As 2025 draws to a close, one thing is clear: the world of financial services is compounding. Every shift in financial technology, regulation, and consumer behaviour accelerates the next, creating a landscape where progress feels constant yet uneven.

Asia Pacific illustrates this vividly.

In the Philippines, the payments race intensified with Manny Pacquiao’s fully integrated Manny Pay app launch and Google Pay’s arrival. Malaysia, on the other hand, advanced ASEAN’s first 24/7 Real-Time Gross Settlement system while preparing for open finance.

Hong Kong unveiled its Fintech 2030 strategy as two digital banks reached profitability, while Singapore now has better oversight for its national payment schemes through SPaN amid the Tokenize Xchange fallout.

These moments signal a broader truth: finance is entering a new era defined by intelligence, embedded finance, and trust-centric design. These are not isolated regional shifts, but part of a global restructuring of the industry.

The question is rather on how fast and in which direction these shifts will compound in 2026.

To that end, the Mambu Predictions Report 2026 brings together perspectives from leaders across its ecosystem. Its insights chart the structural forces shaping fintech trends in 2026, from agentic AI to cybersecurity and regtech.

The Era of Agentic and GenAI Solutions

It comes as no surprise that agentic and generative AI are actively reshaping how banks decide, manage risk, and engage with their customers.

While the potential is undeniable, questions constantly circle back on trust, ethics and control as the traditional boundaries between man and machine diminish. Tiffany Carpenter, Senior Industry Advisor for Financial Services at Microsoft, notes,

“Generative AI co-pilots will become standard for advisors and operations, while compliance frameworks like the EU AI Act will drive transparent, explainable AI adoption.”

Adrian Congiu, Vice President of Product Development at Mambu, agrees.

He envisions a future where the “relationship banker” works in tandem with agentic AI, explaining,

“These autonomous systems can automate time-consuming tasks and surface key insights. This shift allows human talent to focus on what matters most: personalised service and meaningful relationships.”

Anandha Ponnampalam, Technology Director of OSB Group, takes this further. He suggests banking platforms will soon evolve like “living organisms,” continuously adapting via AI-driven optimisation.

He believes that financial institutions will increasingly assemble capabilities from composable, cloud-native components.

“Large language models, agentic coding assistants and self-healing test frameworks will reduce build times from months to weeks.”

Ponnampalam notes that the real winners will move fast but stay disciplined, using AI to accelerate delivery while hard-coding compliance, resilience, and ethical checks throughout the build.

Trust Will Always Be the Most Valuable Currency

Financial institutions now operate in a landscape where technology frequently outpaces regulation, meaning resilience and security must evolve in lockstep with innovation.

When compliance and security are woven together by design, they mutually strengthen one another to create systems that are transparent, secure, and ethically grounded.

Ivneet Kaur, Chief Product and Technology Officer at Mambu, shares,

“Looking ahead to 2026, as innovation accelerates and regulation struggles to keep pace, the real leaders will be those who combine speed and creativity with resilience, compliance, and security.”

Rachel Freeman, Chief Growth Officer at Tyme Group, identifies a crucial shift for the coming years, predicting that regulation will become the primary differentiator in financial innovation. She adds,

“Whether in fiat or digital assets, those that combine regulatory credibility with balance-sheet strength will rise to prominence.”

Jan Georg Lehmann, Chief Commercial Officer at Knowit, expands on this outlook.

“The increasing sophistication of AI-powered attacks and growing regulatory scrutiny of digital evidence will redefine cybersecurity strategies in 2026 and beyond.”

He emphasises that operational resilience is now a top priority, driving rapid investment in biometric verification, continuous threat detection, and zero-trust architectures.

Banking as a Connected Ecosystem

As institutions transition from legacy systems to cloud-native platforms designed for agility and scale, a new model of value creation is taking shape. Technology is becoming the strategic core of modern banking.

Paula Neira, Director of Market Sales at Mambu, notes that staying ahead now requires financial institutions to think and operate like technology companies.

That means adopting AI capabilities, leveraging API-driven technologies and building on open, composable platforms that foster collaboration and innovation.

“Composable architecture allows financial institutions to refresh products, integrate new capabilities, and launch services in weeks rather than years.”

Charith Mendis, Head of Worldwide Banking Industry at Amazon Web Services (AWS), expands on this, highlighting how ecosystems and agentic capabilities are converging to redefine customer experience.

“The convergence of ecosystems with agentic capabilities creates intent-based banking experiences for customers that will transition from ‘show me how’ to ‘do it for me’.”

Yet, meaningful transformation requires both technological acceleration and institutional resilience.

Rob Howse, Chief Operating Officer at Leeds Building Society, points out that many incumbents continue to feel the strain of legacy technologies that limit growth and are not able to meet customer expectations.

“Meanwhile, neo-banks have been able to build the technology foundations to out-compete incumbents, but are struggling to build the balance sheets and risk management controls to be sustainable.”

Ultimately, Howse believes success will belong to the institutions that can pair modern technology with deep banking strength.

Those who commit to this journey, he concludes, will be the dominant players of the future.

The Future of Finance, Defined

As we look toward 2026, the convergence of agentic AI, resilient infrastructure, and open ecosystems signals that the industry is moving past the hype.

The experiments of 2025 are now crystallising into the essential operating models of the future, where technology acts as the invisible enabler of better human outcomes.

Across the insights shared, one theme stands out: sustainable growth will belong to those who can innovate quickly while safeguarding the trust that is the bedrock of financial services.

This era of “purposeful progress” demands a fundamental rethink of value creation. Whether through composable architectures that break down silos or AI-driven intelligence that deepens relationships, the goal remains the same: to build a financial system that is agile, secure, and deeply responsive.

Featured image edited by Fintech News Singapore based on image by freepik on Freepik