Instant A2A Payments: A European Perspective v2

The second edition of our Europe-focused A2A payments forum — revisiting the ground covered since Stockholm 2025, and what has actually changed.

Overview

Leadership Pulse Series returns to Europe for the second edition of its A2A payments forum, hosted in Zurich in Q1 2027.

The first edition was held in Stockholm in 2025, where a European cohort of scheme leaders, banks and infrastructure providers set out a shared view of where instant A2A was heading. This edition works from that baseline rather than starting again: it reviews how the market has evolved in the intervening period, and separates genuine change from movement that has not yet landed.

As with every edition, the forum is invitation-led and built for closed-door discussion among the executives who own these decisions.

Agentic Payments runs as a dedicated part of the programme, addressing what changes when autonomous agents initiate and settle transactions over instant A2A rails.

What We Will Review

How European A2A interoperability has evolved since Stockholm 2025

What has moved from pilot and commitment into live production

Where operating models, standards and regulation have converged, and where they have not

The lessons that only emerge once A2A rails are running at scale

What the next set of European A2A decisions will demand from scheme owners and their participants

How agentic payments take shape over instant A2A rails, and what they require from schemes and participants

Where cross-border payments within Europe stand, and what still constrains them

Cross-Border Payments in Europe

Cross-border payments within Europe sit at the centre of the day. The forum examines how far instant A2A now travels between European markets, where reachability and standards still fall short of domestic experience, and what scheme owners and their participants must settle before cross-border A2A feels like a domestic payment.

International corridors feature as a thread rather than a theme: early signals on how European rails connect with markets beyond Europe, including the African and Asian corridors addressed by other editions of the series, and what those connections will ask of schemes here.

Agentic Payments

Artificial intelligence is moving from advising on payments to initiating them. This edition adds Agentic Payments as a dedicated part of the programme, exploring what changes when autonomous agents transact on behalf of consumers and businesses over instant A2A rails.

Who or what is authorised to initiate a payment, and how that is proven

Where liability sits when an agent acts on a customer's behalf

How agent-initiated flows settle, reconcile and are disputed over A2A rails

What scheme owners and participants need in place before agentic payments scale

Who Attends

Instant payment scheme leaders

Central banks and regulators

Banks and PSPs operating A2A rails

Infrastructure and interoperability initiatives

Select industry stakeholders by invitation

Format

A one-day, invitation-led executive forum in Zurich, structured around closed-door discussion rather than presentations.

Register Your Interest

Attendance is complimentary and curated, with places limited to senior decision-makers. Tell us about your organisation and we will be in touch.

Request a Place

Attendance is complimentary. Places are limited — submitting this form is an expression of interest, not a confirmed booking. We will contact you once your application has been reviewed.

Contact

For any additional questions about this edition, contact us at info@leadershippulseseries.com