Fintech forecasts

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Why the next phase of fintech will be defined not by speed or scale, but by intelligence, trust and responsibility.

For more than a decade, fintech has been obsessed with velocity. Faster payments. Faster onboarding. Faster growth. Speed became synonymous with progress, and disruption became an end in itself.

But as we approach 2026, the industry is confronting an inconvenient truth: speed is no longer a differentiator. Everyone is fast. What now separates leaders from laggards is not how quickly systems move but how intelligently they decide.

The coming year marks a structural shift in digital finance. We are moving from systems that react to systems that think. From automation as efficiency to autonomy as strategy. From innovation driven by novelty to innovation constrained by responsibility.

Artificial intelligence has already reshaped financial services but largely as an assistant. It suggests, flags, recommends and summarizes. That era is ending.

By 2026, we enter the age of agentic AI: autonomous systems capable of executing financial actions end-to-end. These agents will not just score credit, but dynamically restructure credit exposure. They will not merely detect fraud, but intervene in real time, adapting as behavior shifts. They will manage liquidity, compliance monitoring, customer engagement, and operational workflows with minimal human input.

This is not an incremental upgrade. It is a transfer of agency.

And with that transfer comes a profound question the industry has not fully answered: when machines make financial decisions, where does accountability reside?

The institutions that win in 2026 will not be those that deploy the most AI, but those that embed governance, explainability, and ethical constraints directly into the architecture. The question is no longer “Can AI do this?” but “Should it and under what rules?”

2026 is the year finance stops using AI as a tool and starts governing it as a decision-maker.

Another defining shift is happening quietly. Finance is disappearing.

Embedded finance such as in payments, lending, insurance, and savings woven into non-financial platforms is evolving into invisible finance. Consumers will no longer consciously enter financial experiences. Money will simply move, credit will quietly extend, and protection will activate automatically inside everyday digital moments.

In this world, apps lose relevance. Context wins.

The strategic implication is profound. If finance is everywhere, then differentiation no longer comes from interfaces. It comes from reliability, fairness and trust under stress. When things break, when disputes arise, when risk materializes, invisible finance becomes highly visible.

Loyalty in 2026 will not be emotional. It will be earned through consistency.

By 2026, batch processing will be operational malpractice.

End-of-day reconciliation, delayed risk assessment, and retrospective compliance reviews are artifacts of a slower era. Real-time payments are already table stakes. What follows is real-time decisioning: fraud systems that adapt mid-transaction, credit that flexes dynamically, and liquidity managed continuously rather than periodically.

This transition is less about technology and more about mindset. Real time demands confidence in systems, clarity in risk appetite and comfort with controlled autonomy.

Institutions that rely on delay as a form of safety will discover that latency itself has become the greatest risk.

Open finance is often framed as an API conversation. That framing is dangerously shallow.

The real transformation is about data ownership and consent. In 2026, individuals and businesses will increasingly expect their financial data to be portable, permissioned, and purpose-bound. Institutions that hoard data will face erosion of trust. Those that steward data transparently will unlock deeper personalization and more resilient relationships.

Here lies the paradox: as finance becomes more open, trust becomes scarcer.

Solving this paradox through consent frameworks, auditability, and ethical data use will determine who earns the right to participate in the next financial ecosystem.

Open finance will not be won by those who share the most data, but by those who protect it best.

For years, digital assets lived on the margins full of promise, heavy on speculation. In 2026, that narrative finally changes.

Tokenization and stablecoins are shedding ideology and becoming infrastructure. Tokenized deposits, invoices, securities, and real-world assets will quietly reduce settlement friction, compress timelines, and unlock liquidity across borders. Stablecoins will power treasury flows and cross-border payments often without users realizing they are using them.

This is not about replacing the financial system. It is about rewiring its plumbing.

Institutions that dismiss this shift as “crypto” risk missing one of the most consequential infrastructure upgrades in decades.

While consumer fintech once captured attention, the real value creation in 2026 will be largely invisible.

B2B fintech, banking-as-a-service, API platforms, compliance engines, orchestration layers will capture outsized impact by enabling others rather than competing for consumer mindshare. Scale will no longer be measured by users alone, but by how many businesses depend on your rails to operate.

The most powerful fintechs of 2026 may never trend on social media but entire ecosystems will fail without them.

As systems grow more autonomous, regulation will not lag, it will shape outcomes.

In 2026, compliance will no longer be a cost center. It will be a product capability. Transparent AI, auditable decision trails, cyber resilience, and ethical automation will become differentiators, not obligations.

The market will ask a new question: not “Are you compliant?” but “Can you prove you deserve trust at scale?”

For all the automation ahead, finance is not becoming less human. It is becoming more deliberately so.

As machines handle complexity, institutions must focus on stewardship, guidance, and judgment. The best digital experiences of 2026 will not feel robotic. They will feel intuitive, contextual and reassuring.

In a world of autonomous systems, human values become the ultimate control layer.

The real forecast for 2026 is not technological. It is moral.

My discussions with Fr. Glenn Gomez, SVD often reaffirm a powerful idea: when guided by purpose, technology can be a profound extension of theology in service of the common good.

Finance is evolving from a system of transactions into a system of decisions. And decisions, especially automated ones encode values, priorities, and consequences.

The institutions shaping 2026 must answer a simple but uncomfortable question now: What exactly are we teaching our systems to optimize and who bears the cost when they succeed too well?

Happy New Year!

Lito Villanueva is the Philippines’ leading thought leader in inclusive digital finance. As EVP and Chief Innovation and Inclusion Officer of RCBC, he has driven large-scale digital initiatives that advanced financial inclusion. He is the founding chairman of FinTech Alliance PH, representing 95 percent of digital retail financial transactions, and the first global chairman of the Alliance of Digital Finance Associations. Recognized as a People Asia Men Who Matter 2025, Asia Trailblazer, and AGORA Awardee, he continues to shape the fintech landscape in the Philippines and beyond.