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Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateEurope in London on February 25. Register today using this link and save 20%.
Bitpowr Technologies
Through Bitpowr Technologies’latest products, fintechs and other companies can offer embedded stablecoin banking, payments, digital wallets, and card products in a safe, secure, and compliant way.
Features
Issue and enable stablecoin digital wallets to store and secure stablecoins
Process and receive global payments using stablecoins
Issue stablecoin-backed cards to users
Who’s it for?
Fintechs, neobanks, payment providers, and businesses.
ID-Pal
ID-Pal uses 100% AI-powered technology for real-time identity verification and AML screening, ensuring seamless customer onboarding, compliance, and zero access to customer data.
Features
Provides built-in AI document fraud detection
Delivers global coverage and streamlined AML compliance
Offers seamless integration options and full customization
Who’s it for?
Banks, neobanks, community banks, credit unions, payments providers, insurance companies, asset management companies, and financial institutions.
MDOTM Ltd
Sphere, MDOTM Ltd’s investment platform, leverages AI to deliver AI-driven investment insights, portfolio rebalancing at scale, and automated portfolio commentaries to institutional investors globally.
Features
Creates AI-driven investment insights
Provides portfolio rebalancing at scale
Uses GenAI for portfolio commentaries and reporting
Who’s it for?
Investment professionals and decision makers from banks, insurance companies, family offices, and asset and wealth management companies.
Moonjelly
Moonjelly is an enterprise-ready GenAI platform that retrieves information, derives insights, and completes tasks to increase day-to-day efficiency with complete transparency.
Features
Unlocks advanced insights with AI on trustworthy data across industries
Executes tasks in seconds to improve efficiency
Creates dashboards to track ROI and enterprise compliance
Who’s it for?
Small-to-medium-sized financial institutions.
PayIP
PayIP’s AI-powered billing platform optimizes banks’ payment network billing and interchange, providing fast, accurate alerts and insights to uncover immediate cost savings and revenue opportunities.
Features
Recovers and optimizes payment network fees and interchange for banks
Empowers banks to understand their payment network billing and interchange
Benchmarks and analyzes network billing
Who’s it for?
Banks, credit unions, fintechs and payment providers paying fees to payment networks and/or earning or paying interchange.
What makes an address “special”? This year at FinovateEurope 2025, the designation is going to speakers addressing an especially wide range of topics — from AI to quantum computing. Some of the presentations we’re highlighting today will be on the mainstage at FinovateEurope. Others will be offered as part of our focused tracks examining topics in payments, customer experience, AI, lending, and banking risk and regulation. All of them promise to be insightful discussions on key topics impacting fintech and financial services today.
Our slate of speakers for FinovateEurope is growing by the day. Visit our FinovateEurope 2025 hub for the latest updates on who’s speaking and when.
Mainframe modernization: the journey to agile digital services in 2025
Featuring Paul Holland (LinkedIn), CTO, Astadia: An Amdocs Company, this special address looks at how tools such as Generative AI (GenAI) can help accelerate digital transformation to unlock even further modernization. Holland will also lead a conversation on how financial institutions can complement existing capabilities to successfully modernize mainframe applications at scale. Tuesday, 25 February, 10:05 am.
An Amdocs company, Astadia is an industry-leading mainframe migration and modernization firm. Astadia’s core competencies include cloud migration, refactoring, replatforming, DevOps, and managed IT services. The company has conducted more than 300 successful migrations with world-class organizations.
Countdown to Q-Day: Why Banks Must Act on Post-Quantum Authentication Now
Featuring Petr Dvořák (LinkedIn), Founder and CEO, Wultra, this special address will examine the evolution of quatum computing and the potential challenges the technology will bring to digital banking. Dvořák will discuss the migration to post-quantum authentication (PQA) and the importance of transitioning to quantum-resistant authentication before “Q-Day” — when quantum computers are powerful enough to break contemporary cryptography. Tuesday, 25 February, 3pm.
Founded in 2014 and headquartered in Prague, Wultra helps banks and fintech brands build secure digital applications. The company offers modern, compliant authentication solutions that deliver security, easy access to financial services, and straightforward deployment.
