Danilov Iurii: UnionPay and artificial intelligence will change the way Europe accepts payments

Ahead of SiGMA World Rome 2026, we spoke with Danilov Iurii, about the goals of his trip, Asian payments in Europe and the role of artificial intelligence in financial technology.

 

Iurii, you are heading to SiGMA World in Rome. What is the purpose of the trip?

For me, SiGMA is first and foremost about meetings. I will be in Rome from 28 October to 5 November, and the event itself runs from 2 to 5 November. We will not have a stand and I will not be speaking. The format is simple and, in my view, the most effective: pre-arranged meetings with operators, payment providers, banks, technology companies and investors. In a few days in Rome you can achieve what would otherwise take months of emails and calls. I keep the days before and after the event for deeper meetings in a calmer setting.

What is the main topic of your meetings this year?

Payments for the international customer, and above all UnionPay. It is one of the largest card schemes in the world by number of cards issued, accepted in more than 180 countries and regions. Yet in Europe UnionPay is still often seen as something niche, "for Chinese tourists". I believe that is a mistake. For European businesses serving customers from China and Asia, accepting UnionPay means direct access to a huge audience with real purchasing power that is used to paying exactly this way.

Why do you think the European market underestimates UnionPay?

Inertia. Most European merchants are built around two or three familiar payment schemes, and anything beyond them looks complicated: a separate integration, unclear pricing, questions about settlement and currency. In reality, technology removes these barriers today. Our industry's task is to make connecting UnionPay as simple for a merchant as connecting any other card: one integration, transparent terms, fast settlement in euros.

Who benefits most from this? 

Above all, businesses with international customers: travel and hospitality, retail and luxury, online services, education, entertainment and digital products. Asian consumers travel and shop online abroad more and more, and they expect to see the payment method they know. If it is not there, some of them simply do not complete the purchase. Whoever gives them a convenient experience first, without unnecessary steps, will win that traffic. Mobile and QR payments are a separate direction: in Asia they are already the norm, and Europe is moving the same way.

Why now?

Because the logic of the market is changing. European companies are looking for diversification, so they do not depend on one or two payment schemes, a single acquiring bank or customers from a single region. The regulatory environment is becoming more demanding, competition for every successful transaction is intensifying, and the customer is becoming global. In this world, the winner is the one who accepts payments from anyone, from anywhere, without friction.

What role does artificial intelligence play in this?

A key one, and not just as a slogan. In payments, AI already solves very practical tasks today.

First, fraud prevention. Models assess the risk of every transaction in real time across hundreds of signals, so honest customers are not blocked by overly strict rules. This matters especially for audiences that are new to Europe, including Asian customers: traditional rules often mistake an "unfamiliar" customer for a risky one.

Second, smart routing. The system itself chooses the channel and provider for each payment to raise approval rates and lower costs. A few extra percent of approvals is very real money for a large merchant.

Third, compliance. Automated customer checks, transaction monitoring and detection of suspicious patterns, where an entire team of analysts used to be needed. Regulators demand more and more, and without automation these requirements simply cannot be met at scale.

Fourth, analytics and forecasting. AI helps to understand which payment methods actually convert in a given country, where a business loses customers at checkout and how to change the funnel to reduce those losses.

And what does AI change for the customer?

For the customer, the best AI is invisible. People simply pay the way they are used to, while everything complex happens behind the scenes: checks, currency conversion, route selection, fraud protection. The next step is personalisation: the system understands where the customer is from and which payment method suits them best, and offers exactly that. Further ahead are payments initiated by AI assistants on behalf of the user. This is no longer science fiction, and the industry should prepare for it in advance, especially in terms of security and accountability.

Do you see risks in such active adoption of AI?

Of course. The main ones are transparency of decisions and accountability for mistakes. If a model declines a payment, the business and the customer must understand why. That is why I support an approach where AI strengthens people rather than fully replacing them: critical decisions in compliance and risk should remain under the control of specialists. The second risk is data protection: the more data a system analyses, the higher the requirements for its security.

How does your experience help in these negotiations?

I have been working in payments and financial services for more than ten years: from sales and merchant onboarding at payment providers to running my own companies. Today that means SlamBase and other projects in Portugal, as well as SendsHub, an infrastructure product we offer to partners. So I understand the merchant's business, the technology and the regulators' requirements. Solutions that really work are born exactly at the intersection of these three things.

What would you consider a successful trip to Rome? 

Concrete agreements, not business cards. A few partnerships with providers with whom we can quickly launch joint solutions, particularly around UnionPay and AI tools for payments, and a clear view of where the market will be a year from now. After SiGMA I will definitely share the results: what I saw, what we agreed and which trends I believe will shape the industry in 2027.