Fintech & Banking

The financial technology (fintech) sector, along with banking and payments, faces significant challenges as it navigates through rapid technological advancements and changing consumer expectations.

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Traditional banks are losing control of the customer interface. Payments, credit, and capital are being unbundled and reassembled through APIs, platforms, and embedded systems. Legacy banking systems and payment processing networks have struggled to keep up. The result is a financial ecosystem that is faster, more intelligent, and far more fragile. Europe’s banking sector faces a decisive decade: will it innovate, collaborate, or become the regulated plumbing beneath new digital giants?

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From open banking and instant payments to embedded finance and tokenized assets, fintech is redefining how money moves, how risk is managed, and how consumers experience trust. Yet technological scale brings new vulnerabilities, from cybersecurity threats and algorithmic bias to regulatory fragmentation and capital inefficiency. The challenge is no longer invention, but integration.

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This track examines how financial services are being rebuilt from the ground up: through code, data, and compliance. It will confront the trade-offs between speed and security, openness and oversight, innovation and stability.

 

Keynote Speech

09:30 – 10:00             

 

Session 1: The Frontier of Fintech

10:00 – 11:30

The future of banking is not digital transformation: it’s digital reinvention. Speakers will explore how open banking, AI-driven credit, and real-time payment networks are reshaping the industry’s architecture. Discussions will probe whether incumbents can remain relevant as financial value migrates to cloud-based ecosystems and embedded platforms.

 

Key questions:

• Can banks survive as infrastructure providers in an API-driven world?

• Is the fintech revolution improving financial inclusion, or just enriching intermediaries?

• How far can automation go before it breaks the fiduciary bond of trust?

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4 Speakers (15 minutes) + 30 minute round table

            

First Break

11:30 – 12:00             

 

Session 2: Regulatory the New Financial Architecture 

12:00 – 13:00             

From MiCA to PSD3 and the European Data Act, regulators are racing to catch up with technology that moves faster than policy. This session unpacks the new compliance landscape: digital identity, cross-border KYC, CBDCs, and AI-driven risk management.

 

Key questions:

• Are current frameworks fit for programmable money and machine-to-machine payments?

• How should regulators balance innovation with systemic resilience?

• Does Europe’s regulatory approach protect consumers or strangle competitiveness?

 

4 Speakers (10 minutes each) + 20 minute round table              

 

Session 3: Investing in Fintech

13:00 – 14:00            

Capital is returning to quality: away from hype and toward infrastructure. Investors now seek defensible technologies, compliance-ready platforms, and profitable unit economics. Yet rising interest rates and regulatory uncertainty have redrawn the risk map.

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Key questions:

• Where does value creation really occur in fintech: front-end user apps or back-end rails?

• How do investors price regulatory and cybersecurity risk?

• Which failures have taught the sector its hardest lessons?
   

4 Speakers (10 minute presentations) + 20 minute round table