Building Digital Finance for the Intelligent Economy
Turning Digital Ambition into Europe’s Financial Future
Digital finance has moved beyond the question of whether change is coming. Artificial intelligence, new payment infrastructure, digital money, cybersecurity and regulation are already transforming how financial services are designed, delivered and trusted.
The Digital Finance Summit 2026 explores how Europe can turn this digital ambition into scalable financial services that create measurable value for businesses, customers and society.
Four topics shaping digital finance.
The programme connects the technologies changing finance with the commercial and policy decisions needed to put them to work.
The Future of Money and Payments
How new rails, digital money and changing checkout behaviour will reshape commerce and banking.
Money is moving through a wider range of rails, interfaces and forms. Instant payments, Wero, the digital euro, wallets, stablecoins, tokenised assets and embedded finance are changing how banks, fintechs and merchants serve customers.
The Summit will examine the commercial questions behind payment acceptance and the strategic choices shaping Europe’s financial infrastructure, including cost, conversion, interoperability, settlement and customer ownership.
AI Gets to Work Proof, Not Pilots
Where AI is already producing measurable results and what it takes to move beyond experimentation.
Financial institutions have spent several years testing artificial intelligence. The next question is whether those projects improve revenue, service, efficiency, risk management or compliance.
The programme will examine evidence from credit, fraud, claims, KYC, operations and customer support, while exploring the governance, reliable data and accountability needed to scale AI responsibly.
Trust and Resilience at Machine Speed
Protecting customers and financial infrastructure when payments, decisions and attacks all happen faster.
Speed creates value, but it also changes risk. Instant payments leave less time to stop fraud, synthetic content makes social engineering harder to detect and financial services increasingly depend on external technology providers.
The programme will connect cybersecurity, fraud prevention, digital identity, operational resilience, third-party risk, cloud concentration, DORA and preparation for post-quantum security.
Rules That Let Markets Move
How regulation can protect customers, support growth and create the conditions for new financial services.
Europe’s financial rulebook is expanding through PSD3, the Payment Services Regulation, FiDA, DORA, MiCA, the AI Act and national requirements such as Belgian electronic invoicing.
The Summit will bring policymakers, supervisors and industry leaders together to discuss practical implementation, consistency, simplification and how regulation can support trusted innovation.