Why financial crime detection needs a new approach

By Swagatam Sen, Founder & CEO, ControlOne

A few years ago, I sat in a meeting with a financial crime team at a major bank. They had just finished a year-long project using machine-learning to spot suspicious activity from past data. The number of alerts was down. By the usual measures, the system was doing well. Everyone in the room agreed it was an improvement.

Then someone asked a quiet question. “Are we catching more crime?”

Nobody could answer with confidence.

That moment has stayed with me. It gets to the heart of what the industry has been doing for the last decade: improving the machinery of compliance without solving the underlying detection problem. From the outside the two things look similar. They are not the same.

The problem is not the technology. It is what we choose to look at.

Money laundering is a crime of networks. Criminal organisations do not work through single accounts acting on their own. They work through coordinated groups: accounts used to move money on behalf of criminals (often called “mules”), long chains of transfers designed to hide where the money came from, and companies that exist only on paper. Any single transaction looks harmless, but put together the pattern clearly reveals criminal activity. Every major laundering method that the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) have documented over the last twenty years shares this feature. The risk sits between accounts, not within any one of them.

Yet every generation of detection system has been built to assess one account at a time.

Rules: easy to explain, but frozen in place

The first generation of these systems relied on fixed rules. Flag any cash deposit above a set amount. Raise a flag on transfers sent to high-risk countries. Rules can be checked and traced, regulators understand them, and the teams using them can explain why every alert was raised. But by their nature they never change. Criminal networks work out where the limits are set and simply route around them. The result is a system that reliably catches the tricks of the past while raising thousands of false alarms — keeping investigators busy without catching much organised crime.

Rules were never going to solve the problem. But they set an important expectation inside these institutions: that a detection system should be explainable. That expectation matters. Any architecture that replaces them has to meet it.

The first wave of machine learning: smarter scoring, same limit

The industry’s first serious move into machine learning — software that learns patterns from data rather than following fixed rules — brought genuine improvements to how alerts were sorted and how risky each customer was judged to be. These systems are quicker to update than rules, better at handling complicated combinations of information, and far more accurate by the usual measures.

But they depend entirely on clues that people have to define in advance. You have to know what you are looking for before you can teach the system to find it. It catches someone breaking a large deposit into lots of small ones only because a person told it to look for exactly that. A new laundering method that doesn’t match a known template stays invisible. The system can only ever be as good as the clues it has been given, and no one can describe a pattern the bank has never seen before.

Mapping the network: the connections become visible, but frozen in time

The realisation that financial crime is a network problem led to serious investment in approaches that map how accounts connect to one another. Instead of looking only at what a single account does, these systems learn from the links between accounts. This is genuine progress. Connecting accounts that share the same trading partners, the same hidden owners, or the same flows of money reveals patterns that account-by-account systems simply cannot see.

But most of these systems in use today treat the network as a single frozen photograph. They learn who is connected to whom at one moment in time. They do not learn the sequence of events flowing through those connections over time.

Financial crime is not a structure. It is a process. A network of mule accounts is defined not just by how it is wired together but by the rhythm of the money moving through it: the gaps in timing, the order in which accounts are used, the coordinated pattern that appears when several accounts act together over weeks or months. A frozen snapshot captures the wiring and misses the movement.

Following events over time: the timeline arrives, but not the group

The latest approaches are powerful at reasoning about sequences of events. They can learn patterns of timing across long transaction histories, apply what they have learned across different kinds of institution, and spot unusual activity that no rule-writer ever thought to describe. In some tasks like reviewing documents, writing up case summaries, building a picture of customer behaviour, they are game-changing.

But they are almost always pointed at one account at a time. One model. One customer. One timeline.

Financial crime does not operate one customer at a time. It operates across many customers at once. A system racing through individual account histories side by side is still solving the wrong problem. Doing it efficiently, and on a huge scale, but the wrong problem all the same.

What a detection system actually needs to do

Each generation has solved a real part of the problem. Rules gave us the ability to explain decisions. The first wave of machine learning gave us the ability to adapt. Mapping the network let us see the connections. The latest models let us follow events over time. But no system in use today has combined all four of these strengths while looking at the right thing.

