Author

Dan Brightmore

Published

4 September 2025

Estimated Read time

5Mins

The Financial Transformation Summit (FTS), presented by MoneyNext, took place June 18-19 2025 at London’s ExCeL Centre, Royal Victoria Dock. With over 2,000 attendees, 300+ speakers, and 400 roundtables, it stood out as one of the most immersive and interactive events in the financial services calendar.

FinTech Strategy hit the conference floor at the heart of the action delivering insights from experts across Banking, Insurance, Wealth, and Lending at Financial Transformation Summit (FTS).

Financial Transformation Summit attendees from banking, insurance, wealth, lending, fintech, consultancy, and regulatory sectors convened for two days packed with keynotes, panel talks, immersive demos, and networking among 60+ exhibitors and startups.

Co-located streams – Banking, Insurance, Wealth, and Lending part of themed zones – meant that ticket-holders could explore adjacent sectors fluidly across a guiding theme: culture, collaboration, and customer centricity driving tech adoption and transformation.

Programme Highlights

Keynotes & Panels

1. Data Silos & Cross‑Institutional Collaboration

A panel featuring senior leaders from EVLO, Aon, Schroders, and Brit Insurance tackled how institutions – despite collectively spending over $33 billion annually on data – still struggle to collaborate due to privacy concerns and regulation. Innovative solutions included federated learning, anonymised client IDs and consent-backed APIs.

2. Digital Insurance via Wallets

Anna Bojic (Miss Moneypenny Technologies) unveiled a fresh take on insurance – embedding policy and claim data into Apple/Google Wallets. The idea: dynamic customer interaction directly from smartphone wallets, enhancing real‑time engagement and retention.

3. ESG Economics & Market Reality

Marc Kahn (Investec) challenged ESG orthodoxy, urging firms to emphasise human and planetary wellbeing – beyond purely financial returns – to capture stakeholder trust and sustainable growth.

4. People & Psychological Safety

Kirsty Watson (Aberdeen Group) and Vikki Allgood (Fidelity International) underlined that technological investments are futile without organisational design and psychological safety. Allgood cited a McKinsey study revealing only 26% of leaders build teams with a sense of safety – a critical step toward innovation.

5. Human‑Centred AI

Monica Kalia (Planda AI) championed AI that models individual financial contexts – recognising diversity within demographic cohorts and personalizing services accordingly.

Roundtable Experiences at FTS

At the event’s heart were the TableTalk roundtables – 400+ small-group sessions, each led by a subject-matter expert. These were limited to six participants each, enabling deep, peer-led discussions on themes like:

  • AI in risk and compliance
  • Open banking integration
  • ESG data standards
  • Cyber resilience
  • Change management and culture adaptation

Attendees consistently praised their interactive nature – far removed from the stage‑focused “listening” format often critiqued at other conferences.

Demonstrations & Exhibitor Showcase

Over 60 exhibitors presented tech-driven innovations: Generative AI, open‑banking APIs, ESG reporting tools, embedded finance solutions, and more. A few standouts were:

  • CRIF highlighted AI-powered credit scoring with ESG overlays – promising dynamic risk assessments backed by sustainability data
  • Emerging FinTechs demoing AI compliance engines, digital wallet insurance packaging, and data-sharing platforms
  • Hyland demonstrated the intuitive end-user experience of its Hyland Content Innovation Cloud™ and showed how easy it is to configure, tailor and deploy solutions that can empower key stakeholders across any business

The demo zone allowed engaging, hands-on exploration and real-time Q&As; it complemented the content with practical insights.

Standout Themes & Strategic Insights

1. Tech is Not Enough Without Culture

Recurrent messaging emphasised that culture, trust, governance, and psychological safety are foundational – not secondary – to digital initiatives. Technology alone won’t deliver transformation without a people-first mindset.

2. Cross‑Sector Data Collaboration

Despite heavy investment, institutions still operate in silos. Shared, secure infrastructure and regulatory-aligned frameworks are being prototyped, but broad adoption remains a work in progress.

3. AI-as-a-Personalisation Backbone

AI is shifting from automation to empathy. Organisations showcased tools to hyper-personalise offers yet maintain privacy and inclusion – moving beyond outdated demographic frameworks into genuine behavioural understanding.

4. Embedded Finance & Digital Wallets

Insurance via wallet applications and embedded finance models point to seamless customer journeys – less app hopping, more value delivered at the point of need.

5. Rebalancing ESG & Profit Metrics

Speakers emphasised integrating ESG factors into performance metrics – not just for compliance, but as an operative advantage anchored in long-term stability and stakeholder trust.

Who Should Attend FTS Next Year?

Ideal for:

  • Transformation and change leaders
  • CTOs, CIOs, and Heads of Innovation
  • Data and AI strategists
  • Operational and HR leaders focused on culture
  • FinTech innovators and solution providers

If you’re crafting digital transformation strategies, an attuned leader in financial services, or a consultant embedding tech in legacy environments, this summit provides rich, actionable content.

