However, one of the barriers is that new modes do not always sync with legacy regulations. Still, there just may be progress on that score, according to several speakers at the conference.

Fraher said a white paper outlining various Fed initiatives regarding the emerging payments landscape is due out soon, although he offered no specifics about when or the details on the content.

The heavy hint is that the Fed understands that new payment modalities have emerged and there needs to be clarification regarding the role of the government.

Some panelists did not always agree with each other.

In one panel about the future of interchange, Mallory Duncan, general counsel at the National Retail Federation, said, "The tide of history is against interchange."

Not so fast, said other panelists, who indicated that interchange will morph but not disappear.

Brad Fauss, chairman elect of the Network Branded Prepaid Card Association, said with interchange, if the trajectory is downwards, that will reduce the cost savings and value associated with the Merchant Customer Exchange's CurrentC, which is widely believed to want to power its payments with ACH and store cards rather than with MasterCard and Visa.

In a third panel titled, "When Bad Things Happen to Good Companies," panelists suggested that best practices for financial institutions is to assume a breach will happen and to prepared for it.

Know who you need to contact in the government before you need to contact them, Mick Stawasz, deputy chief for computer crime for the U.S. Department of Justice, advised.

Employees should only be given what network access they need and, beyond that, Stawasz warned it is dangerous when only one employee has access to the entire network.

Joe Vitale, a lawyer with the firm Schulte Roth & Zabel in New York, said when a breach occurs, it's important to preserve the chain of evidence.

Employees should also be instructed not to talk about what happened among themselves, he added.

In the first keynote at this year's Money20/20, Frank Bisignano, CEO of Atlanta-based First Data, offered a perspective that wrapped up the opening day: Money20/20 is sort of a microcosm of the payments industry as a whole. 

"We are moving together, all of us in this industry," Bisignano said "What's happened in payments in the last year eclipsed what happened in the prior 10."

According to conference organizers, an estimated 1,500 persons attended Money20/20 in 2012. That figure grew to 4,500 in 2013 and 7,500 are expected to attend this year's gathering.