What is needed is a system that treats whole groups of accounts; not single accounts; as the main thing it examines. One that learns the tell-tale sequences of criminal behaviour directly from the data, without needing analysts to spell out the patterns in advance. One that works out the role each account is playing within a group, not from fixed rules but from the patterns that emerge in the data itself. And one that produces an explanation you can genuinely follow: not a risk score with a rough justification bolted on afterwards, but a clear, step-by-step record showing exactly which coordinated chain of behaviour led to the decision.

This is not a matter of fine-tuning the systems we already have. It calls for something built around the criminal network, not the individual account, from the ground up.

Where this leads

The institutions spending tens of billions every year on fighting financial crime are not failing for lack of effort or money. They are running systems designed for a different problem. The question is not whether to upgrade. Regulators and investors are already forcing that conversation. The question is whether the next generation of tools will change what we look at or simply run faster while looking at the same old thing.

Closing the detection gap means starting from the right place. That means looking at the whole ring, not just one of its members.

That is what ControlOne is building.

Why payments automation is key to operational resilience for growing businesses

By Myles Stephenson, Founder & CEO at Modulr

The world is becoming increasingly uncertain, and for businesses, this means that market and economic volatility is now the norm. Disruption can hit from many angles, and if your organisation is not resilient, the consequences can be damaging both reputationally and to your bottom line.

This is something that Scottish businesses deeply understand and is reflected in their current outlook. In Scotland, for example, recent MFMac survey data shows that 25% of firms say their most recent financial year performed worse than expected (up from 16% a year earlier), while 47% now identify a weak economy as their primary concern.

But business leaders must move beyond merely admiring the problem and take steps to protect and improve their business resilience to weather these fast-evolving conditions.

In the industries we operate in, including payroll, lending, and travel, we are seeing one thing very clearly: businesses that focus on their payments infrastructure as a driver for growth rather than a simple function are significantly strengthening their position and competitiveness.

And within this context, operational resilience is an essential element of the systems that automate money movement.

Resilience in the core payments that drive your business

Consider payroll, a function that exists in every organisation. When it goes wrong, the effect on employee productivity and engagement is considerable. Research indicates that 25% of UK employees have been hit by payroll errors, and 46% of those affected have seen it happen more than once. In more than half of cases, the problem took over a week to fix. This results in time lost as staff resolve these issues and erodes employee sentiment in an already unsettled climate, which in turn feeds into staff churn.

Businesses that have not automated payroll encounter inefficiency at every step. Manual file exports, reconciliations, and disconnected workflows introduce failure points across the process. Bringing payroll and payments together into one automated flow strips out those handoffs, cuts errors, and creates an operating model that can absorb higher volumes without adding overhead.

Real-time payments integration provides the speed, control, and transparency needed to keep up as volumes rise. Future-proofing payroll means designing systems that take change in their stride rather than buckling under it. The organisations that manage this reliably, and at scale, convert payroll from an operational liability into a foundation for lasting growth.

Speed as the new competitive edge in lending

Lending is another market where we’re seeing firms differentiate themselves through automation. Here, reliability alongside speed and accuracy in collections is key. Streamlined, automated payments strengthen operational stability by accommodating irregular or partial repayments, enabling quick schedule changes, and delivering dependable processing.

Lenders are handling high volumes of collections, reconciliations, and reporting at once, often spanning multiple products and borrower segments. In an industry where margins are thinner and borrowers more sensitive, a single payment error can create compliance risk, damage borrower relationships, and open up operational exposure at the very moment a lender can least afford it.

Automated, real-time payment infrastructure takes much of that vulnerability away. Collections are validated automatically, and reconciliation happens in real time instead of at the end of a manual process.

Building resilience in an unpredictable travel market

One of our other key sectors, travel, must also deal with its own pressures, sharpened by the cross-border nature of travel payments. Additionally, disruption has been growing in this sector for some time with no sign of easing, which makes operational resilience more critical than ever.

