Expert Predictions for Fintech in 2026
- Becki LaPorte
- 3 minutes ago
- 1 min read
As published in TechRound.
Payments, digital banking, compliance, and AI have emerged as the fintech standouts, capturing the most momentum and attention. Looking ahead to 2026, industry leaders have various perspectives. Here are insights from Becki LaPorte, Principal, AML Strategy and Innovation at FinScan:
“The most significant technology trend shaping financial services is the mainstreaming of AI, particularly agentic AI, and its dual impact on efficiency and risk. AI is now powerful, accessible, and inexpensive enough for both institutions and criminals to operationalize. On the defensive side, banks are testing AI to streamline investigations, reduce manual work, and accelerate decisioning. On the offensive side, criminals are using the same technology to produce flawless scams: perfect grammar, native-sounding voices, and videos indistinguishable from reality. This shift has rendered many legacy fraud controls obsolete and has dramatically increased the speed and scale of financial exploitation.
“A second major trend is the emerging convergence of AML, fraud, and cybersecurity, which is no longer theoretical. Because threats now span all three domains simultaneously, institutions must modernize their tech stacks and case management models to reflect a unified view of customer risk. This convergence extends all the way to regulatory expectations: cyber incidents are increasingly treated as AML reportable events, and the speed of payments continues to require more automation, richer data, and technology that can keep pace with real-time criminal behavior.”