This year, the shift is that they’re no longer being viewed in isolation. They’re coming together as part of the core infrastructure of modern finance. That’s really what our 2026 agenda is built around.
We’re exploring that shift through four content pillars: Borderless Financial Architecture, Technology as the Great Equalizer, Partnerships as the Engine to Scale and Brave New World: Setting Guardrails.
Stablecoin is a great example. A year ago, many people still saw that mainly as a crypto story. Now you’ve got institutions like Citi, Visa and Western Union building alongside companies like Coinbase and Circle and doing it not as an experiment, but as part of real payment infrastructure.
The conversation has clearly moved on. People aren’t asking whether these technologies are possible anymore. They’re asking what it takes to run them safely, govern them properly, and scale them in the real world.
What’s changed most in fintech since last year’s conference?
The biggest change is that the market has moved from experimentation to execution.
Last year, a lot of the conversation was still about pilots, proofs of concept and what might be possible. Now the focus is much more grounded in commercial deployment, operational integration, unit economics and risk management.
A real sign of maturity is when a technology stops living inside an innovation team and starts becoming part of the actual operating model of a bank or enterprise. That’s what we’re seeing now.
To my point about convergence, it’s clear that no one can build modern financial infrastructure alone.
Success increasingly depends on ecosystem thinking, embedded finance, and the right partnerships. That’s exactly why one of our pillars this year is Partnerships as the Engine to Scale.
And, importantly, this is no longer just an innovation conversation. Legal, compliance, treasury, operations and risk teams are there alongside product and strategy leaders.
Where are you seeing the most meaningful innovation in financial services?
A lot of the most meaningful innovation right now is happening at the infrastructure layer.
