2026 FinTech Predictions: Industry Leaders Share Their Outlook
69 industry leaders from 68 companies share their outlook on what's ahead for fintech, banking, and financial services in 2026.
Jump to: 🚀 Digital Transformation (26) | 🤖 Agentic AI (17) | 💰 Stablecoins & Digital Assets (10) | 📋 RegTech & Compliance (8) | 🏦 Digital Banking (3) | ⚛️ Quantum Computing (2) | 💳 Payments (2) | ⚖️ AI Governance (1)
🚀 Digital Transformation
"The biggest shift we'll see is the move from isolated automation to true operating-model redesign. A lot of organisations spent 2025 automating tasks, but still got stuck chasing exceptions, reconciling discrepancies, and managing fraud risk manually. In 2026, the winners will..."
John Gronen at Yooz
"The most significant shift is a structural transition toward software-defined banking infrastructures. By 2026, the Branch of the Future will no longer be an isolated physical location but an integrated self-service environment where physical and digital touchpoints share the..."
Carmine Evangelista , CTO at Auriga
"The most significant shift in 2026 will be insurers moving from incremental digital improvement to a fundamental reset of their operating foundations. After years of layering new capabilities onto ageing systems, insurers are recognising that resilience, agility, and growth now..."
Sara Perez at EIS
"The defining shift for financial services in 2026 moves beyond simple digitisation, which is now the standard. In 2026, true transformation will be the automation of core financial decisions."
"The biggest shift will be the industry finally accepting that data infrastructure comes before promising AI implementation, not the other way around. We've spent the past few years with everyone talking about AI adoption, but implementation remains almost zero. The reason is..."
"In 2026, more finance teams will shift from just experimenting with AI to relying on it for tangible results. Most importantly, they will be focused on addressing the challenge of ensuring they have full visibility and control in their AI usage scenarios. Trust is foundational..."
Rob Israch , President Rob Israch at Tipalti
"I suspect most people will give the same answer: AI-powered operations. While the past few years have been marked by experimentation, 2026 will be the year AI becomes deeply embedded in core workflows and products. This shift goes beyond simple automation - it will fundamentally transform customer experiences through personalisation, predictive analytics, and autonomous decision systems."
Griffin Parry , CEO and Co-Founder at m3ter
"The biggest shift in 2026 will be the move from technology-led differentiation to relationship-led relevance across retail, commercial, and institutional banking."
Nick Merritt , Executive Director at Designit
"In 2026, we'll see the conversation around AI begin to shift. It will become far more pragmatic and far less concerned about job-loss anxiety or fear of the unknown. In practical terms, this means the financial services sector will move away from a "computer says no" mentality and towards systems that can be challenged, interrogated, and understood."
Hugh Scantlebury , Founder and CEO at Aqilla
"The defining shift in 2026 will be the industry's transition from treating AI as a departmental productivity tool to recognising it as infrastructure that transforms entire value chains. We're moving beyond the pilot mentality that has characterised much of the past few years...."
"One of the biggest changes we're seeing across every industry is the increased implementation of AI - and fintech is no different. As AI use becomes more sophisticated and its technology evolves, it offers ever-expanding opportunities to fintech."
Brett Sievwright , CEO at Platcorp Group at Platcorp Group
"Despite 2025 going down as the worst year for hacks on record, the industry is missing the most important detail in that almost all of that damage came from Web2 infrastructure failures and operational security breakdowns, not from on-chain code."
"The most significant shift will be a creation of a new market in banking, plugin credit. For decades, banks have operated on the premise that bundled products create customer stickiness, for instance, in retail banking with a current account including an overdraft, a debit card,..."
"The biggest shift in across financial services in 2026 will be how finance teams see their role, moving from simply verifying data to actively interpreting it and using it to guide business decisions. As AI-generated data becomes more convincing, the industry will need to move..."
