Banking & Fintech Keynote Speaker for 2026
Situation: Banking Is Being Reshaped by AI, Fintech, and Real-Time Expectations
By 2026, banking moves at the speed of trust and real-time data. Generative AI is rewriting customer service, underwriting, fraud management, and compliance. Open Finance and instant payment rails like FedNow, RTP, and UPI are pushing expectations to “now.” Digital assets, tokenized deposits, and central bank pilots force new thinking about money itself. Meanwhile, deepfakes, synthetic identities, and API sprawl elevate operational risk under stricter oversight, from DORA in the EU to evolving model risk guidance and open banking mandates in the US and UK.
Event planners tell me their audiences need clarity, not hype: what’s real in AI, what regulatory change actually means, and how to turn these shifts into growth and stronger trust. As a banking keynote speaker 2026, I help leaders decode disruption into practical steps they can act on tomorrow.
Opportunity: Turn Disruption into New Revenue and Stronger Trust
The winners in 2026 will convert technology change into differentiated customer value.
- New revenue: AI-enabled personalization drives higher cross-sell, card activation, and savings engagement. Embedded finance via API partnerships opens distribution to retail, SMB, and platform ecosystems. Real-time treasury services and instant payroll attract enterprise and gig-economy flows.
- Risk advantage: Explainable AI reduces bias and improves approvals without eroding credit quality. Real-time fraud models lower false positives, improving experience and interchange.
- Trust at scale: Transparent data use, auditable model decisions, and digital identity-first journeys increase retention and cut service costs. Banks can make “trust” a measurable asset.
Example: A regional bank used an AI underwriting assistant with human-in-the-loop review to expand small business credit approvals by 14% while keeping loss rates flat. A card issuer combined real-time payments with behavioral analytics to raise spend by 9% and reduce false declines by 22%. These aren’t moonshots—they’re disciplined transformations aligned to governance.
Action: Bring a Banking Keynote That Clarifies AI, Risk, and Experience
My 2026 banking keynote is designed to move leaders from noise to strategy. It is research-led, practical, and tailored to your region and audience mix.
What attendees gain:
- A clear map of the 2026 landscape: AI maturity, instant payments, tokenized assets, Open Finance 2.0, and the changing regulatory baseline.
- A responsible AI blueprint: governance, bias testing, model documentation, and the “AI Bill of Materials” for third-party risk.
- A real-time readiness plan: modernization priorities across data, APIs, fraud, and service operations.
- Customer trust playbook: consent-based personalization, journey orchestration, and human + AI service models.
Frameworks I use on stage:
- Future Readiness Score (FRS) for Banking 2026: assess capability across Strategy, Technology, Risk, Experience, and Culture.
- The 7 Lenses of Change: regulation, data, identity, payments, AI, ecosystems, and resilience—how each impacts revenue and trust.
- Responsible AI Checklist: rights, explainability, monitoring, and incident response tailored to financial services.
Use cases explored:
- GenAI copilots for branch, call center, and relationship managers—safe deployment with audit trails.
- AML modernization: combining graph analytics with human investigators to cut case time and increase SAR quality.
- Deepfake defense: voice, video, and document countermeasures integrated into KYC flows.
- CBDC and tokenized deposit scenarios: what to pilot, what to avoid, and how to keep the customer relationship.
As a banking keynote speaker 2026, I translate complex change into steps executives can fund, teams can deliver, and regulators can understand.
Result: Leaders Who See a Clear Strategy for 2026 and Beyond
Audiences leave with a shared language for AI, risk, and customer experience, plus tangible next steps:
- A 12-month transformation roadmap with milestones and ROI guardrails.
- Build-versus-buy decision criteria for AI, fraud, and real-time services.
- An innovation radar aligning pilots to compliance and business outcomes.
- A trust metric strategy—measuring transparency, consent rates, resolution speed, and customer effort.
Real outcomes:
- A credit union federation structured a phased FedNow rollout, reducing ACH costs and moving key member segments to instant settlement.
- A fintech-banking partnership redesigned their onboarding with explainable credit models, improving approval rates for thin-file customers without increasing defaults.
These results start with clarity, continue through disciplined execution, and end with measurable value.
2026 Topics for Banking and Fintech Conferences
- Generative AI in Banking: From copilots to production systems—governance, accuracy, and human oversight.
- Open Finance 2.0: Monetizing secure data sharing, consent wallets, and ecosystem APIs.
- Real-Time Money: FedNow, RTP, UPI, PIX—operational readiness and new product design.
- Tokenized Deposits and CBDCs: Practical pathways, risk controls, and customer experience implications.
- Embedded Finance & BaaS: Compliance-by-design partnerships that scale safely.
- Fraud, Identity, and Deepfakes: Next-gen defenses and continuous authentication.
- SMB Growth Platforms: Cashflow forecasting, instant settlement, and real-time treasury as revenue drivers.
- Climate and Digital Resilience: Operational risk, scenario planning, and reporting.
- Quantum-Readiness: Cryptography timelines and pragmatic steps to future-proof.
- Human + AI Service: Designing empathetic, explainable, and cost-efficient customer interactions.
