoin design, AI governance, regulatory divergence, and the future of tokenised markets. The roundtables wrap up across all three rooms, and this afternoon the Innovation Tours take delegates across the city.

Here is what is on the radar for Day 3.

👉 Swipe to plan your day.

Yesterday's roundtable rooms were full, and for good reason. 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗔𝗴𝗼𝗿á — 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗠𝗼𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗠𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘆 𝗠𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀, a @BIS_org hosted session bringing together central banks and financial institutions to reflect on the prototype and the lessons learned from one of the most ambitious experiments in wholesale cross-border payments infrastructure.

Eight central banks. More than 40 international financial institutions. The question on the table: can tokenisation and programmability make cross-border payments faster, safer, and more transparent while preserving the existing banking system.

In the room: Audrey Metzger (@banquedefrance), Holger Neuhaus (@ecb), Andrei Pustelnikov (@bankofengland), Michael Zimmert (@SNB_BNS), Louise Johnston (@Mastercard), Xiaonan Zou (@UBS), Nick Kerigan (@swiftcommunity), Sabih Behzad (@DeutscheBank), Masashi Watanabe (@mufgbk_official), Marianne Zentriegen (@PostFinance), Tim Moncrieff (@Visa), moderated by Jessica Renier (@IIF) and Morten Bech).