"The most significant shift in 2026 will be accelerated industry consolidation. Driven by improving technology, tightening macro-economic conditions and commoditisation, the market can function with a fraction of today's players."
Rob Schumacher , CEO Rob Schumacher at Feather
"The rollout of digital identities across the EU in 2026 will transform how the financial services sector operates, especially in relation to payments and onboarding. The UK has announced plans to launch its own version by 2028."
Pat Bermingham , CEO & Head of Product at Product, Adflex
"Software-based payments will accelerate access to a range of payment options this year, meaning anyone who needs to deliver a payment function will be able to do so. It sounds simple but it will be truly transformative."
Tommaso Jacopo Ulissi , Head of Strategy at Nexi Group
"Embedded payments have become increasingly engrained in businesses over the past couple of years. By enhancing customer experience, driving loyalty, controlling the user journey and increasing revenues, it's become a no-brainer for SaaS platforms. But as embedded payments become..."
Grant Evans , VP of Sales and Partnerships at Worldpay
"The biggest shift will be the move from payments as infrastructure to payments as a strategic lever for growth and loyalty."
Gavin Cicchinelli , President at BlueSnap
"By the end of 2026, card present over internet experiences will be standard in the parts of eCommerce where trust matters most. Our research with YouGov shows that 56 per cent of consumers would feel more comfortable completing online purchases in a payment process that mirrors tap and PIN at a physical terminal - something familiar, visible, and within their control."
Justin Pike , Founder & CEO at Burbank
"I think we'll see a further shift from one-size-fits-all lending towards more flexible approaches to credit, particularly for homeowners. People don't want to constantly remortgage or lock themselves into large, inflexible loans, but they do want access to the value they've already built in their homes on their own terms."
Hubert Fenwick , Co-Founder & CEO at Selina Finance
"The biggest shift will be a wave of consolidation driven by rising regulatory and capital requirements. Brazil's Central Bank has made compliance far more demanding, and many FinTech's simply won't be able to meet the new standards. As a result, only well-capitalised and operationally disciplined players will remain. This marks a turning point: after years of innovation-first policymaking, the emphasis is now on stability. The companies that can operate sustainably within stricter frameworks, not around them, will define the next chapter of financial services."
Daniel Ruhman , CEO & Co-Founder at Cumbuca
"In 2026 the growing data capability will help to provide much deeper insight into behaviour and payments, to make more informed decisions and to manage operations more effectively. However, building and maintaining trust will remain key for all businesses leveraging AI capabilities so there needs to be adequate oversight to balance carefully data protection and transparency."
Jonny Combe , President & Global CEO at PayByPhone
"The biggest shift will be financial institutions hitting a pragmatic reset. The "let a thousand flowers bloom" era of scattered AI pilots is done. We're moving to highly focused, top-down programmes with measurable, compliant outcomes. The consumerisation of AI created expectations that outstripped reality, and now there are monetary implications to running endless experiments with no clear outcome. The larger institutions have already created AI studios and centres of excellence to concentrate expertise - that's the model that wins."
George Brady , VP of Financial Services Innovation at HTEC
"The divide between fintech and traditional banking is collapsing, but not in the way most people expect. Fintech companies without banking licences will hit their ceiling, while banks without fintech capabilities will continue losing ground. The future belongs to whoever solves this integration first. We're already seeing capital move rapidly to jurisdictions that accommodate this hybrid model."
Vazgen Gevorkyan , CEO at Shark Fintech
"In 2026, we'll see finance leaders becoming far more confident in how they use AI, moving beyond cautious trials to more intentional adoption that delivers real, day-to-day impact."
Sacha Herrmann , CFO at Soldo
🤖 Agentic AI
"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..."
Leon Stevens , EMEA Managing Director at Mambu
"The biggest shift we expect in 2026 is the industry's move from experimentation to production for their selective Generative and Agentic AI initiatives, not driven by novelty but by business necessity. Regulation, customer expectations and platform-led distribution models are..."