Building Interactive Data Applications with Plotly: How AI Enhances the Delivery and Usage of Data Apps
Featuring Andy Wisbey (LinkedIn), European Sales Director, Plotly, this special address is part of FinovateEurope 2025’s Artificial Intelligence Track. Wisbey will lead a hands-on session that will demonstrate how to leverage Plotly’s advanced visualization capabilities to create an interactive data application that transforms complex financial data into actionable insights. Wednesday, 26 February, 10:50am
A Bronze sponsor of FinovateEurope 2025, Plotly is a leading provider of open-source graphing libraries and enterprise-grade analytics solutions. The company’s flagship solution, Dash Enterprise, enables organizations to build scalable and interactive data apps that drive impact decision-making.
Also providing special addresses at FinovateEurope this year are:
Pedro Andrade, Key Account Director, ORACLE MySQL
Vladimir Lounegov, Co-Founder, Mbanq
Waheed Mahmood, BFSI Lead, Rackspace
Be sure to check out the Finovate blog as more speakers for FinovateEurope are confirmed. And if you haven’t picked up your ticket yet, there’s no time like the present! Visit our FinovateEurope hub today and save your seat!
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateEurope in London on February 25. Register today using this link and save 20%.
CyberUpgrade
CyberUpgrade automates ICT security and compliance, transforming paper processes into resilience. Built by CISOs, it streamlines audits, risk, and vendor management and fosters cybersecurity awareness.
Features
CoreGuardian ensures compliance with DORA and other frameworks
CoPilot engages employees 1-on-1 via Slack and Teams for security awareness
VendorGuard streamlines vendor risk management
Who’s it for?
Financial institutions, investment firms, insurers, payment processors, critical ICT providers, and non-EU companies serving EU financial entities.
Intrepid Fox
Intrepid Fox makes onboarding for banks and fintechs 10x faster. Their AI-powered document collection reduces manual follow-ups by 90% and cuts costs by 50%.
Features
Provides on-the-spot document analysis for 10x faster document collection
Automates follow-ups with the customer to eliminate back-and-forth emails
Includes an interactive compliance dashboard that provides a robust risk analysis
Who’s it for?
Banks, credit unions, fintechs, payment providers, and financial institutions seeking faster and more efficient business onboarding.
Keyless
Keyless is a leader in privacy-preserving biometric authentication. It is ISO27001, FIDO, and FIDO2 certified and protects global enterprises from fraud while ensuring compliance and multi-factor security.
Features
Delivers data privacy and compliance
Offers multi-factor security
Creates a seamless user experience
Who’s it for?
Banks, fintechs, crypto exchanges, and the broader financial services sector, from SMEs to global organizations.
R34DY
ABLEMENTS by R34DY solves the integration challenge for banks. ABLEMENTS is an AI-driven platform bringing IT ecosystems and organizations together and to market – fast.
Features
Orchestrate – uses AI to integrate IT systems and third-party providers in no time
Create – provides a low code platform for businesses to create flows with AI
Operate – safely deploys and monitors
Who’s it for?
Banks and financial institutions, whether they are legacy, modernizing, or greenfield.
Regsearch AI
Regsearch AI empowers businesses with customizable regulatory AI agents to simplify and automate regulatory compliance, assess gaps, and ensure alignment with internal policies and standards.
Features
Automates regulatory compliance assessments without disrupting current operations
Provides oversight and monitoring of AI agents used outside and within Regsearch AI
Who’s it for?
Small-to-medium-sized businesses, including financial services, insurance companies, banks, credit unions, and payment providers.
Advances in everything from digital engagement to AI have revolutionized banking and financial services. Unfortunately, these same technologies and innovations have spawned a new generation of financial criminals whose malicious activity can be launched from anywhere in the world and impact thousands, if not millions, of individuals.
What can the financial services industry do to better educate their clients about the challenge of financial crime? What tools and strategies are available to banks and other institutions to help them better protect themselves and their customers from fraudsters, cyberattacks, and other threats?
