Global by Design: Why Payments Expansion Fails Without Local Mastery with EBANX

<p>In Episode Five of THE SHIFT, Danny Levy sits down with Eduardo de Abreu, CPO and CEO Singapore at EBANX, to unpack one of the most misunderstood challenges in global fintech:</p><p>Why scaling payments across high-growth markets isn’t about expansion - it’s about precision.</p><p>Recorded live at Money20/20 Asia, this conversation moves beyond the surface-level narrative of “emerging market growth” and into the operational reality of building a truly global payments company across Latin America, APAC, Africa, and India.</p><p>Because while many companies enter new markets, very few actually understand them.</p><p>And in payments, that gap is where strategies break.</p><p>Eduardo shares a rare, inside look at EBANX’s decade-long journey - from its early days in Latin America to its latest expansion into APAC, anchored by a new regional HQ in Singapore. Together, they explore what it takes to navigate fragmented payment rails, regulatory complexity, and deeply local consumer behaviours — all while maintaining a scalable global model.</p><p>The discussion dives into:</p><ul><li>The real decision-making behind entering complex, high-growth markets</li><li>Why APAC is fundamentally different from Latin America — and what that means for product and strategy</li><li>The biggest mistakes companies make when trying to “copy-paste” expansion models</li><li>How EBANX balances local adaptation with global scale</li><li>The role of AI and product design in managing systemic complexity</li><li>Where the next wave of opportunity lies beyond the obvious markets</li><li>What the future of cross-border payments will demand over the next 3–5 years</li><li>Leadership lessons from building and scaling teams across multiple regions</li></ul><p>Grounded in real-world execution and hard-earned lessons, this episode challenges the idea that global scale comes from standardisation - and instead makes the case for localisation as a competitive advantage.</p><p>Because in the next era of payments, the winners won’t just be global.</p><p>They’ll be locally fluent, everywhere they operate.</p><p>And that’s THE SHIFT.</p>