If you’ve got a passion for all things payments, then the Merchant Acquiring Conference (or MAC as its affectionately known) is a yearly ‘must-do’ to have scrawled in your diary.
Run by the uber-insightful Chris Jones (and his team) at PSE Consulting, the event describes itself as, “The conference designed to highlight key activities and trends in the European payments market, giving groups of like-minded people the opportunity to exchange their views.”
Even though this was my first Merchant Acquiring Conference, it certainly lived up to the lofty description (…and then some) with some huge hitters (yes, HUGE hitters, including JPMorgan, Stripe, Worldline and Adyen) giving their takes, opinions and predictions.
Never one to gatekeep, I’ve rattled off a few key takeaways from the event while they’re fresh in my caffeine addled mind…
The conference opened with a session entitled ‘Agentic Commerce is set to transform the way consumers and merchants interact with payments’, which immediately grounded the day’s discussion in what feels like the next frontier of payments: AI-driven assistants making buying decisions for us extremely time poor humans. The conversation explored how this shift isn’t just technical but business-critical – brands, merchants and acquirers will all need to question who owns the customer journey when an agent buys for them.
One topic I know Chris at PSE has been quite vocal about in recent months is: what happens when the agentic buying experience goes wrong?
It’s a big question for the whole payments ecosystem at the moment, and something Chris considered in a recent article for Tech Radar – I strongly urge you to have a read to get those organic neurons firing again in this seemingly ‘post-human age’.
As local lampposts and roundabouts are being requisitioned by UK ‘patriots’ in a bid to make a point about British sovereignty, our European neighbours have been busy pursuing a more practical kind of sovereignty: in payments.
‘From domestic wallets to the Digital Euro – How to navigate Europe’s payments sovereignty maze’ turned the conversation to Europe’s drive for greater independence through initiatives like Wero and the Digital Euro. The ambition is clear: to reduce reliance on global networks and give merchants and consumers a seamless, continent-wide experience that reflects how people actually pay today.
With more than forty domestic wallets already thriving across the EU, the challenge isn’t invention but connection – stitching a patchwork of systems into a cohesive, interoperable fabric. What came through wasn’t a rejection of international models, but a belief that Europe can complement them on its own terms (who needs the U.S, right!?).
For merchants, acquirers and PSPs alike, this pursuit of payment sovereignty represents both a technological evolution and a quiet statement of confidence – Europe finding its own rhythm in the global flow of money. A lofty ambition, perhaps, but one worth rooting for in my humble opinion.
If I’m honest, a talk about hardware felt almost anachronistic after all the AI and software chatter of the morning sessions. But I followed Chris’ subtle signposting to the hardware session in the extremely plush drawing room, and I’m glad I did. It was a timely reminder that there’s still a physical world out there that needs catering for too.
‘The role of hardware for SaaS platform differentiation’ came as a welcome counterbalance to the digital-first narrative. For all the talk of cloud, APIs and embedded everything, the humble payment terminal remains one of the most tangible expressions of trust between merchant and customer. The discussion underscored how form factor, reliability and service support still heavily influence merchant choice – especially in sectors where speed, durability and offline resilience aren’t optional extras.
Although Tech Bros Inc. and its army of software evangelists might claim to be eating the world, hardware still holds the fork. As SoftPOS continues to grow, the consensus in the room was pragmatic: it’s a powerful tool, but not a universal replacement. For many merchants, a physical terminal still signals professionalism, dependability and security.
The takeaway was simple – innovation may move online, but confidence is still built at the point of interaction.
Walking out of Merchant Taylors’ Hall, I couldn’t help but smile. For all the noise about AI, sovereignty, and software eating the world, what came through was something simpler: payments is still a people business.
The technology might change faster than we can keep up, but trust, clarity and communication remain the constants. Whether you’re building agentic commerce systems, sovereign wallets or shiny new terminals, it’s still about helping someone pay with confidence.
MAC25 wasn’t a glimpse of a distant future. It was a reminder that the future’s already here, and it still needs explaining.
Did this year’s event give you food for thought? The SkyParlour team is always on hand to talk about where payments are at, where they’re heading, and how you can amplify your brand in this ever-evolving space.