Sebastien Rousseau
Keynotes · Panels · Expert comment

The technologies reshaping banking, explained to the people who have to act.

Sebastien Rousseau is a senior banking technologist with 20+ years across HSBC, PayPal and Barclays. He turns payments modernisation, post-quantum cryptography and applied AI from policy paper into inspectable code, and into keynotes a board can act on.

Journalist on deadline? Book expert comment →

Shipped payments at HSBC, PayPal & Barclays · Co-author, EPA quantum-safe white paper · Contributor, Emerging Payments Association Asia

Portrait of Sebastien Rousseau
Shipped payment platforms at
HSBCPayPalBarclaysShazamAKQAVirgin Group
19
Years in banking & payments
93
Signed, dated articles
39M
Open-source downloads
672
GitHub stars

Contributor to the EPAA Quantum-Safe Cryptography Working Group. Co-author of the EPA white paper "Quantum-Safe Payments: Why the Payments Industry Must Act Now" (September 2025).

Two ways to work with me

Book a stage, or book a source.

Boards and conferences need someone who can hold a room. Newsrooms need someone who can give a clean, accurate quote on deadline. I do both.

For organisers

Speak at your event

Keynotes, panels and workshops for boards, conferences and executive teams navigating payments, post-quantum and AI.

  • Boards, exec committees & risk functions
  • Industry conferences & standards bodies
  • Tailored to your stack, vendor-neutral, no product pitch
Invite me to speak
For journalists & producers

Book me for expert comment

Broadcast-ready commentary on payments, post-quantum cryptography and applied AI, for print, radio, TV and podcasts.

  • Fast turnaround on deadline
  • Plain-English quotes, or deep technical detail
  • Background briefings & data on request
See press & media
Signature keynotes

Talks built for the boardroom.

Each talk turns a live industry problem into a decision a room can act on. Every one is tagged for the audience it is written for, and can be tailored to yours.

Delivered · Available now

Post-Quantum Migration for Payments: From FIPS 203 to Inspectable Code

What the November 2026 SWIFT cutover, FIPS 203, and harvest-now-decrypt-later mean for a Tier-1 payments stack, and how to turn migration into a measurable, board-grade engineering programme.

You leave with: a board-ready migration roadmap and the metrics to govern it.

For: Board / CISO / Head of Payments
Delivered · Available now

ISO 20022 in Practice: pacs.008, pain.001, and the Structured-Address Cliff

A field guide to building production-grade ISO 20022 automation: structured-address compliance, BAH/head.001 wrapping, BIC/IBAN/LEI checksums, and OpenTelemetry UETR tracing.

You leave with: a concrete engineering checklist for the address deadline.

For: Payments Architects / Treasury Engineering Leads
Delivered · Available now

Open Source as Financial Infrastructure

Why open-source reference implementations beat proprietary black boxes for security, compliance, and supplier risk under DORA, and how to govern them inside a regulated institution.

You leave with: a supplier-risk framework for open-source in production.

For: Heads of Engineering / Procurement / Risk
Delivered · Available now

Harvest-Now-Decrypt-Later: The Board-Level Case for Quantum-Safe Payments

Translating cryptographic agility from a project paper into a board-level operational-resilience commitment, using the EPAA framework, NIST PQC standards, and a concrete migration roadmap.

You leave with: the language to brief a board on cryptographic risk.

For: Board / Executive Committee / Group CRO
New for 2026

Agentic AI in Banking: From Demo to Auditable Workflow

The five-component control plane that turns autonomous workflows into SR 11-7 / SS1/23 supervisory-ready evidence: OAuth-scoped accounts, deterministic routing, OPA policy gates, immutable WORM audit logs, and a tested kill switch.

You leave with: a control plane your model-risk team can actually sign off.

For: CTO / Head of AI / Model Risk Management

Need a talk tailored to your stack?

Every keynote can be re-cut for your institution, your regulators and your migration timeline.

Discuss a custom talk
For organisers

How I work.

Keynote

30 to 45 min

A single, tightly-argued talk built around one decision your audience has to make. Tailored to your stack and regulators.

Panel

60 min

Moderated or contributing. I bring the technical detail that keeps a panel honest and the plain English that keeps it useful.

Workshop

Half-day or full-day

Hands-on, board-to-engineering. We leave with an artefact: a roadmap, a checklist, or a reference implementation.

London, UKMainland Europe (in-person)Remote (worldwide)English & French
Press & media

An expert source, on deadline.

Available for live comment · UK / GMT

Broadcast-ready commentary on payments, post-quantum cryptography and applied AI. I give plain-English quotes for a general audience, or go as deep as your specialist desk needs.

