Looking back at 2025, it was a pivotal year for financial services. The past 12 months have been marked by growing regulatory pressure, publicised outages, and a renewed focus on decentralised finance. In January, the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) officially came into force across the EU, imposing new obligations on banks, insurers, investment firms and their technology providers to better manage ICT risks, report incidents and ensure continuity of operations.

That regulatory shift has come at a time when real-world failures are under intense scrutiny. A report from the Treasury Committee, prompted by a wave of IT glitches, revealed that nine of the UK’s largest banks and building societies suffered at least 803 hours of unplanned outages between January 2023 and February 2025, equivalent to more than 33 days of downtime. Alongside revision of traditional finance strategy, pro-crypto policy emerging from the US with the new administration has also buoyed investor confidence in newer assets like stablecoins, with the global market slated to hit $500 to $750 billion in coming years.

These events have reinforced a hard truth across the sector: digital infrastructure is no longer just a supporting pillar, it is mission-critical. Against this backdrop, many firms are now rethinking how they build, monitor and respond to technology risk. In this transformational moment, the voices below outline why 2026 may well become the year financial services firms turn lessons into lasting change, providing predictions about FS in 2026.

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.”

Anil Oncu, CEO, Bitpace:

“By 2026, digital assets will no longer be considered emerging. They will be fully embedded in mainstream finance. The shift is accelerating, driven by clearer regulation and stronger institutional participation across the US, UK and Europe. Pro-crypto policy is now the backbone of a global effort to build stablecoin-powered commerce at scale.

“In the UK, the Bank of England’s decision to allow stablecoin reserves to be held in short-term government debt is a significant signal of confidence. In the US, the GENIUS Act provides long-overdue oversight for dollar-backed tokens and replaces years of ambiguity with a clear path to legitimacy and widespread adoption.

“As global stablecoin supply moves beyond $300 billion, these digital dollars will support a rapidly increasing share of cross-border transactions. They reduce fees, eliminate settlement friction, and outperform traditional rails in both speed and transparency. At the same time, regulators are finally moving in the right direction. Stablecoins are moving from a speculative tool into a trusted infrastructure layer for modern payments.

“By 2026, digital assets will no longer sit alongside traditional finance. They will power its next phase of development. Stablecoins, crypto ETFs, and tokenised payments will be used directly within the financial stack and will be part of everyday business and consumer activity worldwide. This is not hype. It is execution, and the market is already moving.”

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.”

The Next 12 Months

The start of 2026 marks a massive turning point for financial services. After a year defined by renewed pressure on service uptime and improvement, around outages, regulatory pressure and rapid technological acceleration, the industry is now moving from reaction to reinvention.

In the coming year, we’ll see that firms embedding resilience, embracing intelligent automation and identifying new trends in service provision will lead the pack. The future of finance will hinge on trust, modernisation and operational strength, backed by technology.