Andy Davies , Senior Global Payments Specialist at Endava
"The biggest shift across financial services in 2026 will be the move from fragmented, compliance-driven tax functions to integrated, strategic approaches. After years of managing tax through disconnected systems, spreadsheets, and point solutions, organisations are increasingly..."
Bruce Martin , CEO at Tax Systems
"Two existing trends will accelerate dramatically this year - democratisation and fragmentation."
Jake Atkinson , Director of Growth at MQube
"The biggest shift will be the move from "digital workflows with humans in the loop" to revenue‑critical flows where AI agents handle significantly more of the work. Instead of just using AI for decision support or chatbots, banks and fintechs will deploy agents that can execute..."
"Financial institutions are shifting toward AI systems that don't just generate content, but actively support decision intelligence across anti-money laundering, know your customer, fraud, credit and risk operations. Agentic AI will be transformative because it acts as a smarter orchestration engine that assembles multiple techniques to solve complex problems. Agent-based systems will increasingly handle data gathering, evidence collection, triage and multi-step analysis, freeing analysts to focus on value-driven tasks and decision making rather than admin."
Alexon Bell , Chief Product Officer for Fincrime & KYC at Quantexa
"Agentic AI will have a very practical impact for banks and fintechs. There will be auditable AI agents embedded directly into core banking workflows. This will mean more consistent, durable, and efficient operations."
Herman Man , Chief Product Officer at Bluevine
"In 2026, agentic AI will begin reshaping the dynamics between platforms, users and the payment flows that sit behind them. Rather than customers initiating every action, machine agents will increasingly orchestrate journeys on their behalf. And as these agents begin to influence buying decisions, businesses may face new acquisition costs and will need to optimise for AI-driven referral economics."
Alex Taylor , UK Managing Director at Mangopay
"In 2026, we will see many of these institutions take a leap of faith, transitioning from proof of concepts to full AI rollouts. Instead of only seeing the small scale productivity gains that come with single point solutions or limited use cases, institutions taking the leap into broader AI use cases in the new year will see the true value AI can create."
Rishi Chohan , CEO U.S.A at GFT
"In 2026, I suspect organisations will start to realise digital transformation is not just a project that you can tick off a list. We'll see organisations breaking down the old silos between product, risk, compliance and tech. Data that used to be stuck in different systems will be connected, giving a single live view of customers and operations."
Boris Bialek , Field CTO at MongoDB
"The biggest shift in 2026 will be the move from fragmented AI pilots to platform driven execution. Boards and executives, growing impatient, are now asking directly: what value are we actually getting?"
Mallory Beaudreau , RVP – Account Management, EMEA at Apptio, an IBM Company
"The accelerating adoption and operationalisation of AI (particularly generative AI and agentic AI) that reconfigures customer interactions, product models and operating models - coupled with platformication (composable digital banking platforms, marketplaces and ecosystem models) and geopolitically driven sourcing changes - is the single most significant shift expected across financial services in 2026."
Ben Goldin , Founder & CEO at Plumery B.V.
"Banks and NBFIs will shift from traditional transaction-led models to holistic money-management platforms designed for mass-affluent and upper-mass-affluent customers. Instead of simply enabling payments or deposits, institutions will compete on their ability to help customers plan, grow and optimise their wealth through personalised, AI-driven financial tooling."
Pierre Legrand , Managing Director of Digital Financial Services at Alvarez & Marsal
"AI continues to become more sophisticated where it is often difficult to determine what is human generated versus what is computer-generated. This coming year is going to accelerate the usage of AI for nefarious purposes, and the financial services industry is going to have to ramp up its adoption and use cases at unprecedented levels to not fall further behind in the financial crime battle."
Becki LaPorte , Principal – AML Strategy & Innovation at FinScan
"There is so much more work that needs to be done to map out and analyse processes and understand how they will be transformed, and then work to manage successfully through that change."
