Working Together to Defeat the Enemy

P20 is the Voice of the Global Payments Industry and brings together industry leaders, regulators and government officials to collaborate and develop operational excellence that harmonizes a global approach and creates transformative solutions to the major industry issues of the day.  QOMPLX CEO Jason Crabtree was asked to participate in the P20 Annual Global Payments Conference in London as top leaders identify immediate actions that can be implemented to ensure global payments are accessible, affordable and secure for all.

Understanding that cybersecurity is of significant concern to industry, government and consumers, the P20 promotes collaboration between its industry players and regulators in order to establish best practices to combat threats and vulnerabilities to critical infrastructure.

Reducing Systemic Risk from Cyber Attacks

“The risk of cyber-attacks keeps the leaders of the global payments industry awake at night. Cashless payments are growing globally and a systemic attack on payments infrastructure would have immediate, devastating and far-reaching consequences for governments, businesses and the public," according to Duncan Sandys, executive director of P20. "The industry has a responsibility to collaborate and work hand in hand with government and regulators to develop and maintain an industry wide response, protocol and plan. This is a key objective for P20.”

The P20 conference, now in its third year, addressed the implications of cybersecurity attacks and ways to defend against threats. “Working together to defeat the enemy” and “the need for military precision to combat threat” were the themes for the cybersecurity pillar and sparked a lively panel discussion moderated by Rob Johnston, head of operations, FIS. Panelists Michael Farrell, executive director, Georgia Institute of Technology IISP; Norma Krayem, senior policy advisor, Holland & Knight; and Jason Crabtree, CEO and co-founder of QOMPLX provided important insight into what immediate actions should be implemented.

The Importance of Working Together

“If you think about the core mission of P20 to positively impact educational components, thinking through the actual financial inclusion aspects of ensuring access to transact in a relatively frictionless way inside society, or doing that in a secure way with a cybersecurity initiative, this group can move the needle in a much more efficient way than the individual efforts across each of these different entities,” Jason noted.

“Given the amount of common problem solving that’s required, and the gravity and expense of providing that degree of professionalism, availability, confidentiality, and integrity of data, I think it’s so important that we not go it alone the wrong way. There’s got to be common threads and commitments that each of these organizations have to one another if we’re really going to keep our hands around the ultimate risk inherent in the increased amount of interdependence and the increased amount of connectivity.”

With the rapid change in the payments and financial technology industry, now is the time for the one of a kind innovation and collaboration that can only come from this group working together.

Learn more about P20 at www.payments20.com.