Earlier this year, we saw geopolitical tensions cause mass flight cancellations and disruption. More recently, the World Cup has put strain on the travel industry with last-minute travel plans being made as the tournament progresses. This presents complex challenges for travel firms.

The consumer-facing side tends to grab attention, but supplier-side problems are frequently far more intricate and demand tighter cash flow management.

Travel companies are settling payments with airlines, hotels, ground transport providers, and a range of other suppliers. When disruption and uncertainty take hold, two operational risks intensify: time swallowed up by manual processes and running short of funds at a key moment.

Many operators are still tied to manual processes and legacy infrastructure that generate errors and slow processing times, precisely when speed and precision matter most. Late or incorrect supplier payments can put partnerships under strain, activate penalty clauses, and set off a second round of operational problems at the worst possible time. The effect only grows at scale, as larger volumes across multiple currencies create further complications. With automation, payments are triggered and processed without manual involvement, supplier settlements stay on schedule whatever the level of disruption, cash flow and reconciliations are tracked in real time, and the errors that pile up in manual environments fall away.

Payment infrastructure is the foundation of operational resilience

This is a pattern that shows up time and again across payroll, lending, and travel. External pressure builds, and the businesses that manage this well are those with automated, real-time payment infrastructure beneath them.

In a world where disruption is becoming a regular feature, payment infrastructure sits at the heart of how businesses protect themselves, serve their customers, and stay competitive. The organisations that see this now will be in a far stronger position than those that wait for the next shock to discover that payment infrastructure has become much more than an operational function.

Rethinking cross‑border payments: Market Town’s Bitcoin approach from Edinburgh

Written by Henry Murray-Smith, Market Town

“Imagine a contract where every January first, forever, I will give you one dollar. You can sell and transfer this contract. You want to sell this contract to Charlie. How much does he pay?”

This question is really asking “why is a dollar today worth more than a dollar tomorrow?” and is as fundamental to finance as a writer of the English language starting on the left hand side of the page. Charlie buys the contract for about eight dollars.

In 2021, five years into an informal financial education, I stood in the kitchenette of a data centre waiting for tea to brew, closing a wealth management textbook from the CISI (the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment). Concluding my first reading I was more certain finance was, at its most favourable angle, a hot mess. And for all the detail and breadth of my education, I still had no idea what money was.

Some years later, the best definition I can muster is that money is part of human nature. It’s a phenomenon that appears with any collection of people, expressed through technology. My favourite example is cigarettes in prison, because they’re so perfectly divisible and scarce. They also have a practical purpose: you *can* save them to trade another day, or smoke one in a moment of reflection. But step outside prison and cigarettes are no longer tender. A shopkeeper will no sooner trade cigarettes for groceries than they would accept a nugget of gold.

When investigating money, the inevitable subject of Bitcoin appeared. My cynicism only began to erode reading Fidelity’s ‘Bitcoin First Revisited’ which explains why Bitcoin, not the thousands of other ‘web3 projects’ satisfies the properties of money to a greater degree than fiat currencies and gold. I still despised its energy consumption, because I hadn’t connected the dots that, if electricity is almost all of your running costs, finding stranded and renewable energy would be incentivised.

I also hadn’t considered the energy cost of the current system: millions of offices, bank branches, and autoteller machines serviced by vehicles – that system full of failure points, gatekeepers and opaque fees. So what backs Bitcoin? Even if fiat currency isn’t backed by gold (anymore) it’s backed by a government’s ability to raise taxes and sell bonds. Well, it takes a lot of energy to mine one Bitcoin, almost a hundred thousand US dollars of electricity. It can’t be created without significant cost. Saying it’s backed by energy doesn’t exactly stir the soul, but it is, and the market values that captured energy, or that Bitcoin, very highly.

So why wasn’t there a browser for the Bitcoin network, I wondered? Why didn’t some clever developer build a portal like so many thousands of startups during the early days of the internet, which had Mosaic and Netscape? The sad truth is that many of the innovation dollars went to adjacent crypto projects pretending to be superior to Bitcoin, optimised for different things, and now they’re all fading. Only Bitcoin persists, everything else dies and, yet, few use it as currency.