Steve Morgan , Global Banking Industry Lead at Pegasystems
"2026 will be the year of bifurcation. There will be those institutions that continue on the technology side to introduce more novel solutions but could risk to detrimentally impact resilience and operational stability. And there will be those that will try to find ways to slow down certain processes to be able to regain more control in the fight against financial crime and fraud."
Dr. Ruth Wandhöfer , Chair at Blackwired
"2026 is the year agentic transformation moves from concept to core reality in financial services. We're seeing banks and asset managers deploy autonomous AI agents that handle complex workflows like credit risk assessment, trade settlement, compliance monitoring, and personalised wealth advice. These aren't just chatbots or assistants anymore; they're digital colleagues operating within governance frameworks and ethical boundaries."
Dave Murphy , Head of Financial Services EMEA & APAC at Publicis Sapient
💰 Stablecoins & Digital Assets
"One of the biggest shifts I'm watching is how quickly payments are becoming automated and intelligent. Stablecoins and tokenised deposits are moving from niche experiments into real commercial pilots, and regulators in the UK are bringing new clarity around how these..."
Bjarni Thor Sigurdsson , Chief Commercial Officer at PAYSTRAX
"In 2026, the biggest shift will be how banks approach payments availability and resilience. Multi-cloud continuity will move from an experimental architecture to a strategic priority, driven by the growing recognition that outages are no longer theoretical risks."
Nadish Lad , Global Head of Product at Volante Technologies
"While there appears to be a payments revolution in the making, 2026 will be the year in which interoperability will define stablecoin success. Real scale for stablecoins will only come from the network effect we see in existing payment systems. If this is to be achieved, it will..."
Chris Mason , Co-founder and CEO at Orbital
"What's changing is how banks are judged. Launching new features matters less than it used to. What matters more is how systems behave when something unexpected happens."
Julie Sutton , Head of Growth Europe at Paymentology
"The biggest shift will be the move from financial products to next-generation financial infrastructure. By 2026, differentiation will no longer come from launching another wallet, card, or user interface, but from controlling resilient, compliant, and programmable rails that..."
"The biggest shift will be the mainstream recognition and deployment of stablecoins as a core part of global financial infrastructure rather than a niche crypto asset. They will become a practical and trusted method of cross-border payments and treasury management, streamlining..."
"I anticipate that institutional adoption of digital assets will accelerate in 2026 as traditional finance begins integrating them into its core operations. This represents a fundamental shift in how the industry operates, and the services offered to consumers. Furthermore, while..."
Sean Forward, Business Manager for Digital Currency at ClearBank
"I predict 2026 will be the year of "invisible banking." Banks won't just provide accounts, cards, or loans, they'll be seamlessly integrated into the apps, platforms, and digital experiences we use every day, like the recent payments integration on ChatGPT. You may search for holiday inspiration on the ChatGPT app next year, and instantly be able to pay for your flights and hotel then and there. All in one place. This is a big leap: moving from reactive service providers to proactive, almost invisible engines that anticipate and respond to needs before customers even realise them."
Rav Hayer , MD, UK & Ireland, Head of European FS Practice at Thoughtworks
"In the UK, 2025 was defined by significant market growth alongside a proposed phased implementation of a comprehensive regulatory framework by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and HM Treasury. The shift from a previously cautious regulatory environment, coupled with accelerating adoption of technologies from stablecoins to tokenized financial assets, sets the stage for the next growth cycle."
Pantelis Kotopoulos , UK Country Director at Bitpanda
"The biggest shift that I am expecting to see next year will be the mainstreaming of digital assets. Blockchain technology and crypto assets have been steadily extending their reach throughout the industry for over a decade, initially with intense media hype which has now moved on to newer and 'shinier' technologies like AI. There is a feeling in the industry that this slow but relentless progress is about to reach its tipping point as regulation finally catches up through the Genius Act and stablecoin models really hit their stride. This ultimately will have a profound impact on how people, businesses and countries handle and exchange value worldwide."
