7 October 2026 | Edinburgh
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The Fintech Summit
The Fintech Summit is Scotland’s largest annual gathering of financial technology leaders, and has established itself as the must-attend event for stakeholders in the sector.
The conference will explore technological innovation across the industry, from developments in leading FS institutions, to the disruptive innovators within the challenger and start-up community that are reshaping the Financial Services market. The programme will consider the key shifts in regulation, investment, and technology, and discuss how they will impact the future evolution of the sector.
The Summit is the official flagship event of the Scotland Fintech Festival, and is free to attend for delegates working for Financial Services and FinTech companies.
Headline Sponsor
2026 Speakers
Radio Host and Journalist, BBC Radio Scotland
Gain CPD credits by attending this conference.
Earn 8 hours of certificated CPD credits and a personalised CPD certificate by attending this conference. The QR code will be at the registration desk on the day.
Learn more about how it works here.
2026 Conference Agenda
7th October 2026, EICC Edinburgh
SESSION 1
The first decade of Fintech was about making financial services faster, cheaper, and more frictionless, but while the market evolved, many of the core fundamentals remained. The future direction of Agentic AI looks set to completely reimagine the whole system - from process, to service, to execution. The morning session will consider this shift and examine how Agentic AI is transforming financial services in practice.
09:15 Welcome & Introduction
Mark Stephen, Journalist & Broadcaster, BBC Scotland
Aleks Tomczyk, CEO, FinTech Scotland
09:25 Your Money Has a New Co-pilot: How AI is Transforming the Future of Managing Your Finances
Christopher Baxter, Director for Intelligent Customer Products, Lloyds Banking Group
09:40 From AI Assistants to Agentic Systems: What Financial Services Needs to Learn Next
Abhay Pradhan, Group Head of AI Engineering, LSEG
09:55 From Doing Faster to Doing the Impossible
Moushami Verma, Head of AI & Customer Insights, Santander
10:10 Resilience by Design: What Has to Be True for the Agentic Future to Survive
Dave Locke, Chief Technology Adviser, World Wide Technology
10:25 Combined Q&A
10:55 Networking & Refreshments
SESSION 2
Session two will hone-in on a variety of key topics in longer individual slots. Presentations will be run across three parallel streams, providing delegates the opportunity to attend two of the breakout options.
11:30 First Breakout Option (A-C)
A. The Evolution & Impact of Digital Assets & Cryptocurrency: Panel Discussion
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Progress: What are the key changes in adoption, perception, and regulation
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Impact: What real-world impact are we seeing for organisations and customers
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Challenges: What challenges or limitations remain to further adoption and uptake
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Future Potential: What’s next - what are the future opportunities ahead
Kara Kennedy, Global Co-Head of Kinexys, JPMorgan
Val Smith, Head of Payments and Digital Assets Authorisations, FCA
Daniel Taylor, Head of Policy & Research, Zumo
Andrew MacKenzie, CEO & Founder, Agant
Peter Ferry, CEO, Scottish Digital Trust Centre
B. The AI Growth Opportunity for Scotland’s Fintech Start-Ups: Panel Discussion
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Where does AI represent a growth opportunity for Fintech start-ups
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What are the advantages and differentiators for Fintech's in Scotland
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What are the biggest challenges of scaling an AI-orientated Fintech
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How do we ensure we can capitalise on the opportunity and compete on the global stage
Crawford Taylor, CEO & Co-Founder, Afternoon Finance
Jules Salmond, CEO, CienDos
Dia Banerji, CEO & Founder, Cherpa.AI
Julie Cooper, COO, Galveston Group
Sarah Forbes, Financial & Business Services, Scottish Enterprise
C. The Governance Gap: Why FS AI Is Scaling Faster Than Oversight: Panel Discussion
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How AI is already being deployed across different areas of Financial Services
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The emerging governance challenge facing banks, fintechs, and lenders
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Lessons from recent global regulatory developments like IOSCO, FCA, EU AI Act
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Practical approaches to AI oversight, monitoring, auditability, and governance
Dr Giovanni Bandi, Chief Applied Research Officer, Finspector
Joanne Seagrave, Risk Specialist & Board Advisor, Norwood Risk & Compliance
Shalini Goyal, Exec Director & Regional Head for Payments Reporting, JP Morgan
Professor Mark Cummins, Professor of Financial Technology at Strathclyde University
Carol Wilson, Principal Data & AI Ethicist, Royal London
12:10 Transition
12:15 Second Breakout Option (D-F)
D. Navigating the AI Era: Security, Resilience and Regulatory Confidence
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Building resilience across critical financial services infrastructure
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Securing cloud adoption in an evolving threat landscape
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Balancing innovation with security, risk and regulatory demands
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Creating scalable, resilient foundations for future transformation
Kevin McKeogh,Senior Director, GP HSM Product Management, Utimaco
Myra McShannon-Kefford, UKI Power and Cloud Sales Leader, IBM
Andrew Stuteley, UKI Sales Engineering Leader - Hybrid Cloud, IBM
E. The AI Leadership Agenda: 3 Questions Every Executive Must Answer in 2027
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The pressure points shaping AI adoption in financial services: how leaders balance innovation, regulatory expectations, operational risk and evolving customer demands.