In our Power Panel on financial crime at FinovateEurope 2025 — How to harness anti-financial crime technology to meet the challenges of the digital era — we feature three experts on the topic of fighting fraud and financial crime in financial services. The panel will discuss current threats to banks and financial services companies, as well as the role of enabling technologies — including digital identity, biometric authentication, and AI — in helping businesses stay one step ahead of the fraudsters.
Our Power Panelists are:
Tom Littlechild, EMEA Senior Counsel for AML, Sanctions, and ABC (Financial Crime), Wells Fargo
Previously Santander UK’s dedicated financial crime attorney advising on AML sanctions, ABC, and criminal fraud matters, Littlechild is Wells Fargo’s EMEA Senior Counsel for AML, Sanctions, and ABC (Financial Crime).
Before joining the financial services industry, Littlechild was a specialist in white collar crime, investigations, and compliance at Ropes and Gray. LinkedIn.
Monica Carlesso, Business Platform Lead, ID & Authentication Platform, CIO Enabling Services, Lloyds Bank
A disruptor in the financial services industry with more than 15 years experience in digital product development in payments and banking, Carlesso is Business Platform Lead, ID & Authetication Platform, CIO Enabling Services, at Lloyds Bank.
Previously, Carlesso led mobile strategies and propositions in European financial services firms including Barclaycard and PosteMobile/PostePay. LinkedIn.
Chantelle Lamb, Fraud and Financial Crimes Systems Director, OakNorth
Lamb is the Fraud and Financial Crime Systems Director at OakNorth, which bills itself as the digital bank for entrepreneurs by entrepreneurs. She is a fraud prevention specialist with experience leading multiple fraud and financial crime teams across both retail and commercial financial services products.
Before joining OakNorth, Lamb was Head of Fraud at Vanquis Bank where she led the institution’s anti-money laundering and transaction monitoring efforts. LinkedIn.
Richard Neve, Managing Director & Partner, Cognito Media
Moderating the panel is Richard Neve. Managing Director & Partner at Cognito Media, Neve began his career as a daily newspaper journalist, and transitioned into financial services as a contributor to Financieel-Economisch Magazine (FEM) and a contributing editor to Banking Review.
Today, Neve manages complex and large international communications projects for fintechs and financial services companies. He works from the Amsterdam and Düsseldorf offices of Cognito. LinkedIn.
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateEurope in London on February 25. Register today using this link and save 20%.
b-next
Founded in 1989, b-next specializes in innovative data analytics, delivering actionable insights and surveillance solutions across asset and trading platforms.
Features
Revolutionizes how data informs strategy
Fuels better decision-making
Uncovers actionable market correlations
Creates continuous innovation through a scalable ecosystem
Who’s it for?
Banks, asset managers, hedge funds, and trading firms.
Light Frame
Light Frame is a pioneering wealth technology firm launching the next generation of foundational core technology.
Features
Simplifies onboarding and maintenance
Improves and automates operations
Streamlines costs
Elevates intelligence
Accelerates innovation
Who’s it for?
Private banks, wealth management firms, and banks offering brokerage services.
Mati Labs
Mati Labs is an AI-powered co-pilot for investment funds that integrates proprietary and external financial data to deliver secure, actionable insights via custom tools and workflows.
Features
Connects 200+ data providers, including proprietary sources, to AI
Integrates seamlessly with tools, like Power BI, SQL, and Outlook
Automates reports, alerts, and insights from unstructured data
Who’s it for?
Asset managers and investment advisors.
Mifundo
Mifundo’s data solution offers cross-border credit information and standardised credit scores for underwriting foreigners, non-resident nationals, expats, and migrants.
Features
Offers standardised credit scores
Enhances credit bureau data with open-banking
Offers access to all European countries with a single API (or online platform)
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateEurope in London on February 25. Register today using this link and save 20%.
Arva AI
Arva AI offers AI-enabled business verification for banks and fintechs.
Features
Provides AI agents for document intelligence and fraud detection
Analyzes web presence
Communicates with customers
Who’s it for?
Banks, credit unions, payment providers, and fintechs.
