Why you should watch: 'Without payments, money doesn't work' - that is the message of this new book (published on July 1, by Elliott & Thompson) by two former senior executives at SWIFT, which begins as a (highly readable) trawl through the early-modern history of cheques and cards and cash, and which chronicles the development of both retail/consumer payments and the wholesale payments industry as it has opened up in the increasingly digital world. How we pay is as fundamental as what we pay for, and this book really does open the lid on how the plumbing of the financial system operates. It also looks at the social implications - the impact on the digitally disenfranchised and the less affluent. It looks at the US as the initial market leader, at Europe as a challenger with a goal to set global standards, and at China and India as the big disrupters.

Moderators: Andrew Hilton (Director, CSFI) & Leighton Hughes (FinTech Lead, CSFI)

Gottfried Leibbrandt is the former CEO of SWIFT. He is currently a non-exec at CLS Group and a senior adviser at McKinsey. He is also a Board member at Yes.com. He was educated at university in Amsterdam, Stanford (from which he got his MBA) and Maastricht (PhD).

Natasha de Terán is the former head of corporate affairs at SWIFT, where she spent seven years, having held the same role at LCH. She is also a member of the Financial Services Consumer Panel and the Payment Systems Regulator Panel, and a non-resident scholar at the Carnegie Endowment. She is a former journalist and adviser to the European Commission and ESMA.