Expect next year’s event to build on this foundation:

  • More AI-specific tracks, possibly Generative AI streams
  • ESG deep-dives with case studies on implementation
  • Expanded regulator involvement around data governance and cross-border compliance

FTS: Final Verdict

Overall, the FTS 2025 delivered on its brand promise:

  • Interactive and inclusive: 400 roundtables empowered voices across levels.
  • Cross‑sector learning: Banking, Insurance, Wealth, and Lending streams offered both breadth and depth.
  • Insightful keynotes: Big ideas on AI, ESG, data-sharing, and culture were well-explored.
  • Real-world relevance: Exhibitor demos connected theory with practice.
  • Networking with purpose: Opportunities to engage, learn, and collaborate were abundant.

The Financial Transformation Summit struck a compelling balance between big-picture vision and granular, execution-level insight. It emphasised that while technology enables; culture, customer centricity and collaboration drive real progress. The format – with its roundtables, demos, and keynotes – offered a dynamic platform for knowledge exchange.

If you attended, chances are you left with practical next steps. If you didn’t, you missed one of the most interactive, future-focused events shaping financial services transformation today.

  • Artificial Intelligence in FinTech
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  • InsurTech

Author

Dan Brightmore

Published

31 July 2025

Estimated Read time

7Mins

Read in brochure format

FinTech Strategy speaks with Matt Bazley, Account Executive at Hyland, to explore how the content intelligence and process automation specialists are helping to drive operational efficiencies for their financial services clients

Financial Transformation Summit 2025 EXCLUSIVE

Hyland empowers organisations with unified content, process and applications intelligence solutions, unlocking the profound insights that fuel innovation. The Hyland team was at Financial Transformation Summit to reveal the ways organisations can transform their processes with the Hyland Content Innovation Cloud™. By combining AI-powered automation with built-in integrations to productivity tools and business applications, Hyland streamlines workflows across multiple channels, accelerating response times, boosting productivity and improving customer satisfaction.

At the event, Neil Rayment, Sales Solution Engineer, demonstrated the intuitive end-user experience and showed how easy it is to configure, tailor and deploy solutions that can empower key stakeholders across any business. We spoke to Hyland’s Matt Bazley, Account Executive for Financial Services, to find out more…

Hi Matt, tell us about your role at Hyland?

“I’m the Account Executive responsible for banking across the UK and Ireland. I’ve been with the company for just over 18 months. Across my career, I’ve been helping financial services institutions for over 15 years with digital transformations and various programmes.”

What are the key digital transformation solutions Hyland offers Financial Services organisations? How are they making a difference? What are some of the use cases you’re exploring?

“Hyland is at the cutting edge of the content space. We have what we call our Content Innovation Cloud, which is delivering content intelligence, process intelligence and application intelligence. What that means in reality is that we’re helping organisations get access to their content that they don’t currently have access to because it’s spread over many siloed systems and sat in an unstructured format. So, with our content and intelligence, we’re able to get access to that unstructured data, which is around about 80% of an organisation’s data in the financial services sector. And we’re able to then provide knowledge and insight on that content, which helps organisations to make better strategic decisions. Allied to that, with this process intelligence, we’re able to help automate processes across the business. Whether it be orchestrating use cases and workflows or integrating with other systems to deliver application intelligence, we’re able to manage that whole end-to-end life cycle of information across an organisation.”

Why is this an exciting time for the business?

“We’re excited because our strategy is really leading the way. We’re leveraging large language models (LLMs) and AI to be able to deliver these real-life use cases that solve actual challenges. A lot of the time AI projects fail because businesses are trying to implement AI that isn’t actually a solution solving a problem. Whereas the AI we’re using is to actually solve a real-life challenge that businesses face because they want to be hyper-personalised for customers and more customer-centric. And you can’t really do that if you’re only leveraging 20% of the data you hold about your customers. And that’s why getting access and insight around this unstructured data is really vital for financial services organisations right now. We are able to help them leverage that unstructured data and meet them where their data is at. So, it’s not a case of having to migrate all of that data into different platforms or into our platform. We confederate across your information wherever it’s held as a financial services organisation; and that’s really a game-changing position for us and for the industry.”

“AI is the big one. Although it is a bit of a buzzword that everyone’s mentioning nowadays, we’re actually delivering AI solutions to solve problems that businesses face. And that’s one of the real trends in the industries. Most AI projects fail, and companies want AI projects that succeed and deliver real value. The other thing we’re seeing is the rise of hyper-personalisation as part of being really customer-focused and customer-centric. Again, by helping businesses leverage that 80% of information around their customers that they don’t currently have access to, and provide insights on that information, we’re helping those organisations to become really specific and personalised in their dealings with their customers.