Doshi App
Doshi App helps financial institutions deepen customer loyalty through engaging financial education that empowers better financial habits.
Features
Generates AI-driven customer insights for personalised CRM
Delivers plug-and-play financial education for easy integration
Offers scalable white-label solutions for seamless branding
Who’s it for?
Banks, credit unions, fintechs, lenders, and credit builders.
Plumery
Plumery’s cloud-native digital banking platform empower’s financial institutions of all sizes to craft distinctive, customer-centric mobile and web banking experiences.
Features
Drives 60% higher customer engagement through lifestyle integration
Generates 40% growth in transaction volume through embedded services
Creates new revenue streams through partnership models
Who’s it for?
Financial institutions of any size, ranging from large multinational banks to smaller regional players.
Xaver
Xaver empowers banks, insurers, and brokers with agentic AI-driven omnichannel sales capabilities to improve pension savings for millions of Europeans.
Features
Delivers up to 65% sales efficiency gains through autonomous AI financial advisors and AI co-pilots
Provides seamless omnichannel experiences bridging online and offline
In less than a month, FinovateEurope returns to London at the iconic O2 Intercontinental, bringing together the newest and best ideas in fintech for two, action-packed days (get your ticket before prices increase!). With insightful keynote presentations, panel discussions, and lots of networking opportunities, this event consistently brings incredible value to attendees.
Among the most anticipated highlights of the first day are the live demo sessions, where companies take the stage to showcase their latest product or service. Each company gets just seven minutes to demo their technology— no slides, no pre-recorded videos, just live demonstrations of what makes their solution unique.
This year, we’re thrilled that, out of the 30+ companies set to demo on the Finovate stage, 17 have never made an appearance at a Finovate event in the past. These new faces represent a fresh wave of innovation in areas like AI, cybersecurity, regtech, and payments, and others. They are new to us, and will likely be new to you, as well.
Arva AI Arva AI uses AI to increase the efficiency and strengthen compliance of business verification for banks and fintechs.
b-next b-next empowers firms to uncover market patterns and correlations, enabling them to make smarter decisions through advanced financial data analysis.
Byne Grassroots experimentation can enable teams to leverage GenAI flexibly and cheaply. Byne helps to encourage this innovation while mitigating security risks.
CyberUpgrade CyberUpgrade offers a cybersecurity co-pilot that helps CTOs offload 95% of ICT security and compliance tasks.
EKAI EKAI uses GenAI to reduce costs associated with data review and analysis, produce tangible insights, and streamline compliance program management to maximize ROI.
Keyless Keyless replaces traditional multi-factor authentication methods with automated biometric authentication, improving user experience and cutting costs.
Light Frame Light Frame offers private banks the foundational technology to streamline back-office operations, accelerate innovation, and elevate security and resilience to the modern standard.
Mati Labs Mati Labs helps financial institutions transform and grow by enabling AI adoption with robust data foundations, ensuring security and compliance, and fostering knowledge-based innovation.
Mifundo Mifundo offers data technology to unify and passport credit data in Europe, providing banks with a standardized credit risk assessment.
Moonjelly Moonjelly is a GenAI platform designed for the finance sector, enabling rapid investment research, automated memo generation, and intelligent document management to enhance decision-making and operational efficiency.
PayIP PayIP recovers money from Visa and Mastercard for banks and optimizes their billing costs going forward.
Plumery Plumery helps organizations drive growth by accelerating digital modernization, reducing time-to-market, enhancing customer experiences, and enabling continuous innovation by integrating with existing banking systems.
PromoComply By streamlining compliance for financial promotions, PromoComply cuts down significantly on the time and cost of maintaining compliant marketing, so organizations build trust with consumers and regulators.
R34DY R34DY helps organizations transform their business by taking the pain out of integrations and making it easy for business owners to create use cases and reduce time-to-market.
Regsearch AI Regsearch AI empowers organizations to save time, reduce compliance costs, and scale operations by automating regulatory processes with trusted, explainable, and transparent AI Agents.
RE-ViVE RE-ViVE helps BFSI organizations navigate the challenges of modernization by simplifying complex processes, unlocking actionable insights from vast data, and driving efficient, scalable transformation.