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The defining questions every decision‑maker will face in 2027: what boards, regulators and customers will expect leaders to justify as AI scales across FS.
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Practical pathways to competitive advantage: actionable insights on governance, capability building and strategic positioning in an AI‑driven future.
Areti Iles, Technology Director at Telefónica Tech
Stephen O'Keane, Advisory Director at Telefónica Tech UK&I
F. The Magic of Data: From Open Finance to Smart Data - What Lies Beyond the Horizon?
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The evolution of customer data rights, technology, global trends & business models
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Introducing the concept of Smart Data connecting with AI
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Exploring the junction of Smart Data/Open Finance - opportunities, competition, coordination
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Designing customer experience in the world of AI and customer data rights
Gavin Littlejohn, Partner, Potion
12:45 Lunch & Networking
SESSION 3
This afternoon session examines how different areas of the industry are being fundamentally reshaped by emerging technology and the convergence of data, digital assets, automation, and AI. We will explore the evolution of machine learning in tackling financial crime, the rise of programmable finance, and the shift to agentic commerce.
13:40 ML vs ML: The Evolution of Machine Learning in Combating Money Laundering
Lauren Donnachie, Senior Financial Crime Manager, Monzo
13:55 Programmable Finance: The Future of Financial Services
Prab Bajwa, MD Senior Digital Asset Risk Officer, State Street
14:10 Balancing Innovation & Governance in the Shift to Agentic Commerce
Cameron Russell, SVP, Ast General Counsel: Privacy & AI, Mastercard
14:25 The Agentic Shift: Rewiring Financial Services for Scale, Personalisation and Control
Dia Banerji, CEO & Founder, Cherpa.AI
14:40 Combined Q&A
15:10 Closing Remarks
Networking Drinks Reception
15:15 Networking & Drinks Reception
16:00 Close of Conference
*The conference agenda is provisional, and speakers and content are subject to change.
Headline Sponsor
Co-Sponsors
2026 Exhibitors
Talent Partner
In partnership with
About DIGIT
DIGIT has rapidly grown into the largest independent business technology community in Scotland. We run an extensive series conferences focused on core areas of emerging Technology, Digital and IT. We also run Scotland's leading IT & Digital News Platform www.digit.fyi with over 50,000 page views per month.
The events provide a unique platform for knowledge exchange and discussion, drawing stakeholders together to explore best practice, technological innovation and business outcomes. Our conferences attract a senior delegate following and have become renowned as an important forum for high-level networking and engagement.
The Venue
The conference will be held live and in-person at EICC Edinburgh.
The venue is centrally located in Fountainbridge, just 5 minutes walk from Haymarket train station, making it easily accessible via public transport.
Scottish Financial Technology Awards
The Scottish Financial Technology Awards is an evening to recognise innovation, impact and achievement across the Financial Technology sector; spotlighting some of the incredible organisations that are driving improvements within the industry and putting Scotland's national ecosystem on the map.
Financial Services Technology Summit
The Financial Services Technology Summit will be held in Edinburgh in April 2026 as a sister event to our 12th annual Fintech Summit and is open to those working within financial services.