“The final piece is around data and governance. So, security around our data as customers, because we’re all consumers at heart and want to know that our information is secure. Using best-in-class processes around security and governance is what we’re really focused on. And that’s a real trend in the market as well. We’re making sure that while we’re leveraging that information about customers, we’re keeping it safe and only using it for what it’s intended for and making sure the processes and governance around that information are really robust.”

What other pain points are clients in the FS space experiencing that you need to address? What are they asking you for help with? How are you meeting the challenge?

“The one big one is the siloed information across multiple systems as part of digital transformation strategies. Over the years, I’ve seen many businesses implement point solutions. They might be best-in-class point solutions… But that means you end up with information and data and processes across 10, 15 or 20 systems. How do you then unify that data and leverage it to make the user journeys more effective? And also the customer journeys better, whatever channel those customers are using?

“What we see is that while trying to be omnichannel for their customers, organisations end up with multiple solutions. One for their mobile app, a solution for their website, a solution for in-branch banking… So, you end up with omnichannel processes that are actually siloed processes. What we are trying to help businesses do is to unify those processes. We can break down those silos and make it a really seamless, integrated journey internally and externally for colleagues and customers.”

Tell us about a recent success story …

“A great example is our work with ABN AMRO – a bank that is one of our longstanding and valued customers. They were looking for a solution because of this very challenge. The bank had multiple siloed systems holding a lot of information and a very complex architecture. They went to market and Hyland was able to prove our solution was able to manage the sheer volume and complexity of the information and content that they had. And most importantly we were able to help them integrate with their line-of-business systems very easily to create that seamless internal/external journey for both users and customers.”

What’s next for Hyland? What future launches and initiatives are you particularly excited about?

“It’s all about continuing to grow for us. With the Content Innovation Cloud, the reception we’ve received from the market, from our customers, has been absolutely tremendous. Businesses are so excited to see the ability and capability of what we’re able to do. And what we’re able to deliver for them in terms of real value through the Content Innovation Cloud. We’ve got customers onboarded already. It’s now about expanding that list of customers who are going to see real value from leveraging the cloud, our AI solutions and driving efficiencies with our content process and application intelligence across their businesses.”

Why do you think the evolution of collaboration between banks and FinTechs is set to continue? What are you excited about?

“Across the market over the last 15-20 years the banks are starting to see FinTechs more as allies than competitors. And they’re leveraging these technologies rather than trying to challenge them. I think that’s going to continue because FinTechs are far more agile. And as customer expectations continue to evolve and become more demanding, banks need to evolve and deal with these demands more effectively and more fluidly. And that’s why leveraging FinTechs is going to be a key differentiator over the next 10 years. That trend is going to continue where banks and FinTechs work together and collaborate rather than challenge each other.”

Why Financial Transformation Summit? What is it about this particular event that makes it the perfect place to embrace innovation? What’s the response been like for Hyland?

“It’s my fourth year coming here with a couple of different companies and I always find this event really valuable. Not only to obviously promote our products and our brand… But to speak to key decision-makers and peers across financial services. We aim to learn from them about whether the challenges we perceive as a vendor are seen by them as a customer. We will continue to learn and evolve our business around key market challenges. Hyland can then focus our solutions around the real-world problems our peers are seeing across financial services. Coming to this event is a great way to meet as many people as possible. And just really enjoy having those meaningful conversations with leaders in the financial services sector.”

Learn more at hyland.com

About Hyland

Hyland puts your content to work, making it smarter and more accessible in the moment of need.

Hyland’s content, process and application intelligence solutions empower customers to deliver exceptional experiences to those they serve. The solutions capture, process and manage high volumes of diverse content, helping you improve, accelerate and automate operational decisions and workflows.

3 Core enterprise content management solutions

20+ Distinct product offerings

1,000s of ways to transform the way you work

Author

Arsalan Minhas

Published

3 April 2025

Estimated Read time

5Mins

Arsalan Minhas, AVP Sales Engineering, EMEA & APAC, at Hyland, on how AI revolutionising financial services

Artificial intelligence (AI) is revolutionising financial services, reshaping how institutions detect fraud, personalise customer experiences, and optimise investment strategies. From AI-powered chatbots assisting customers to machine learning models predicting market trends, the technology is driving unprecedented efficiency and insight.

Yet, alongside these advancements come new challenges. AI-driven scams are evolving in sophistication, algorithmic biases raise ethical concerns, and regulatory scrutiny is increasing. As financial institutions accelerate AI adoption, they’re walking the fine line between harnessing its benefits and mitigating its risks. 

AI in fraud detection and prevention – strengthening security measures

One of the most critical areas where AI has transformed financial services is fraud detection and prevention.

