Agnès Bastaert

Head of Global Affairs & Strategic Development, Europe

Ant International

Agnès is the Head of Global Affairs and Strategic Development for Europe at Ant International, based in Brussels. She joined Ant International in 2020 as the first government affairs team member, with a mission to drive public policy engagement and partnerships in Europe. In her day-to-day responsibilities, Agnès undertakes a broad range of government and partner engagements in connection with Ant International’s business activities.

Prior to joining Ant, Agnès was a Director of Government Affairs at Euronext from 2011 to 2020, where she led on financial services and capital markets policy in France and at EU level.

Agnès has an academic background in international relations, political economy, and EU law. She holds a master’s degree from Sciences Po Paris.

Speaking at

2:00–3:30pmWed 24 JunGFTN InsightsRoundtable Room 1, Ground FloorOpen
Next-Gen Transactions

The Great Convergence: Building Tomorrow's Integrated Payments Networks

GFTN InsightsRoundtable Room 1, Ground FloorOpen
About this session

The consensus is clear: global payment networks see collaboration, not competition, as their path to future dominance. Major networks are already building bridges – Mastercard with Ant International, Swift with blockchain layers, NGP's Nexus connecting instant payment systems worldwide. But as these technical integrations accelerate, a critical question emerges: what policy frameworks will govern this interconnected future?

When payment networks interoperate across borders, whose rules apply? How do regulators ensure consumer protection when a transaction touches multiple jurisdictions and networks? As networks become more interdependent, how do policymakers balance innovation with systemic risk? And perhaps most importantly – how can policy frameworks evolve to support beneficial network effects while preventing any single player from wielding excessive market power?

This roundtable brings together payment network leaders, financial regulators, and policy experts to explore how regulatory frameworks must adapt to govern an era of payment network collaboration. The stakes are high: get the policy right, and we unlock unprecedented efficiency and inclusion in global payments. Get it wrong, and we risk creating new systemic vulnerabilities or stifling the very innovation that promises to transform how the world moves money.

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Agnès Bastaert

Speaking at

The Great Convergence: Building Tomorrow's Integrated Payments Networks