AI, Risk, and Regulatory Change
2026 will stress-test governance. Leaders need a coherent compliance strategy that enables innovation.
Key developments to watch:
- EU DORA enforcement elevates operational resilience across ICT risk, incident reporting, and third-party oversight.
- Basel III finalization and local implementations impact capital, market risk, and model risk frameworks.
- Evolving open banking rules in the US and Open Finance in the UK expand data portability and consent obligations.
- ISO 20022 becomes standard for cross-border and high-value payments, driving richer data and better risk analytics.
- NIST AI RMF adoption accelerates, guiding AI risk management practices globally.
Actionable steps:
- Establish a Model Risk Council overseeing AI models with clear roles for business, risk, legal, and technology.
- Implement an AI Bill of Materials: document datasets, training methods, evaluation metrics, and lineage for auditability.
- Build continuous monitoring: drift detection, bias audits, and performance alerts integrated into ops.
- Run quarterly resilience drills: deepfake fraud scenarios, instant-payment recalls, and third-party outages.
- Align consent-first data strategies with transparent value exchange—make privacy part of the product.
Case example: A mid-market bank implemented explainable underwriting with fairness constraints and post-decision explanations. Result: a 12% uplift in approvals for underserved segments and stronger regulator confidence due to robust documentation and bias testing.
Customer Experience and Trust in a Digital World
Trust is the currency of 2026. With instant expectations, customers judge banks on clarity, speed, and control.
What works:
- Consent-first personalization: customers choose data sharing and see the value—lower fees, better rates, or smarter insights.
- Journey orchestration: real-time triggers that anticipate needs—credit line alerts, fraud resolution, and savings nudges.
- Human + AI service models: frontline staff augmented by AI for faster answers, transparent explanations, and consistent outcomes.
- Digital identity-first flows: step-up verification only when risk rises, minimizing friction while stopping sophisticated fraud.
Example: A fintech partnered with a bank to launch “Explainable Credit.” Applicants saw the key drivers of their decision, plus steps to improve. This transparency raised satisfaction and conversion, while audit-ready logs made compliance robust.
Practical playbook:
- Define “trust KPIs”: consent opt-in, resolution time, false decline rate, and explanatory quality.
- Build a “privacy as product” mindset: show customers how their data works for them.
- Rebalance branches as advisory hubs supported by AI, focusing on complex needs and life events.
Why Banks and Fintechs Book Ian Khan
Event planners choose a banking keynote speaker 2026 who brings clarity, credibility, and momentum. I deliver:
- A futurist lens grounded in real operations—bridging strategy, technology, risk, and experience.
- Regional and regulatory tailoring—no generic content, but precise relevance to your market.
- Actionable frameworks—FRS 2026, 7 Lenses of Change, Responsible AI Checklist, and Real-Time Readiness Map.
- Practical case studies—what works, what doesn’t, and how to measure success.
- Engaging delivery—live polling, scenario walkthroughs, and take-home playbooks that drive post-event action.
Whether your audience is executive leadership, risk and compliance, technology, or product teams, the keynote aligns everyone around a shared, realistic path forward.
How to Book a Banking Keynote for 2026
To create a high-impact session that resonates and drives action:
- Clarify outcomes: growth, risk, experience, or a combination—shape the keynote to your strategic goals.
- Choose format: 45–60 minute keynote, executive briefing, or half-day workshop for deeper interaction.
- Share context: audience mix, regulatory environment, current initiatives, and pain points.
- Co-design agenda: select topics and case studies that match your priorities and region.
- Pre-event research: optional stakeholder interviews to tailor examples and ensure relevance.
- Extend the impact: add a moderated Q&A, breakout discussion, or post-event debrief with a 90-day action plan.
A focused, well-designed keynote helps leaders see the path clearly, align teams, and move decisively. In 2026, that clarity is the competitive advantage.
About Ian Khan
Ian Khan is a globally recognized futurist, innovation expert, and keynote speaker on emerging technologies and future readiness. As the creator of the Future Readiness Score™ and author of the best-selling book *Undisrupted: Thriving in the Age of Technological Change*, Ian helps organizations worldwide navigate disruption and build future-ready strategies.
With over 20 years of experience, Ian has advised Fortune 500 companies, governments, and associations on AI, digital transformation, emerging technologies, and leadership in times of change. His work has been featured on major media outlets including BBC, CNN, Forbes, and The Wall Street Journal.
Ian’s keynote presentations combine deep technological insight with practical, actionable frameworks that empower audiences to embrace change confidently. He delivers customized keynotes for conferences, corporate events, and executive briefings across industries including technology, finance, healthcare, manufacturing, and professional services.
Book Ian Khan for Your Event
Ready to bring a future-focused keynote to your 2026 event? Ian Khan delivers powerful, customized presentations that transform how organizations think about and prepare for the future.
Contact Information:
- Website: [iankhan.com](https://iankhan.com)
- Email: hello@iankhan.com
- Speaking Inquiries: [Request Ian Khan](https://iankhan.com/contact)
- Follow on LinkedIn: [Ian Khan](https://linkedin.com/in/iankhan)
Book Ian Khan today to inspire your audience, align your organization around future readiness, and drive meaningful action in 2026 and beyond.
