Frankfurt Payments Network
Frankfurt Payments Network (in German), usually shortened to FPN, is an independent, non-commercial association for payments professionals. The network began in Frankfurt in 2011. Personal membership brings together people from banks and payment service providers with professionals from consulting, retail and industry associations.
Frankfurt Payments Network is a professional forum for discussing how payments work and how the industry changes. Members contribute experience from their own responsibilities, including banking operations, technology and commercial services. The association gives these professionals opportunities to meet colleagues outside their own organizations.
Membership and guest participation
Frankfurt Payments Network organizes central and regional gatherings, with personal conversation as part of the program. Professional exchange covers developments in European payments and international payment systems. The network combines specialist presentations with discussion among the people who manage or develop payment services.
Frankfurt Payments Network accepts personal members through a recommendation from an existing member (in German). Membership is directed at people who work professionally in payments. The individual professional joins the association; the membership model is built around the person's expertise and relationships.
Guests can contact the association about attending an event (in German). FPN sends event invitations to members around four weeks before the scheduled gathering. This gives prospective guests a direct route to the organizer when they want to take part in a particular discussion.
Meetups, webinars and the payments symposium
Frankfurt Payments Network holds monthly events and professional discussions. The New Year's reception (in German) brings members and guests together for conversation across the payments industry. The reception included discussion of Wero, instant payments and the digital euro. Regional meetings and webinars allow the network to hold discussions outside Frankfurt as well.
The FPN payments symposium (in German) is a longer conference format. A symposium at the PwC Conference Center in Tower 185 covered customer expectations in banking, the digital euro and Verification of Payee. A separate panel considered international instant payments, with participants from the European Central Bank, Danske Bank, Nexus Global Payments and J.P. Morgan. The program also included AI in liquidity management and payment risk.
Cooperation with TechQuartier
Frankfurt Payments Network is an ecosystem partner of TechQuartier. The cooperation gives payments professionals access to the innovation hub's startup contacts and event formats. TechQuartier also gains contacts across the network's banking, retail and professional-services membership.
FPN's first event at TechQuartier included a presentation by Alexander Höptner, CEO of AllUnity, on stablecoins and global payment transactions. The discussion connects the network's professional exchange with the payments sector in Frankfurt and the city's work on digital money.
Payment behavior and the Bundesbank
Frankfurt Payments Network brought members and guests to a specialist event at the Deutsche Bundesbank (in German), with online participation as well. Bundesbank representatives Julian Reischle and Niklas Ego presented findings from the central bank's research into payment behavior in Germany. Participants discussed the results with the presenters. Consumer payment behavior is one of the network's subjects alongside the systems used to process transactions.
Agentic payments and international transfers
Frankfurt Payments Network worked with AMARANTH Advisory on a webinar and regional meeting in Berlin about agentic payments (in German). The presentation examined possible uses of autonomous AI agents in commerce and payments, including regulatory questions and the limits of current applications. Participants joined both in person and online.
Digital money and payment infrastructure are also recurring discussion subjects. The network's program includes instant payments, cross-border transfers and stablecoins. These are separate payment methods and infrastructures, with different settlement arrangements and operational requirements.
Specialist publications
Frankfurt Payments Network has collected industry contributions in the FPN payments yearbook (in German). The publication project made professional knowledge available beyond face-to-face gatherings. Individual contributions examined subjects such as instant payments and digital payment platforms. The yearbook gives readers another way to follow specialist discussion alongside the association's presentations and meetings.
President and board
Frankfurt Payments Network is led by president Michael Steinbach and its board (in German). The other board members are Richard A. Jones II, Jörg Richter, Marco Venturella and Swaantje Anneke Völkel. The association is registered in Frankfurt am Main. Manfred Schuck, whose initiative helped establish the network, is its honorary chairman.
Payments and Frankfurt's financial sector
Payment topics and Finance Loop
Finance Loop brings professionals together to discuss Payments & Digital Money, including instant payments, stablecoins and the digital euro. Finance Loop works with TechQuartier and Frankfurt Main Finance as strategic partners. Readers can explore the wider Frankfurt financial sector and the payments topics covered by its professional networks.
Finance Loop is a professional network that supports the adoption of emerging technologies in finance. Finance Loop helps members build skills and professional contacts through events and educational formats.