Today, half a billion people own Bitcoin, most indirectly, and it’s one per cent of global money supply. Numbers like these inspire us to build the future of payments, banking and financial services.

After eighteen months of product development, our mobile app is being designed in California by Alexander Lambert, who led the design, often from day one, of Friendster.com, car sharing platform Getaround.com, and Airkit.com (acquired by Salesforce).

To explore our roadmap beyond global payments, say hello@market.town

Learn more about Edinburgh fintech Market Town and its Bitcoin‑powered cross‑border payments platform.

Remittance Isn’t Broken. The Outcome Is

By Ayodeji Jegede – Co-Founder, MoneyHive

This article represents my independent perspective as a founder, separate from my employed role. It is published by FinTech Scotland, the recognised industry body for Scottish fintech.

For over a decade, remittance has been framed as a problem of efficiency. Faster payments. Lower fees. Better FX. And to a large extent, the industry has delivered. Global remittance flows exceeded $850 billion, with the UK consistently ranking among the top outbound corridors. Yet despite this scale and maturity, the user experience remains fundamentally incomplete. Because the real problem doesn’t sit in the movement of money. It sits in what happens after.

Remittance is rarely the end goal. It is a means to an outcome: rent needs to be paid, school fees need to be settled, electricity needs to be restored, healthcare needs to be delivered. But once money is sent, the system effectively stops. There is no standardised way to confirm that a bill was actually paid, verify that a service was delivered, or track the outcome beyond “delivered.” This creates a structural disconnect between financial infrastructure and real-world execution. The transaction succeeds. The outcome remains uncertain. That gap is where trust erodes.

Why the Current Model Plateaus

The dominant competitive levers in remittance are now commoditised. Speed is near instant. Fees are compressing. FX margins are increasingly transparent. This creates a ceiling. Incremental improvements in these areas no longer translate into meaningful differentiation. More importantly, they do not solve the user’s core anxiety: “Did what I sent actually get done?” This is not a payments problem. It is a completion problem.

The next phase of fintech in this space will not be defined by better rails. It will be defined by what sits on top of them. Three layers are emerging: outcome assurance (systems that confirm completion of the intended action), embedded verification (direct integrations with service providers like utilities, schools and healthcare), and trust as infrastructure (status and proof becoming core product features). This reframes the core question from “Was the payment successful?” to “Was the responsibility fulfilled?”

What We’re Building at MoneyHive

At MoneyHive, we are building around this shift. Not how to move money, but how to ensure money delivers outcomes. This changes product design at a fundamental level: payments become infrastructure not the product, status tracking becomes real‑time and structured, proof of completion becomes a default expectation, and recurring obligations become programmable. The result is not just a financial service. It is a coordination layer between diaspora users and real‑world services back home.

Outside of my employment, MoneyHive has achieved independent validation. We were accepted into Microsoft for Startups, earning $!00,000 in credits (April 2026), a competitive global program. Our application to the FCA Regulatory Sandbox is under assessment with a case officer assigned. We have built an organic waitlist of more than a quarter of 1000 diaspora users from the UK‑Nigeria corridor. MoneyHive is an active member of the FinTech Scotland community and has been accepted into the Techscaler Catalyst programme, a Scottish Government backed accelerator.

Starting in the UK to Nigeria corridor, a few patterns are becoming clear. Users are less sensitive to marginal FX gains than assumed. Visibility consistently outperforms price as a trust driver. Repeat usage is driven by certainty, not convenience. In other words, the strongest retention loop is not “This was cheap and fast.” It is “This worked exactly as expected, and I can rely on it again.” That distinction matters because it defines where long‑term value sits.

Why This Matters for the UK and Scotland

The UK is one of the most important remittance hubs globally, both in volume and diversity of corridors. At the same time, ecosystems like Scotland are increasingly positioning themselves at the intersection of fintech innovation, data infrastructure and cross‑sector collaboration. This creates a unique opportunity because solving for outcomes in remittance is not purely a payments challenge. It requires coordination across financial services, utilities and service providers, identity and verification systems, and regulatory frameworks. This is where ecosystems, not just startups, become critical. The companies that succeed will not operate in isolation. They will plug into networks.