Xaver Xaver empowers organizations with AI-driven sales technology to enhance omnichannel customer journeys, improve sales efficiency, and expand or refine their financial product offerings.
In addition to the 17 companies above, we’ll also seethe following Finovate alums, as well as others, take the stage to demo.
Dimply Dimply helps banks and credit unions unlock greater value from their data and create beautiful, personalized, insightful, and resonant embedded financial experiences. Dimply recently demoed at FinovateFall 2024.
Doshi App Doshi App transforms transactional relationships into engaging user experiences that attract GenZ and support cross-sell opportunities. Doshi App demoed at FinovateEurope 2024.
Intrepid Fox Intrepid Fox automates key components of KYC review, such as document collection, which reduces onboarding time by 10x. Intrepid Fox demoed at FinovateEurope 2024.
PointChain PointChain is an AI-driven solution that enables real-time transaction monitoring and risk scoring for financial institutions. PointChain demoed at FinovateFall 2024.
Torus Torus improves financial and operational efficiency by enabling banks and fintechs with data-driven insights from the billing and transactional data they already have. Torus demoed at FinovateEurope 2024.
We’re excited to host all of these companies, as well as our speakers, panelists, and sponsors, on February 25 through 26 in London. Get your ticket soon to save, and we’ll see you there!
FinovateEurope is coming to London’s Intercontinental O2 on February 25 and 26 (grab your ticket here). Over the course of the two days, we will have a range of content loaded with fresh insights and new ideas that will help you stay on top of the latest trends.
With such a wealth of content, it is difficult to choose favorites. For me, however, there are two sessions that always stand out, the Investor All Stars and Analyst All Stars panels. These sessions gather some of the most influential minds and voices in financial services, and the group always addresses the most pressing topics in fintech.
Investor All Stars: Where is the smart money investing in fintech?
Why this session stands out Analysts will address critical questions about the current state of fintech funding, a hot topic given recent market turbulence. The speaker lineup of investors will offer insights on consolidation trends, wealthtech growth, and the potential for profitable fintechs to reshape the funding landscape.
Key questions to be answered
Which fintech sectors are still attracting strong investment?
What lessons can be learned from bubbles that have burst?
How can fintech startups navigate high interest rates and prepare for successful exits?
Takeaways for attendees The Investor All Star session will provide clarity for fintech founders and investors navigating a challenging funding environment. Understanding trends like digital asset adoption and profitability-focused growth through the lens of an investor can help guide your thinking on where to focus your time, efforts, and investment in the coming months.
Speakers
David Kelnar, Managing Director at Houlihan Lokey
Katherine Wilson, Senior Principal at Illuminate Financial
Robin Scher, Head of Fintech Investment at Lloyds Banking Group
Serhiy Tokarev, CoFounder and General Partner at Roosh
Analyst All Stars: How financial services have been changed forever
Why this session stands out This session is consistently one of Finovate’s most anticipated, and for good reason. Hearing from four top analysts in the space will help you bring fresh perspectives and actionable insights, no matter where you operate in the fintech and banking space.
Key questions to be answered
What can European banks learn from fintech innovation in Asia, Africa, and Latin America?
Why has open banking struggled in Europe while succeeding elsewhere?
What areas of financial wellness, inclusion, and literacy are ripe for innovation?
Takeaways for attendees Attendees can leverage analysts’ insights to understand global trends and discover opportunities for creating new revenue streams, a better customer experience, cost savings, and more. Both banks and fintechs will also learn from global case studies and benefit from actionable, practical recommendations.
Speakers
Philip Benton, Principal Analyst at Omdia
David Barton-Grimley, Fintech Strategy Director at 11:FS
Suraya Randawa, Head of Omnichannel Experience at Curinos
Both of these sessions are unmissable, so be sure to arrange your agenda to accommodate. All-access passes for the event are currently discounted; save by registering before rates increase!
