Payment Beats 26
One ship, one day, the payments community. Payment Beats 26 aboard the tall ship Rickmer Rickmers in Hamburg's harbour.
The third edition of Payment Beats brought around 200 payments people from merchants, PSPs, acquirers, fintechs and banks aboard the Rickmer Rickmers. A full afternoon of content with networking breaks, then dinner and drinks on deck.
The programme ran from agentic commerce and the return of the branded card to the big question of the year: how independent can Europe's online payments become from Visa, Mastercard and PayPal, and does it even need to be? Hamburg's Senator of Finance Dr. Andreas Dressel opened the day.
Payment Beats is co-hosted by FAN Network, Arkwright Consulting and OTTO Payments.
What was on
| 12:00 | Doors open, finger food and first conversations on the upper deck |
| 13:00 | Welcome by the hosts Steven Jacob · Moritz Königsbüscher · Mirko Krauel |
| 13:10 | Opening address by Hamburg’s Senator of Finance keynote Dr. Andreas Dressel |
| 13:20 | The first look back: what moved payments in 2026 talk Steven Jacob · Mirko Krauel · Hannah Schwär |
| 13:40 | Agentic commerce: commerce evolution or tech fantasy? keynote Frederike del Castillo |
| 13:50 | Agentic commerce in payments: the big race panel Mirko Krauel · Victor Bergmann · Frederike del Castillo · Prof. Dr. Roland Frank · Nina Zuazola |
| 14:30 | Networking break |
| 15:15 | Cobranding 2.0: the renaissance of the branded card? panel Steven Jacob · Dominik Bullwein · Arndt Franzen · Alexander Schrimpf · Leon Merx |
| 16:00 | Consumer study: European sovereignty, a must, a wow, or whatever? What should be a given, what delights, and what nobody would miss study Dr. Vanessa Bittner · Leni Hilbricht |
| 16:30 | Networking break |
| 17:15 | Digital sovereignty as an answer to geopolitical threats keynote Dr. C. Martin Wolff |
| 17:30 | The forgotten customer: why Europe’s sovereignty in payments has failed so far talk Jochen Siegert |
| 17:45 | Casting off from Visa, Mastercard and PayPal? How Europe can become more independent in online payments panel Moritz Königsbüscher · Dr. Christian Conreder · Fabian Mansfeld · Jochen Siegert · Lisa Walgenbach |
| 18:30 | Flying buffet, sundowner and networking on deck, with live music |
Portraits via paymentbeats.com. Photo of Dr. Andreas Dressel: Senatskanzlei Hamburg.
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What it looked like before
Photos: Claudia Timmann
▶ Aftermovie Video: Lucy Ghazelyan
Photos: Lucy Ghazelyan / PCN
▶ Aftermovie Video: Lucy Ghazelyan
Rickmer Rickmers, Hamburg
Museumsschiff Rickmer Rickmers, Bei den St. Pauli-Landungsbrücken 1a, 20459 Hamburg · Open in Google Maps