The remittance market is large. But more importantly, it is mis defined. It has been optimised around movement, when it should be optimised around completion. That leaves a significant layer of value unaddressed. The opportunity is not to build another way to send money. It is to build systems that ensure something meaningful happens because of it.

Closing Thought

Remittance has always been framed as a financial transaction. In reality, it is a coordination problem between people, money and outcomes. The industry solved the movement of money. It has not yet solved the delivery of intent. The next generation of fintech companies will. And when they do, the question will no longer be “How fast did the money arrive?” It will be “Did it do what it was supposed to do?” That is where trust is built. And where the next wave of value will come from.

Tech giants urged to join fight against soaring scam ads in UK

Social media giants are being urged to join the fight against the soaring number of scam ads in the UK and to pay their fair share in combatting online fraud. The call comes ahead of the Government’s National Fraud Strategy, set to be published imminently.

The Payments Association (TPA), wants a Home Office-led overhaul of how online fraud is fought in the UK and set out the sector’s view on the way forward and how to take action at its PAY360 event in London this month.

Scam ads use AI tools to impersonate trusted brands and exploit social media algorithms to appear at the top of shoppers’ search results. They offer fake products or services to steal money or personal data.

Recent years have seen a surge in scam ads on sites like X, Facebook and Instagram. It is estimated that UK shoppers see an average of 185 scam ads a month.

The Payments Association wants a fairer regulatory framework for fighting online fraud. While social media platforms generate revenue from all advertising, real and fake, it is financial institutions that bear the brunt of combatting the crime.

Consumers conned by fake adverts lose money individually, and the total impact is adding up. According to recent data from Juniper Research, UK shoppers lost £44 million to fake ad scams in 2025 – that figure is set to rise to £84 million by 2030.

The fraud is called Authorised Push Payment (APP) fraud because consumers are conned into voluntarily handing over their money.

Tougher consumer protection regulations have seen a mandatory reimbursement threshold for APP fraud imposed in October 2024 and payment service providers have reimbursed 87% of all scam-related losses since this was implemented.

But social media giants, where fraud originates, pay nothing to reimburse shoppers who become victims of crime on their platforms.

It is estimated that social media platforms generated £3.8bn in revenue from scam ads in 2025, roughly ten per cent of all social media ad revenue. Advertising on social media is set to grow by 120 per cent in the next five years to be worth £84bn by 2030.

Last month The Payments Association published its manifesto for 2026, called Making Britain a Payments Powerhouse.

It outlined plans for the Home Office to draw up a new “shared responsibility framework” which would see liability for economic crime “shared proportionately amongst stakeholders based on origination data”.

The UK is a major target of scam ads. In 2025 alone it is estimated to account for 95 billion scam ad impressions – this figure is set to rise to 137 billion by 2030.

Riccardo Tordera Ricchi, TPA Vice President – Policy and Government Relations, said: “Payment firms are expected to stop fraud at the point money is transferred when the real crime has been committed upstream – through digital communication and scam advertising.

“It cannot be right that while social media platforms benefit from the revenue generated by online fraud, consumers and payment firms are left to pick up the bill for that crime.”

The Payments Association wants Ministers to tighten Britain’s National Fraud Strategy (of which a major update is due imminently) by extending the Economic Crime Levy to both social media and telecoms companies.

The levy is a government charge imposed on more than 4,000 businesses regulated under Anti-Money Laundering laws.

Depending on their size, companies pay a flat annual fee – ranging from £10m to £1bn – to fund initiatives to combat money laundering and economic crime. From next month (April) thousands of larger firms will face substantial increases in the fee.

At its PAY360 event this month, The Payments Association will publish a paper also calling on social media giants to do more to detect and prevent online fraud.

It wants big tech and telecoms firms to sign up to the Online Fraud Charter, improve fraud detection protocols and strengthen verification of online advertisers.

