2025 was a watershed year for financial services. Regulatory change, high-profile outages and shifting attitudes to decentralised finance have all raised the table stakes, making operational resilience business-critical, rather than just a back-office concern.
With DORA coming into force across the EU and scrutiny on technology failures intensifying, firms are being forced to rethink how they manage risk, continuity and digital infrastructure. At the same time, pro-crypto signals from the US are reshaping confidence in emerging assets such as stablecoins, adding further complexity to an already fast-moving landscape.
Together, these forces have set the stage for a fundamental reset in how financial services operate, and for many firms, 2026 will be the year those lessons turn into lasting change.
Gavin Goveia, Kyndryl Consult UK&I leader:
“Consolidation will be the big trend for financial services in 2026. Pressure to adapt to competitive dynamics is influencing M&A. These had a great rebound last year – a promising economic indicator. However, structurally, it means FS firms will inherit increasingly complex technology estates. With a wider lens, readiness for wide-scale change remains fragile.
“The Kyndryl Readiness Report found that less than a third (31%) of organisations feel ready to manage future external risks. IT complexity now ranks as a top barrier to scaling technology, on par with regulatory concerns. In a new wave of megadeals, firms that fail to simplify, integrate, and modernise their core infrastructure will see complexity become a growth dampener.
“AI scrutiny adds a new piece to the puzzle. AI investment is surging, up 33% year-on-year, but scaling remains elusive. In fact, a third (35%) of leaders cite integration challenges as the main reason AI isn’t delivering ROI. In regulated environments, agentic AI will move fastest where it’s embedded into resilient, well-governed systems, automating compliance, risk, and controls without sacrificing human oversight.
“Cloud will remain foundational, but ‘accidental cloud’ strategies won’t survive the next cycle. Six in ten (58%) banking and financial services leaders say they arrived at their current cloud environment by accident, even as 65% have already changed cloud strategies due to regulatory and geopolitical pressures. ‘Intentionality’ will be the watchword of corporate strategy in 2026; FS firms need to orchestrate cloud, AI, and core systems sensitively. Readiness is all in a fast-moving market; firms that aren’t on top of their tech stacks face being dragged down in the undertow.”
Eduardo Crespo, VP EMEA, PagerDuty:
“By 2026, financial services firms have turned hard-won lessons from the Treasury’s 2025 outage reports into action. Years of costly downtime and lost trust pushed the industry to rebuild around resilience. Always-on access is non-negotiable. Customers leave if they can’t transact in real time, and regulators are watching. In response, banks are overhauling legacy stacks and embedding AI at the core of incident management.
“AI isn’t a pilot project anymore, it’s become part of frontline defence. Systems now detect and diagnose disruption before it happens, enabling predictive maintenance and softening the blow of unplanned events. In 2026, resilience is a competitive edge.”
Meryem Habibi, Chief Revenue Officer, Bitpace:
“Crypto has emerged as one of the world’s most powerful equalising forces for financial inclusion. In regions where traditional banking remains slow, exclusionary, or prohibitively expensive, stablecoins and decentralised payment rails will become essential infrastructure, rather than an alternative. Inherent structural barriers hold back 1.4 billion unbanked adults from financial inclusion, a glaring, ongoing issue that needs addressing. Stablecoins offer the stability of traditional money alongside the speed, transparency, and accessibility of crypto. This is why businesses and individuals across Africa, Latin America, and Asia will increasingly rely on crypto to transact globally, bypassing legacy systems that were never designed to serve them.
“Swift crypto payment tools will give entrepreneurs, freelancers, and SMEs the ability to store value, receive payments, and trade internationally at a fraction of today’s cost, completing transactions in minutes instead of waiting days. This industry shift is transforming financial inclusion from a social goal into an economic reality. Crypto’s open networks will reduce the codified discrimination embedded in many legacy systems, where geography still dictates access, fees, and liquidity.
“Through instant services, crypto will create a more level global playing field and unlock growth in some of the world’s fast-growing entrepreneurial markets. For this technology to scale, regulatory frameworks must evolve. Crypto’s borderless nature demands cooperation between governments, financial institutions, and innovators, something that we are increasingly seeing globally, and will continue to trend in 2026.”
Ed Crook, VP Strategy & Operations, DeepL:
“2026 will be make-or-break for many financial services providers. In a competitive market, the edge goes to providers who adopt useful AI to cut through inefficient workflows. In this sector, where every interaction is highly regulated and reputational risk is acute, businesses need the right tools for the job. This includes data protection, account security, compliance, IT ops and customer service – keeping fundamental lines of communication open and effective. These are all areas where AI is already solving critical problems.
“AI is fast becoming the connective tissue of international finance, and this trend will continue in 2026, particularly in customer engagement and operational support. Our FS research found that over a third (37%) of client interactions in UK finance already involve AI. Over half (52%) use AI for multilingual translation, the top use case, directly addressing linguistic fragmentation. Moving into the new year, Language AI will be a key practical tool for financial services firms. But these companies first need to iron out their strategy around AI integration. Staff will inevitably look for workarounds if the tools provided don’t meet their needs. This is why companies need to get ahead by providing secure, fit-for-purpose solutions. By building a collaborative approach between IT and frontline teams, and avoiding pitfalls around shadow AI, financial service firms can maintain a unified, strategy approach to AI deployment, protecting against cybersecurity threats, while still realising the full benefits of trusted AI.”
Jeppe Rindom, CEO and Co-Founder, Pleo:
“Automation and “agentification” will redefine the fintech landscape. Most of what’s considered operational today will be handled by intelligent systems, from finance ops to customer support. That playing field will level and expectations will rise.
“To stand out, companies will need to inject identity – the one thing only humans can create. That could be through exceptional product design and user experience, considered use of human touchpoints where emotion and trust matter most, or the depth in which problems are solved for customers, not just how fast they can be solved.
“As the average becomes automated, greatness will come from creativity, clarity and crafting products and experiences that still feel unmistakably human.”
What’s on the horizon for financial services?
With 2026 well underway, financial services is moving decisively from reaction to reinvention. The firms that pull ahead will be those that treat resilience as a design principle, use intelligent automation to strengthen operations, and adapt their service models to a more demanding, always-on world.
The next era of finance will be defined by trust, modernisation and operational strength, with technology no longer just enabling the business, but underpinning its survival.
