2026 FinTech Predictions: Insights from Satty Saha of Creditinfo

We spoke with Satty Saha, Global CEO of Creditinfo, a leading service provider for credit information and risk management solutions worldwide. As financial services navigate rapid digitisation and AI transformation, Satty shares his perspective on the shifts that will define competitive advantage in 2026.

Over to you Satty - my questions are in bold:

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

The biggest shift will be the move to data-rich, real-time credit decisioning in Europe and beyond. We will see lenders move from periodic reviews to real-time, alternative-data-driven decisions because they now have the scale and data infrastructure to do so. The customer impact will be immediate: faster approvals, sharper pricing and tailored offers. But the real differentiator next year will be trust. As regulatory scrutiny around consent, transparency and model governance intensifies, the lenders with trusted regulatory data infrastructure will have a strong competitive advantage.

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

In 2026, the industry will continue to navigate a landscape defined by rapid digitisation and the accelerating use of AI. For example, as LLMs become more commoditised, value is shifting towards task-specific models, agents and retrieval-augmented systems integrated into core workflows. Combined with open finance expansion and increased use of alternative data, this will enable more accurate underwriting, pricing and fraud control.

While AI creates enormous opportunities for efficiency and innovation, it also puts pressure on banks to modernise quickly and responsibly without compromising on trust or governance.

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

Customers will challenge banks and financial service providers on pace and affordability. If they don't get instant decisions and the relevant support and advice when they need it, they will go elsewhere. After years of tightening monetary policy, the easing from central banks by pausing or lowering interest rates has boosted and will continue to boost loan demand. As a result, consumers will seek cheaper credit facilities. Therefore, banks and financial services must rise to the challenge and implement more elastic decisioning and offer accurate, flexible pricing to remain competitive and attract as well as retain customers.

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

This year we've seen criminals use AI and automation to turbo-charge fraud and organised crime operations, scaling multilingual social-engineering, deepfake/voice impersonation, automated phishing, and faster money-mule orchestration. As a result, attacks are now outpacing and overwhelming human-led response.

In 2026, unless the industry acts, these AI-enabled campaigns will continue to drive up false negatives and put criminal networks in the driver's seat as they continue to weaponise AI and cloud infrastructure. To mitigate the risk of AI-fuelled financial crime, the industry will need to ensure that detection shifts to higher-signal, cross-channel analytics – combining behavioural cues, network/graph links, and transaction patterns – with near-real-time intervention and remedy.

The second risk will be capability. Banks need hybrid AML/fraud/ML expertise and the tooling that supports it next year more than ever. We'll see more banks start to invest in machine-learning models that adapt quickly and graph analytics that surface hidden networks. Institutions without the right blend of talent and technology will struggle to keep pace with criminals who can iterate at machine speed.

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

There is one priority that a bank's leadership team should never lose sight of and that's building inclusive growth on a foundation of trusted data and decisioning. Financial inclusion remains a global imperative, but it will only scale if banks can harness AI, alternative data and digital processes.

By prioritising financial inclusion, banks will be able to reach previously underserved populations while creating ecosystems that enable people to fully participate in the economy and allows them to contribute to it. Ultimately, banks that successfully combine technology, trust and agility to deliver support to customers where it's needed most will be best positioned to thrive in 2026 and beyond.

Thank you Satty! You can connect with Satty on their LinkedIn Profile and find out more about the company at https://creditinfo.com.