The Association is also calling for new legislation to allow for better data sharing across industries and the creation of a new UK Digital Payments Fraud Centre – an independent hub that uses AI to detect fraud trends and co-ordinate responses across payments, telecoms, e-commerce and law enforcement.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves last year signalled the Government was considering a greater role for tech and telecommunications firms in battling fraud.

Launching Turnkey PI and unveiling our rebrand: a new chapter in insolvency technology

By Turnkey, the cloud-based insolvency software provider.

After over four decades of supporting insolvency professionals with powerful, reliable technology, we are introducing a new product, Turnkey PI, and stepping into a bold new era with our rebrand. It’s more than a refreshed logo or updated colour palette: it’s a reflection of who we’ve become and where we’re going.

A natural next step: Welcome Turnkey PI

For over four decades, we’ve been focused on doing one thing exceptionally well: supporting corporate insolvency professionals with robust, purpose-built technology. Since then, we’ve grown in experience, capability, and reach – and we’ve realised something: we weren’t just a corporate insolvency software provider anymore; we were becoming a broader technology partner to modern insolvency practices. Globally.

As a matter of fact, one of the biggest drivers behind our rebrand is something we’re incredibly proud of: the launch of Turnkey PI (Personal Insolvency). It’s an important step for us, and it signals something bigger: that Turnkey is growing to support the full landscape of the insolvency industry.

Turnkey PI goes beyond our existing capabilities by delivering connected, client-centric tools built specifically for personal insolvency practitioners. At its heart is a secure, intuitive Client Portal where clients can submit and track queries, upload documents, make secure payments, approve actions electronically, and monitor real-time case progress through a clear dashboard.

“This product matters because it can affect people who are in debt in an unbelievably positive way.” – Craig McDonnell, Director at Turnkey

Alongside this, a fully integrated Communications Hub centralises email, SMS, and WhatsApp in one place, automatically storing all correspondence against the case file. The result is a complete audit trail that strengthens compliance, improves transparency, and reduces administrative workload.

Over the years, our product suite has become more sophisticated, more integrated, and more intuitive. The old brand no longer fully represented the technology behind it. Our new look is modern, confident, and purposeful designed to visually express the clarity and ease our solutions deliver.

“This milestone brings our growth strategy to life – transforming our vision into delivery through a reimagined, modern brand that better reflects who we are today and provides a strong foundation for continued expansion.” – Deborah Baxter, CEO at Turnkey

This new phase is also a reflection of the people behind it. There’s a real sense of pride across the business in what we’ve achieved and where we’re heading, and it’s that collective energy that’s powering this next stage for Turnkey.

Merchant Transact 360: The Event Shaping the Future of Merchant Payments

Co-located with PAY360, Europe’s largest payments event, Merchant Transact 360 is the new, dedicated conference for merchant payment professionals. On the 25-26 March 2026, the event will welcome 400+ attendees, including 200+ leading merchants, for two days of curated insight, innovation and networking.

In an increasingly complex ecosystem, Merchants look 10-15 years ahead, anticipating how future generations will shop, pay and consume, Merchant Transact 360 brings the community together to explore what’s next at a time when seamless money movement and agile payments strategies are becoming central to growth.

A Merchant-Led Agenda

Shaped by The Payments Association’s Merchant Payments Working Group, with input from leaders at Spotify, BT, Frasers Group, Sky, DAZN and Jaguar Land Rover, the agenda reflects the issues merchants are tackling right now.

Across keynotes, panel discussions and closed-door roundtables, 50+ speakers will address the sector’s most urgent themes:

Maximising revenue and reducing loss – Increase acceptance, optimise methods, fix failure points and mitigate emerging fraud.
Enhancing customer experience – Deliver seamless checkout experiences that match evolving payment preferences.
Reducing operational costs – Cut fees, eliminate hidden costs and streamline your payments tech stack.
Navigating compliance and regulation – Stay ahead of new open banking, data and security requirements with reduced internal strain.
Driving strategic growth – Transform payments into a growth driver through analytics, fraud insights and cross-border expansion.

