Ideathon 2025

What is the Account-to-Account (A2A) payments Ideathon?

Following on from our previous Ideathon on ISO 20022, UK Finance is delighted to announce that the 2025 Digital Innovation Summit Ideathon is on A2A payments. 

A2A payments are a critical element of the New Payments Vision. The objective of the Ideathon is to showcase the potential of A2A payments including point of sale and generate ideas on how A2A payments could take shape in the UK market.

Entering the Ideathon is open to everyone, even if your firm is not a member of UK Finance. 

We are looking for innovations that could increase the adoption of A2A payments and make them attractive to businesses and consumers. 

The Ideathon is all about ideas and innovation - there are no set categories or limitations, but some ideas to get you thinking could be:  

• More convenient and/or enhanced customer journeys
• Payment and purchase customer protections
• Customer education and payment brands
• Driving merchant adoption
• Point of sale payments
• Innovative or new use cases.

How do you enter?

You will need to submit the following:

1. A written submission

• In PDF format.
• Although there is no specified approach, we recommend it is succinct, use illustrations rather than being text heavy, and generally be easily accessible.

2. A video to accompany the written submission

• It should be a maximum of 5 minutes long.
• It will be judged purely on the content, not on the quality of the camerawork – so using a phone or similar is fine as long as it’s clearly audible etc.

Please send your submissions to ideathon.dis@ukfinance.org.uk

The deadline for submission is Friday 23 May 2025.

Ideathon results: the winning solution judges are:

• Nilixa Devlukia, The Pay Reg Expert
• Helene Oger-Zaher, Senior Innovation Manager, FCA
• Robert White, General Manager, PagoNxt Payments UK
• Simon Eacott, Head of Payments, NatWest

What happens next?

The first step is all submissions will be assessed by our panel of judges, who will then select a shortlist of firms who progress to the final.

The final will take place live at the Digital Innovation Summit on 24 June, where the finalists will present their idea to the audience and take questions from the judges.

The winner will be decided by an audience vote, and the winner will be announced on stage.

Although it's not obligatory, if you are planning to enter, if you let us know on ideathon.dis@ukfinance.org.uk, we can make sure you receive all our updates. 

Good luck!

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