2026 FinTech Predictions: Insights from Leon Stevens of Mambu

I spoke with Leon Stevens, Managing Director, EMEA at Mambu, the world's only true SaaS cloud banking platform. Leon shares his perspective on the transformative shifts facing financial services in 2026, from the mainstreaming of digital assets to the rise of agentic AI reshaping core banking operations.

Over to you Leon - my questions are in bold:

What's the biggest shift you expect across financial services in 2026?

The biggest shift across financial services in 2026 will be the move from experimentation with digital assets to full-scale integration. Banks and financial institutions will begin transitioning away from traditional banking models toward AI- and digital-asset-enabled financial infrastructure. I expect companies across the sector to embed blockchain directly into their core systems, enabling faster settlement, lower operational costs, and new models of value exchange. Rather than operating outside core systems, digital assets will become a cornerstone in banking.

Which emerging technology will have the most practical impact on banks and the FinTechs that support them?

Cloud-native and composable architectures will continue to improve operational flexibility for banks – enabling faster innovation, partner integration and the scaling of new services. However, it's agentic AI that will redefine how core banking functions – fraud detection, payments, compliance, decision-making and personalisation – are executed.

This shift means that agentic AI will be an integral part of the banks' operating model, and will enable them to be more resilient, adaptable operating models and free them from rigid, legacy constraints.

What customer behaviours or expectations will most challenge banks and financial service providers?

Customers expect real-time payments and immediate access to funds from their bank or fintech. As such, legacy batch processing that some legacy banks still rely on, will lead to consumers looking to more agile, digital-first alternatives for their everyday needs.

To overcome this, banks must be willing to adopt cloud-native architectures and deliver services tailored to the behaviour, context, and needs of individual customers. Greater emphasis should be placed on using data and AI to create personalised offerings, as generic products and one-size-fits-all journeys will increasingly struggle to retain engagement and loyalty.

What risks or blind spots do you think the industry is underestimating as we move into 2026?

Although AI offers improved operational resiliency, flexibility and speed, banks and fintechs must be careful not to underestimate how agentic and autonomous systems will blur traditional risk boundaries. The shift from assistive tools, such as customer service chatbots, to core operational decision-makers comes with a number of risks such as increasing exposure to data privacy breaches, regulatory non-compliance, and governance failures.

At the same time, it's crucial that banks, fintechs and regulators take a coordinated approach to integrating stablecoins and blockchain-based assets. Fragmented or inconsistent implementation of digital assets could lead to liquidity and transparency risks that could not only affect the quality of their services, but could potentially undermine customer trust and tarnish institutional reputations.

If you were advising a bank's leadership team today, what strategic priority should they focus on to stay competitive in 2026 and beyond?

The top strategic priority should be modernising core systems by moving to cloud-native architectures. Composable, cloud-native platforms provide the foundation for greater speed and more flexible operating models. These benefits allow organisations to adapt and scale new capabilities. If this is carried out coherently, banks will be able to move faster, reduce technical debt, and respond more effectively to customer and regulatory demands.

Within this transformation, blockchain should be utilised as long-term strategic infrastructure rather than a short-term innovation project. By embedding distributed ledger technology into core systems, banks can support tokenized assets at scale while trying to make tokenized assets feel as simple, secure, and safe as today's online banking processes.

Thank you Leon! You can connect with Leon on his LinkedIn Profile and find out more about the company at mambu.com.