Purpose-Built for Merchants

A two-day conference dedicated solely to merchant payments
Peer-to-peer roundtables for confidential, experience-driven discussion
AI-powered matchmaking to help attendees connect with the right people
A VIP lounge exclusively for merchant teams

The event welcomes attendees from across retail, hospitality, telecom, travel and digital services, including members of our growing merchant community such as BT Group, Coop, Marriott, New Look, Flutter Entertainment and Sky.

Why Attend?

Merchant Transact 360 is the only event built for merchants rather than around them. It provides:

Access to merchant-focused insights and practical case studies
The opportunity to meet 200+ fellow merchants and industry partners
Direct engagement with decision-makers who influence payments strategy
A platform to showcase and discover solutions that drive measurable impact

Whether you aim to streamline costs, improve customer experience, reduce fraud, or re-position payments as a strategic growth tool, Merchant Transact 360 offers the essential space to connect, learn and lead.

Get your tickets here.

Use Code FintechScotland20 to save 20% off your delegate pass.

Where Banking Is Heading: From Vision to Execution in London this May

Banking Transformation Summit | 19–20 May | Tobacco Dock, London

The Banking Transformation Summit is the definitive gathering for senior executives driving real change inside Europe’s leading banks and building societies to shape what’s next in banking. Returning to London on 19–20 May, a verified audience of 1,000 decision-makers will convene at Tobacco Dock; a first-class venue delivering premium hospitality for all attendees, and located a convenient distance from London’s financial districts and major transport links for ease of travel.

What to expect: agenda and themes

Carefully curated to ensure high-value connection and strategic clarity, the two-day agenda addresses the decisions, technologies and leadership challenges actively reshaping banking today. Day One focuses on vision and where banking is heading, exploring what’s changing across the industry, the forces shaping the future of financial services, and what leaders need to be thinking about next as regulation, technology, and customer expectations continue to evolve. Day Two turns vision into execution, examining how ideas translate into action inside complex banking environments, what actually works in practice, and how teams move forward with confidence and clarity.

Across the two days, 150 world-class speakers will share practical, battle-tested insights and honest perspectives on what’s working today and what’s coming next, providing actionable, take-home learnings to apply to your own strategies. Through keynotes, panels, roundtables, lightning talks and demos, they’ll divulge exclusive case studies across six core themes, reflecting the most important challenges and opportunities banks are facing:

The AI Frontier: Explore how generative AI, machine learning, and predictive analytics are transforming customer engagement, fraud detection, risk management, and operations.
Intelligent Infrastructure: Learn how banks are simplifying legacy environments, improving resilience, and building the foundations for AI-powered transformation.
Money in Motion: Discover how the flow of money is changing, with real-time payments, instant settlement, digital identity, and the platforms powering embedded finance.
Trust in the System: Explore how banks are strengthening defences, improving detection and response, and protecting customers while still enabling innovation.
Power to the People: Dive into how banks are redesigning services that are faster, simpler, and more relevant while meeting rising expectations and Consumer Duty.
Human & Machine Leadership: Learn how banks adapt their culture, operating models, and ways of working as automation and AI reshape roles, teams, and decision-making.

Networking, audience and how to attend

Every detail has been centred around connection, from the event app with messaging and meeting booking functionality, to networking breaks and more informal drinks receptions – ensuring you network and connect with the transformation leaders driving real change. With 62% of attendees at VP-level and above, and more than 120 banks and building societies in attendance, you’re 5x more likely to meet a bank than at other European Fintech conferences.

This year, to protect the experience, attendance is capped at just 750 complimentary tickets for banks and building societies, and limited sponsorship opportunities are available on a first-come first-served basis.

Visit the links below to learn more.

Banks & Building Societies Apply to Attend for Free: https://hubs.ly/Q03_lXt10

Sponsorship Enquiries: https://hubs.ly/Q03_lYm90

Digital Trust Centre Report calls on Scotland to lead the shift to digital assets and tokenisation

Modulr becomes the only non-bank payment service provider with direct access to all three major UK payment schemes