This year, FinovateEurope will host a trio of quick-fire keynote addresses covering topics in fintech that have been gaining traction in recent years. Presented on Day Two of the conference, these three speeches will help inform attendees about recent developments — and future opportunities — for banks and financial services companies in fields such as quantum computing, wealth management, and B2B fintech.
How quantum computing could transform banking; it can process data 10 million times faster than supercomputers — what are the use cases for banks? Could quantum computing break the encryption keys used in current security protocols and leave sensitive data vulnerable to attack?
Syed Hasan Jafar, Associate Dean at the School of Business, Woxsen University
Jafar is the Area Chair/HOD of Finance at Woxsen University. He has 14 years of experience in finance and worked as a Deputy Research Head and corporate trainer before joining academia. Jafar’s areas of expertise include security analysis, equity and derivative research, technical analysis, and valuation.
Disruption in the direct to consumer wealth market. The great wealth transfer has started and new heirs are demanding faster digitization and more personalized offerings. Will AI be the catalyst to transform wealth management?
Vandenbroucke is Managing Director at everyoneINVESTED, the wealthtech spin-off of KBC Group. He is also expert general manager at KBC and former head of innovation at KBC Asset Managment, Belgium. Further, Vandenbroucke is a lecturer in financial engineering at University of Antwerp, digital household finance at KU Leuven, and financial securities at Ehsal Management School.
Moving beyond B2C fintech to B2B fintech — is this a bright new future for the fintech industry & will it be transformative for the banking industry?
Michael Salmony, CEO of Payments Innovation
Salmony is an internationally recognized leader on the strategy of business innovation in digital and financial services with a focus on payments, open finance, fintech, digital identity, e-invoicing/SCF, fraud/cybercrime, AI for financial services, and electronic money/CBDC. Salmony is also a board-level advisor to major international banks, industry associations, regulators, and finance bodies across the world.
FinovateEurope is only a month away — 25 and 26 February! Visit our FinovateEurope hub today and take advantage of early-bird savings of up to £400.00 on your ticket price if you register by 24 January.
We hear quite a bit about the role of venture capital in providing equity funding for fintech startups. But much less discussed is the role of venture debt. And while there is a widespread awareness of venture debut opportunities in the United States, fewer startups in the U.K. and Europe have traditionally taken advantage of it.
2025 may mark the year this changes. Our special Power Panel on Day One of FinovateEurope — Busting the Myths of Venture Debt, Innovations in Lending to Pre-Profit, High-Growth Companies. How to Decide If It Is Right for Your Startup? — will examine the impact of this shift, why it is happening now, and what startups need to know about how venture debt can work to help them secure the financing they need in order to grow.
How does venture debt work? What are the different options available to fintech startups? How does revenue-based financing differ from venture debt? How can companies decide whether or not venture debt is for them? These are some of the questions our Power Panel will address.
Erwin has nearly a decade of experience in venture debt. At NatWest, she is responsible for leading investments from origination to execution in high-growth, innovative companies, and supporting companies through the investment lifetime. LinkedIn.
Eliott Saba, Partner, Bootstrap Europe
Saba joined Bootstrap Europe in 2020 following a successful tenure at Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) as Vice President. Currently, he leads Bootstrap’s Fintech and Software expansion, following the successful raising of its third fund. LinkedIn.
Manuel Costescu, Managing Director and Co-Head of Innovation Economy for EMEA, JP Morgan
Costescu co-heads the Innovation Economy team, serving EMEA’s fastest growing fintechs, SaaS companies, and e-commerce firms across a wide range of corporate banking solutions. Costescu was previously a member of the Romanian Parliament and State Secretary for Trade and Investment. LinkedIn.
Morgan Borer, Founder, Blair Public Relations
Moderating the panel is Morgan Borer. Borer is a veteran communications professional with more than a decade of strategic communications and public relations experience. She was previously Partner at Bevel, one of the most sought-after strategic communications firms for venture capital, private equity, tech founders and CEO in the U.S. and Europe. LinkedIn.
Tickets for FinovateEurope are available today! Book by January 24 and take advantage of big early-bird savings.