Marcus Treacher , Executive Chair at RTGS.global
📋 RegTech & Compliance
"We expect to see a continued shift toward products that are tax advantaged, such as direct indexing and separately managed accounts (SMAs). Red Oak's compliance connectivity platform is made up of compliance, distribution and supervision platforms. In our distribution platform,..."
"In 2026, we'll see an evolution in how financial services are built and delivered to customers."
Nick Rugg , Head of Fintech Insurance at Markel International
"In 2026, generative AI will reach a capability threshold where it can be truly scaled, providing lightning-fast compliance and hyper-personalised financial products."
Jamil Jiva , Global Head of Asset Management at Linedata
"The biggest shift in 2026 will see financial service organisations move from experimentation to accountability."
Peter Pugh Jones , EMEA Field CDO at Confluent
"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."
Satty Saha , Global CEO at Creditinfo
"As global scrutiny of AI intensifies, trust and compliance will become absolutely paramount to any emerging model's success. Oversight in finance, law, and other sensitive sectors is stringent, so if an AI model can't justify its decisions and meet regulatory standards, any market share hopes are dashed."
Gaby Diamant , Founder & CEO at BridgeWise
"The transition from "growth at all costs" to intelligent, profitable growth. After the hype cycles of previous years, 2026 will be defined by investors demanding clear paths to profitability. Fintechs will no longer be judged by user count alone, but by their ability to deliver tangible, efficient value."
Raman Korneu , CEO & Co-Founder at myTU
"The biggest shift will be a move from theoretical resilience to tested, evidence-based resilience. Over the past year, we've seen multiple instances of operational failure, ransomware attacks and supplier disruption that left large organisations unable to operate. In many cases, the only reason we avoided sustained global impact was luck."
Wayne Scott , GRC Solutions Lead at Escode
🏦 Digital Banking
"2026 will be the year of the retail investor, so we'll see fintechs and financial institutions focus on expanding their investment offerings. There is clear appetite from the Government to boost retail investing and this will be picked up and run with by the banking market - in..."
Symmie Swil , UK General Manager at Upvest
"The biggest shift will be the move from digital banking as a channel strategy to real-time insights and connected financial operations at the core. In 2026, customers won't judge financial institutions by the number of digital features they offer, but by whether they can deliver..."
John Stevens , SVP Global Head of Capital Markets at Kyriba
"We are moving toward a state of "Invisible Banking" where automation and personalisation are so embedded that the banking process recedes into the background, leaving only the result. End-users will demand faster results with less friction."
Michele Tucci , Chief Strategy Officer and Co-Founder at Credolab
⚛️ Quantum Computing
"Next year, financial services firms will shift from rapid experimentation with technologies such as AI to demanding measurable return of investment (ROI), with pressure mounting to prove those investments. A study from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (MIT)..."
Shaun Hurst, Principal Regulatory Advisor at Smarsh
"The biggest shift is a maturing of innovation. The last decade has seen the evolution of blockchain, automation and AI, and the resultant hype has led to the creation of a range of businesses many of which have been exploring new concepts with a high fail rate."
James Burnie, Partner at gunnercooke llp
💳 Payments
"The payments industry is approaching a decisive inflection point. Businesses are shifting how they approach account to account or A2A payments - how they are processed, managed and monetised. These shifts won't just introduce new technologies; they will go further and change the..."
"The biggest shift in 2026 will be a re-balancing of the financial services model away from growth at any cost and back towards trust, resilience and credibility."
Aaron Holmes , CEO and Co-founder at Kani Payments
⚖️ AI Governance
"What we're seeing in 2026 is firms looking at AI not as a cost-cutting exercise, but as a growth catalyst. Take Goldman Sachs – they're spending $6 billion on AI, and their CEO stated he wished he could spend $8 billion. The critical message was: 'I don't want people to think of..."
Last updated: 13 February 2026
Want to contribute your 2026 predictions? Get in touch.