// studio-quality audio + backup line
// camera-ready for remote TV
// typical reply within 2 hours on deadline
  • PaymentsWhat the Nov 2026 SWIFT / ISO 20022 cutover means for banks
  • Post-quantumWhy "harvest now, decrypt later" is a board-level risk today
  • FIPS 203The NIST standards and the migration race behind them
  • Applied AIAgentic AI, model risk and what regulators will demand
  • Open sourceOpen code as regulated financial infrastructure
Biography

About Sebastien.

Portrait of Sebastien Rousseau

Sebastien Rousseau is a senior banking technologist focused on the structural transformation of wholesale payments. Across HSBC Commercial & Investment Bank, PayPal, Barclays, Shazam, AKQA, and Virgin Group, he has shipped payment platforms, AI products, and open-source infrastructure used in production by treasury and payments teams. He authors and maintains pacs.008, pain.001, BankStatementParser, KyberLib, CloudCDN, and dotfiles, each positioned as a reference implementation, not a demo: inspectable, board-grade financial infrastructure.

He contributes to the Emerging Payments Association Asia Quantum-Safe Cryptography Working Group, co-authored the EPA white paper "Quantum-Safe Payments: Why the Payments Industry Must Act Now" (September 2025), and publishes Banking On Quantum and Banking On AI. He works at the intersection of agentic AI, real-time payments, post-quantum cryptography, cloud-native resilience, structured data, and regulatory evidence.

For producers & chairs

Ready-to-use bio.

Copy-paste, pre-approved, in three lengths. No back-and-forth.

Short

Sebastien Rousseau is a senior banking technologist who writes and builds at the edge of payments, post-quantum cryptography, and applied AI. Author of open-source libraries used in financial infrastructure; contributor to the Emerging Payments Association Asia Quantum-Safe Cryptography Working Group.

Medium

Sebastien Rousseau is a senior banking technologist with 20+ years across HSBC Commercial & Investment Bank, PayPal, Barclays, Shazam, AKQA, and Virgin Group. He authors open-source Python and Rust libraries that turn ISO 20022 migration, post-quantum cryptography, and applied AI from policy paper into inspectable code. He contributes to the Emerging Payments Association Asia Quantum-Safe Cryptography Working Group and publishes Banking On Quantum and Banking On AI at sebastienrousseau.com.

Long

Sebastien Rousseau is a senior banking technologist focused on the structural transformation of wholesale payments. Across HSBC Commercial & Investment Bank, PayPal, Barclays, Shazam, AKQA, and Virgin Group, he has shipped payment platforms, AI products, and open-source infrastructure used in production by treasury and payments teams. He authors and maintains pacs.008, pain.001, BankStatementParser, KyberLib, CloudCDN, and dotfiles, each positioned as a reference implementation, not a demo, for inspectable, board-grade financial infrastructure. He is a contributor to the Emerging Payments Association Asia Quantum-Safe Cryptography Working Group, co-author of the EPA white paper "Quantum-Safe Payments: Why the Payments Industry Must Act Now" (September 2025), and publishes Banking On Quantum and Banking On AI. He works at the intersection of agentic AI, real-time payments, post-quantum cryptography, cloud-native resilience, structured data, and regulatory evidence.

Before you ask

Booking, in plain terms.

Will you tailor the talk to our institution? +
Yes. Every keynote is re-cut for your stack, your regulators, and your migration timeline. I will take a short briefing call beforehand so the examples land as your problem, not a generic one.
Are you vendor-neutral, or is this a product pitch? +
Vendor-neutral. I do not sell a platform and I do not take the stage to promote one. The open-source work is reference implementation, not a sales funnel. If your audience needs impartial technical judgement, that is the point.
Can you present under NDA or on sensitive topics? +
Yes. I am comfortable working under NDA and briefing on confidential migration or risk programmes. Say so in your enquiry and we will handle paperwork before anything else.
Do you travel, and what lead time do you need? +
I speak in London, across mainland Europe in person, and remotely worldwide. Typical lead time is a few weeks; deadline media comment is far faster. Tell me your date and I will confirm availability quickly.
What are your fees? +
Fee on request, and it depends on format, location and audience. Reduced or waived rates for standards bodies, non-profits and academic events; mention your context in the enquiry.
What do you need from us on the day? +
For in-person: a confidence monitor, a slide clicker, and a lav or headset mic. For remote: I present from a studio-quality setup with a backup line. Full AV rider available on request.
Book a keynote

Bring this to your stage.

Tell me about your event. The more you share, the faster I can confirm fit, availability and fee.

Invite me to speak

Ready when your board is.

Keynotes, panels and expert comment on payments, post-quantum cryptography and applied AI. In London, across Europe, or remote.