As many before him, Birch will take the stage to share his insights on the political and economic implications of the shift to digital money, challenging the audience of executive bankers and payments professionals to think beyond the box.

For instance, Claudia Olsson, the founder and CEO of Stellar Capacity and a graduate of the World Economic Forum's Young Global Leader program, spoke at the EBAday challenge in 2023.

An inventive thinker is given the opportunity to express their genuine opinions on the hot-button topics in the payments and transaction banking industry through the "challenge speaker" keynote. The subject of "value in a connected world" was covered by Olsson. Olsson's research has concentrated on how new technologies affect people, society, and international markets.She is a highly sought-after speaker on future trends, leadership, governance, and exponential technologies.

One of the top three figures in London's fintech scene and recognized as Europe's most prominent pundit on new payments, Birch is listed among the top 30 fintech influencers globally in 2022.

Along with contributing to Forbes, he writes a column for Financial World magazine and has written for a variety of publications, including The Financial Times and the Parliamentary IT Review. For many years, he also contributed a column to The Guardian. He has been a media pundit on electronic business matters and has been on BBC radio and television, Sky, and other international channels.

When Birch was asked why it is crucial that we work toward a future in which consumers have complete autonomy and control over their data, Finextra sat down with him in 2022 to talk about some of the emerging trends in digital identity. He responded, "This comes down to the difference between implementing things using biometrics." When I walk into Waitrose, for instance, they take my image, run it through facial recognition software, and discover it's Dave. I then buy some stuff. Everything about that works. However, there is risk associated with identification. You don't need to be a paranoid person to be concerned about hacking and spying. That's different in a world where you have something like a secure chip in your ring. It's granting customers that control, in my opinion.

"I think it's a very good thing to give customers control." I am aware that there are certain convenience benefits to simply strolling in with nothing and using a face scanner, but there are also a number of drawbacks. One of my favorite tales from the South China Morning Post about a woman who lost access to her bank account after receiving a nose operation is included in this.
In response to a question about how he believed digital identity would develop, Birch said, "Digital identity is unquestionably a cornerstone." The key factor, which I believe everyone is aware of, is that payments are really simply some spreadsheet tinkering if you have identity and know who everyone is.The intricacy of payments is attributed to various factors such as risk management, fraud, and verification. It's because not everyone is known to us. Once the identity issue is resolved, making payments is simple.

Regarding what's happening in the area, I believe that people are blind to what's brewing beneath the surface. As an illustration, I recently read that W3C FIDO authentication will be supported by Apple, Google, and Microsoft. People simply didn't realize the ramifications of that, in my opinion—that you'll be able to log into anything and have a key ring or something similar. Thus, Apple will recognize authentication from Microsoft, etc. This kind of thing is really gaining momentum, and I don't think people realize how significant it all is."