If you haven’t heard, 2025 is the year of fintech spring. The chill has been taken out of the industry as investors regain confidence, new startups can launch with less risk, and established players are doubling down on new technologies to meet evolving customer demands. From fresh AI applications to the new uses for embedded finance, fintech is experiencing a renewed momentum.
Fortunately, catching up on what’s new and what’s next is as easy as attending FinovateEurope, which is taking place 25 through 26 February in London. The agenda not only features keynote presentations from the region’s top thought leaders, it will also showcase the latest technology available on the market today with live demos from more than 30 fintechs. Register today to get a discount and secure your spot!
To maximize your time spent, each session will highlight some of the newest themes and trends in the industry today. Here are some of the major trends you can expect to see unfolded and explained on stage.
Embedded finance matures
Why it matters: Embedded finance has been trending upward in fintech over the past few years, and for good reason. It helps organizations add seamless, contextual financial experiences for their customers, but it has also added the potential for banks and financial services companies to add a new revenue stream through Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS). Best of all, it allows both companies and banks to focus on their core competencies while enriching the user experience.
What’s happening: Embedded finance has proven its utility in the payments and lending worlds, allowing businesses to embed payments tools and lending capabilities into their existing website or mobile app. Now, embedded finance is moving beyond payments and lending into sectors like insurance, healthcare, and logistics.
Where you’ll see it: Over the course of the two-day FinovateEurope conference, multiple conversations on embedded finance and BaaS will take the stage. Be sure to check out:
This executive briefing on embedded finance titled, “How financial institutions can capture the huge opportunity of embedded finance & embedded banking in both retail & commercial banking.” The session will discuss opportunities for banks to expand their distribution footprint at a relatively low cost, consider risks in BaaS, how to find a competitive strategy, and more.
This power panel titled, “BaaS powered embedded lending is on the rise and is moving beyond buy now pay later – how can financial institutions capture the opportunity?” The panel will look at the rise of lending integrations, the role of AI in risk assessment, embedded finance regulation, and more.
Organizations navigating the impact of the EU AI Act
Why it matters: The EU AI Act is set to be one of the most comprehensive AI regulations in any region. The regulation went into force in August of 2024 and is poised to shape how banks and fintechs develop and deploy artificial intelligence. The act focuses on transparency, accountability, and controlling risks, especially when it comes to AI’s applications in areas such as credit scoring and fraud detection.
What’s happening: Fintechs leveraging AI are finding that they need to adapt (and quickly) in order to comply with the new rules while continuing to create and develop new, AI-centric products. While the new requirements might lead to an increase in operational costs, they also might bring new opportunities for organizations to build trust and differentiate their offerings by incorporating ethical AI practices.
Where you’ll see it: FinovateEurope is sure to be packed with fresh AI use cases and regulatory guidance. Here are just a few of the sessions that will inform and educate on AI application:
This keynote presentation titled, “Artificial intelligence – are we overestimating the short term impact & underestimating the long term impact?.” During the keynote, Tracey Follows will discuss how AI is a long-term trend line and will look at what this means for financial services.
This session titled, “What is the state of play for GenAI in financial services? Assessing leading use cases, challenges, barriers to adoption and how to navigate the roadblocks.” Forrester Analyst Aurélie L’Hostis will help organizations break down practical steps to get started in AI.
This AI power panel titled, “Strategies for successful AI adoption & digital transformation and why achieving success will go beyond the tech.” The panel will bring insight into how the EU AI Act may guide future thinking on the topic. It will also discuss governance, data privacy, security, compliance, and ethical implications about the application of AI.
The rise of AI-powered personalization
Why it matters: Fintech has sought to help banks personalize the user experience for over a decade. By applying AI and machine learning, firms can help drive hyper-personalized financial products and services.
What’s happening: Fintechs and banks are enhancing the user experience to help boost engagement and retention, differentiating themselves in a crowded market.
Where you’ll see it: Just as personalization permeates various subsectors of fintech, the topic will also be present among multiple sessions at FinovateEurope. There will also be a couple of sessions dedicated exclusively to the topic of personalization, including:
This keynote address titled, “Enabling hyper-personalization: fusing functionality, data, and strategic partnerships” that discusses how to deliver hyper-personalized experiences. The conversation will also explore how banks can leverage data, advanced API integrations, and AI-driven insights to offer the right products to the right customers at the right time.
