What developments are driving fintech innovation within the UK and Europe as 2026 begins?
With FinovateEurope 2026 kicking off in simply two weeks, we’re showcasing among the main themes in banking and monetary companies that will likely be addressed—on the demo stage in addition to by our keynote addresses, fireplace chats, and panel discussions—when the convention begins on Tuesday, 10 February.
From agentic AI to post-quantum cryptography, the enabling applied sciences of as we speak are reworking banking and monetary companies. Benefiting from these improvements to higher serve clients, create new income streams, and efficiently compete in an ever-more advanced market is the purpose of each banker and monetary companies skilled. Come see the options for your self this 12 months at FinovateEurope 2026.
Improvements in Verification, Fraud Prevention, and Workflow Automation
From the demo stage, count on to see a spread of improvements in id verification and fraud prevention. With the proliferation of applied sciences starting from sooner funds to agentic AI to digital property, guaranteeing that customers and companies are capable of interact in these companies safely has turn out to be more and more vital. Moreover, with applied sciences like AI empowering a brand new era of fraudsters and monetary criminals, a variety of innovators are growing options that focus on particular vulnerabilities and assault vectors with steady surveillance and protection.
Additionally among the many high developments mirrored within the demoing corporations at this 12 months’s FinovateEurope are improvements in embedded finance and open finance. As paths towards unlocking new income streams and deepening buyer engagement, each embedded finance and open finance supply monetary establishments distinctive alternatives and are more and more supported by regulatory steering in each the UK and throughout Europe.
One other space the place we’ll see a substantial amount of innovation this 12 months at FinovateEurope is in workflow automation and system modernization. A variety of corporations will likely be demoing options that do every little thing from enhancing developer productiveness to accelerating compliance readiness to managing advanced fashions and calculations for banks and different monetary establishments. The sheer number of startups on this area—lots of them hailing from Japanese and Central European nations—is a testomony to the vary of challenges that fintech is able to fixing. It additionally speaks nicely of the variety of technologists from outdoors of fintech which are turning their abilities towards issues in banking and monetary companies.
Modernization and Transformation within the Age of AI
Most of the similar themes from the stay demos may even be manifest on the plenary stage. With regard to modernization, for instance, FinovateEurope will study the ways in which fintech, AI, and the cloud might assist rework legacy banking. The convention may even take a look at the problem of modernizing legacy authentication, particularly by shifting to applied sciences like post-quantum cryptography (PQC) which are designed to safe techniques in opposition to threats from quantum computer systems. To the issue of fraud and monetary crime, audio system will talk about using community APIs to combat scams and the way banks and fintechs can work collectively to fulfill the distinctive cybersecurity challenges of the AI age. Carrying out all of this whereas avoiding further friction for the consumer is a high theme and chief concern for banks and monetary companies corporations alike.
Different key themes reminiscent of personalization, open banking, and open finance may even be matters of debate at this 12 months’s convention. Each within the context of wealth administration and retail banking, open knowledge guarantees not solely extra participating, customized experiences for purchasers, but additionally gives monetary establishments with higher, extra data-driven decision-making; extra environment friendly operations; and higher danger administration.
Unsurprisingly, AI continues to be a major theme in any dialog on know-how, banking, and monetary companies. FinovateEurope’s keynotes and particular addresses will examine points reminiscent of how generative AI is shaping the way forward for cell banking in addition to the rise of agentic AI and the problem of “nonhuman clients” reminiscent of AI-powered bots and brokers. Different shows will talk about the EU’s AI Act and its implications for banks and monetary companies suppliers, in addition to “classes discovered” from tech giants like Google, Meta, and Microsoft and their AI innovation journeys.
It’s honest to say that improvements in AI proceed to drive what’s attainable in fintech, and the variety of mainstage particular addresses at FinovateEurope overlaying completely different use instances and purposes of AI replicate this truth. Certainly, for one more 12 months, FinovateEurope is that includes an trade stage devoted particularly to purposes of AI for banking and monetary companies. However whereas AI is a clearly main power in technological innovation, it is only one of a variety of applied sciences—together with open finance/banking/knowledge, embedded finance, and DeFi—that continues to rework fintech.
FinovateEurope 2026 involves London’s Intercontinental O2, 10 February by 11 February. Tickets to the convention are on sale now. Register as we speak to avoid wasting your spot on the first huge fintech occasion of the 12 months!
Picture by Samuel Candy
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