Traditional fraud prevention methods relied on static rule-based systems, which were often ineffective at identifying evolving threats. Such systems aren’t necessarily equipped to keep up with the sheer pace of financial service operations today, which has led to a surge of interest in automated alternatives.

AI, particularly machine learning algorithms, offers a dynamic solution by analysing vast datasets in real time to identify anomalies and potential fraud. AI also enhances biometric authentication methods, such as voice and facial recognition. This can ensure secure access to accounts, reducing the reliance on passwords, which are vulnerable to breaches.

According to a recent McKinsey report, AI-driven fraud detection systems can reduce financial fraud losses by up to 50%. Making them a crucial asset for financial institutions. These unprecedented levels of speed and versatility has made AI a priority for even the biggest players.

Of course, fraud detection is not without its challenges. Criminals are also leveraging AI to create sophisticated scams, such as deepfake-based identity fraud. And the introduction of new technologies can challenge cybersecurity initiatives.

With that in mind, financial institutions must constantly update their AI models to stay ahead of emerging threats. Regulatory compliance adds another layer of complexity, as AI’s decision-making much align with consumer protection laws and data privacy regulations like GDPR and CCPA.

The future of Customer Experience

On the customer-facing side of things, Artificial Intelligence is transforming the customer experience through hyper-personalised financial services. Gone are the days of generic banking interactions. AI now enables financial institutions to tailor services based on individual customer behaviours, preferences and financial goals.

Leading UK banks like NatWest and Lloyds Bank have invested heavily in AI-powered virtual assistants. NatWest’s digital assistant, Cora, has handled millions of customer interactions, providing real-time financial insights, bill reminders, and even fraud detection alerts. Similarly, HSBC uses AI-driven tools to analyse spending patterns and offer personalised financial advice. The ability to assess transaction data allows banks to recommend budgeting strategies, suggest tailored loan offers, and predict future financial needs, making banking more intuitive and customer centric.

AI-driven robo-advisors, such as those offered by Nutmeg and Moneyfarm, have revolutionised investment management by providing algorithm-based financial planning. These platforms leverage AI to assess risk tolerance, market trends, and historical data to offer personalised investment strategies with lower fees than traditional financial advisors. 

While such tools can be incredibly effective, they do raise concerns about data privacy and algorithmic bias. The more AI knows about an individual’s financial habits, the greater the risk of data misuse or bias in lending and investment recommendations.

Financial institutions must therefore ensure transparency and fairness in AI decision-making to build customer trust and meet regulatory regulations. The basis upon which customers share their personal data, and the protections that it is afforded, are a non-negotiable for any serious financial organisation.

Redefining market strategies in trading and investment

According to Deloitte, Artificial Intelligence is poised to be one of the most disruptive forces in investment management. High-frequency trading (HFT) firms now rely on AI algorithms to process vast amounts of market data within milliseconds. It also enables hedge funds and investment firms to predict market movements by analysing patterns from historical data, social media sentiment, and global economic indicators.

Leading firms like Man Group and XTX Markets have harnessed AI to enhance their trading strategies and portfolio management. Man Group, managing $175 billion in assets, utilises machine learning tools to develop its platform, ManGPT, to analyse trades and optimise investment decisions.

Similarly, XTX Markets, a London-based trading firm, employs advanced AI models to execute millions of trades daily, emphasising AI-driven strategies over sheer speed. Predictive analytics have become an indispensable tool in portfolio management, helping firms adjust their strategies based on real-time market fluctuations.

Naturally, these automated tools require to-the-second oversight from the business itself. The 2010 Flash Crash, in which the stock market plunged nearly 1,000 points within minutes, was exacerbated by algorithmic trading. AI-driven trading models can react unpredictably in volatile markets, amplifying risks if not properly regulated. Humanised AI – the combination of human and AI working in concert, rather than automated systems working in isolation – is crucial.

The future of AI in financial services

As Artificial Intelligence continues to evolve, its integration within financial services will only deepen. Institutions that successfully integrate AI into their operations will gain a significant competitive advantage. Benefiting from enhanced fraud detection, superior customer experiences, and data-driven investment strategies.

These businesses must also navigate the complexities of regulatory compliance, data privacy, and ethical AI deployment. The EU’s AI Act is one of many policies aiming to create the most robust governance structures for AI applications, and finance is no exception.

Striking the right balance between innovation and regulation will be crucial to ensuring AI remains a force for positive transformation rather than disruption. Financial institutions must prioritise transparency, human oversight, and ethical considerations in deployment to fully realise its potential while maintaining consumer trust.

The financial industry is on the brink of an AI-driven revolution. With careful implementation and responsible oversight, the technology has the power to make financial services more secure, efficient, and customer-friendly than ever before. Institutions that embrace this technology while addressing its challenges will shape the future of finance, redefining the way money is managed, invested, and protected in the years to come.

  • Artificial Intelligence in FinTech