This power panel titled, “The CX revolution – how can FIs compete in a hyper personalized world?” in which panelists will talk about how customers view the world, what lessons can be learned from other verticals, and how to keep up with customer expectations.
Payments get faster and smarter
Why it matters: Payments are not only getting cheaper, but they are also happening faster, which means that fraud is happening at an increasing rate.
What’s happening: Global trade and personal remittances, along with everyday transactions, are being shaken up by stablecoins and CBDC experiments, which may help create more transparent payment solutions.
Where you’ll see it: At this year’s FinovateEurope conference, payments will permeate many of the conversations on stage. Here are two particular panels that will address the top concerns:
Payments power panel titled, “The payments market is estimated at $2.85 trillion in 2024 and is expected to reach $4.78 trillion by 2029 – how can banks reimagine payments and capture this growth opportunity?” The panelists will consider the opportunity available in payments, as well as regulatory concerns and risk.
Keynote address titled, “Authorized push payment fraud losses across Europe may be as high as €2.4 billion, increasing by 20% to 25% annually; how are regulators addressing it?” The presentation will look at payment fraud risk and potential regulatory changes that may address authorized push payment fraud.
Regtech redefined by real-time compliance
Why it matters: Without regtech, banks and fintechs would be on their own to figure out and comply with an ever-changing set of rules. Leveraging a third party regtech provider not only helps organizations reduce compliance costs, it also facilitates faster adherence to new rules.
What’s happening: Regtech solutions can create real-time monitoring tools to keep up with evolving regulations. This is particularly important around crypto and AI regulations as they are very fast-moving fields.
Where you’ll see it: FinovateEurope will host an entire stage dedicated to discussing banking regulation and risk. Among the presentations taking place are:
Keynote Address titled, “A whistlestop tour of EU regulation – what financial services providers need to know about DORA; FiDA; eIDAS, and DMA?” that will brief the audience on these current and future regulations and look at how regulators are cracking down on risk management.
Power Panel titled, “Banking risk and resilience: meeting the challenges of new regulations, emerging tech, rising banking fraud and new cyber security threats” that will consider digital identity, risks of using AI and cloud risks, managing third party risks, and more.
FinovateEurope 2025 takes place in London on February 25 and 26. Register to attend and save up to £400.
Now that 2025 is well underway, we’re starting to get a better picture of what this year’s FinovateEurope event will look like. Taking place in London on 25 and 26 February, the two-day event will feature live demos from 30+ companies, as well as panel discussions on the hottest fintech topics and keynote presentations from major industry thought leaders.
The headliner keynote address, titled Artificial intelligence – are we overestimating the short term impact & underestimating the long term impact?, will be delivered by Professor Tracey Follows. AI was quick to establish itself as a long-term trend line. Will everything in this decade be defined by AI? And what does this mean for financial services?
Follows, who Forbes listed as one of the Top 50 Female Futurists in the World, will address these questions and offer her thoughts into what else the future has in store for banks.
Follows teaches strategic foresight at London Business School to Senior Executive Leadership and Corporate Management programs globally. She is also Visiting Professor in Digital Futures and Identity at Staffordshire University. She writes a regular AI/Innovation column in Forbes and speaks regularly at AI conferences; her expertise is highly regarded. She is also the CEO of futures consultancy Futuremade, working with the world’s biggest global brands and businesses. Recent clients include Coca-Cola, Tesco, PZ Cussons, Snapchat, Google, Diageo, Sky, Lego, Farfetch, Conde Nast, BT, Telefonica, the IAB, Women’s Business Council and Virgin.
In an interview with Thinking Differently, when asked what a futurist does on a day-to-day basis, Follows said that she is always on the lookout for signals of change. She said that she spends a lot of time at the frontiers of technologies, art, and science.
Follows describes herself as an “anxious optimist” because she is optimistic about the future, but she is anxious that situations might not always turn out to meet the optimistic expectations.
