Aoife Houlihan

Vice President, Government Affairs

Visa

Aoife is Vice President for Government Affairs in Europe. She has over 20 years of experience working with both governments and the private sector in Europe and joined Visa after 6 years at Klarna, where she was Vice President for Communications and Public Affairs, responsible for all corporate and external communication, media relations and government engagement globally. Prior to that, Aoife was a Partner at the Public Affairs consultancy Kreab.

Speaking at

2:00–3:00pmTue 23 JunWorkshopWorkshop Room, Level 1Open
Others

Resilience Runs on Trust: Securing Payments in an Uncertain World - Powered by Visa

WorkshopWorkshop Room, Level 1Open
About this session

Today’s heightened geopolitical uncertainty (fragmentation, cyber risk, and macroeconomic volatility) is testing the resilience of the global payments system, which depends fundamentally on trust and security to function at scale.
This session explores how public authorities and the private sector can work together to preserve confidence, continuity, and cross-border connectivity through information-sharing, interoperable standards, and regulatory approaches that strengthen resilience without fragmenting the ecosystem. It also explores how Visa is innovating for resilience, including through offline solutions that safeguard transactions in low-connectivity or high-risk environments.
The discussion aims to highlight how security and fraud prevention are not peripheral issues but core pillars of payments resilience.
4:00–5:30pmTue 23 JunGFTN InsightsRoundtable Room 2, Ground FloorOpen
Bridging the Financial Gap

Solving for the Fundamentals: Identity Wallets, Trust Infrastructure, and Preparing for the Agentic Economy

GFTN InsightsRoundtable Room 2, Ground FloorOpen
About this session

By the end of 2026, all EU member states will be required to issue the European Digital Identity Wallet (EUDI), with a goal of achieving 80% voluntary adoption by 2030.

While much of the current focus has been on user adoption and interoperability, a more fundamental shift in the economy is underway: the rise of AI agents capable of acting, transacting, and coordinating on behalf of individuals and businesses. This raises a critical question: how can these agents be trusted to act, transact, and take decisions safely across platforms and jurisdictions?

Identity-wallets and verifiable credentials hold the potential to become foundational trust infrastructure that unlocks this shift, by authenticating identity, delegating authority from human to agent, and resolving KYC and liability questions. With the right design choices today, the EUDI could evolve into a global benchmark not just for digital identity, but for programmable, interoperable trust.

Yet, critical questions remain around adoption, sustainable business models, and resilience to emerging technological risks. As the deadline draws closer, this roundtable will convene financial institutions, digital identity and verifiable credentials providers, technologists, and policymakers to examine key design and coordination challenges and trade-offs facing identity wallet ecosystems today.

Featured speakers

Hosted by

Aoife Houlihan

Speaking at

Resilience Runs on Trust: Securing Payments in an Uncertain World - Powered by Visa

Solving for the Fundamentals: Identity Wallets, Trust Infrastructure, and Preparing for the Agentic Economy