Agenda

08.30 – 09.15: Registration & Refreshments

09.15 – 09.20: Chairman's Welcome

09.20 – 09.50: Keynote speaker: Digital Accessibility as a Competitive Advantage

In this keynote, Mali Fernando, Group Head of Digital Experience and Accessibility at HSBC will shine a spotlight on why catering for disabled, neurodivergent and older customers is a strategic opportunity rather than a compliance exercise. He will set out how digital accessibility strengthens brands, supports regulatory alignment, and opens access to a global customer base of more than 1.2 billion people whose needs are often underserved.

The session will explore how accessible design helps organisations tap into a wider and more diverse talent pool, while improving experiences for all users. Mali will also examine what it means in practice to ensure that digital ecosystems are genuinely accessible, and how firms can embed accessibility into product design, governance and measurement. Finally, he will consider the role of AI in accelerating progress, including where it can help teams scale inclusive design and where careful oversight is required to avoid new barriers.

09.50 – 10.20: Presentation – The AI-Savvy Customer: Is your business ready? Sponsored by Transmit Security

Your customers didn't wait for you. While banks, insurers, retailers and telcos were building AI strategies and governance frameworks, consumers were already using AI to compare products, challenge decisions, switch providers and manage their finances – on their own terms. The question for every leader in this room isn't whether AI will change your customer relationships. It already has. The question is whether you're going to lead that change, or be defined by it.

10.20 – 11.00: Panel – Next-gen payments: Real-time, cross-border, interoperability and the future of digital money, sponsored by ACI Worldwide

Payments are shifting to always‑on networks where reliability, transparency, and trust are measurable. Shared sector infrastructure that coordinates banks, PSPs, corporates, and public bodies is expected to deliver instant domestic payments, interoperable cross‑border corridors, and credible coexistence with emerging digital currencies. The priority is practical outcomes: higher straight‑through processing, lower end‑to‑end latency, fewer errors and fraud, and clearer cost‑to‑serve economics.

This session examines how institutions can modernise through common rails and utilities: end‑to‑end ISO 20022 adoption as a product and data asset; scheme‑agnostic orchestration across account‑to‑account, card, and instant payments; pre‑validation and verification services to reduce disputes and fraud; and pragmatic digital currency integration patterns that leverage existing messaging, identity, and settlement. Panellists will focus on cross‑border corridor design that balances compliance and speed, how shared screening and telemetry improve operational resilience, and the business models that make interoperability durable.

---

11.00 – 11.30: Coffee Break

11.30 – 12.00: Beyond the Perimeter: Building Genuine Operational Resilience in an Age of Systemic Risk, sponsored by Cockroach Labs

The resilience agenda has fundamentally shifted. It is no longer a question of whether your own systems can withstand failure; it is a question of whether your architecture can survive someone else's. As financial institutions converge on a shrinking pool of cloud providers and critical technology services, concentration risk has become the defining threat of the decade. DORA and the FCA's evolving frameworks are forcing boards to ask a harder question: not whether they have a recovery plan, but whether their foundational infrastructure was built to absorb disruption in the first place.

Drawing on real-world experience building mission-critical data infrastructure for regulated financial institutions, this session explores the architectural choices that separate institutions which absorb systemic shocks from those that amplify them, and the strategic bets leaders should be making now to stay ahead of where regulation is heading.

12.00 – 12.40: Panel – Digital transformation and operating models: Aligning strategy, technology, culture, and change delivery at scale

Financial institutions are moving beyond isolated innovation projects towards whole‑of‑business transformation, where operating models, technology stacks, and organisational culture must evolve in lockstep. The challenge is less about selecting individual tools and more about orchestrating portfolio‑level change: modernising core platforms, industrialising data and AI, reshaping decision rights, and building a culture that can execute at pace under regulatory and cost pressure. Institutions that succeed will treat transformation as a continuous capability rather than a time‑boxed programme.

This session explores how leaders can design future‑ready operating models that connect strategy to delivery: clarifying value pools, sequencing change across business and technology roadmaps, and embedding product‑centric ways of working. Panellists will examine how to measure transformation outcomes beyond headline spend, govern multi‑vendor ecosystems, and maintain momentum through economic cycles. The discussion will focus on practical approaches to aligning boards, executives, and frontline teams around a coherent digital agenda that delivers resilient, customer‑centred growth.

---

12.40 – 13.10: Tokenisation and the Future of Financial Services

Drawing on his research, Gilles Chemla will cover the various use cases of tokenisation, analyse their projected growth and look at the importance of stablecoins. He will also share how traditional financial firms can use tokenisation to transform their business models.

13.10 – 14.10: Lunch Break

14.10 – 14.40: Panel – Shaping the bank of the future: From purpose to performance, sponsored by Rackspace

In the second half of the decade, banks are competing on clarity of purpose, customer trust and strategic focus rather than incremental technology gains. The bank of the future will be shaped by choices leaders make now - defining distinctive propositions, reimagining relationships beyond products, and organising for pace with accountable decision‑making and a culture that turns strategy into delivery.

This session explores what a future‑ready bank looks like, how in‑person service will evolve, and the ways leaders can identify and scale novel offerings without diluting trust. Panellists will consider how challenger banks and incumbents can learn from each other to achieve durable value, and how boards should phase investment across successive horizons to build advantage. The discussion will centre on the signals that credibly show progress - trust, customer lifetime value, resilience, productivity and sustainable returns - and the strategic moves that ensure customers choose the bank in the years ahead.

14.40 – 15.20: Fireside Chat – Engineering equity: Diversity as a driver of technical innovation and operational performance

Building financial systems that are resilient, objective, and capable of operating at scale requires a broad range of perspectives within technology teams. Homogeneity in product design and engineering leads to blind spots – ranging from algorithmic bias in automated lending models to systemic gaps in user experience design. For financial institutions navigating rapid digital transformation, diversity is an operational necessity that directly impacts technical outcomes, risk management, and market relevance.

This fireside chat examines the intersection of talent diversity and technical execution in modern financial services. Vicky Soden, chief executive officer WIBF, will discuss how firms can build engineering, data, and product teams that reflect their diverse user bases to improve product deployment and risk mitigation. The session will explore practical frameworks for retaining female technical talent, modernising leadership structures to support diverse delivery teams, and mitigating bias within AI and automated decisioning platforms. The conversation will focus on actionable strategies for technology leaders to link inclusive talent management with measurable improvements in software delivery, platform stability, and digital product design.

---

15.20 – 15.50: Keynote speaker: Untapped Digital Talent: The £3 billion opportunity

The UK faces a digital skills shortage. In 2024 alone, 12,100 digital roles in the financial, professional services and technology sectors went unfilled. This cost the UK economy more than £1 billion.The City of London Corporation’s Women Pivoting to Digital Taskforce is working to change that. In its first flagship report, the Taskforce called for the reskilling of mid-career women in these sectors to help fill digital roles.If the digital skills gap is filled by mid-career women, firms in the financial, professional services, and the technology sectors would avoid missing out £3.3 billion in profits over the next decade. These women, whose jobs are more at risk from AI than their male peers, will benefit from high-skilled career opportunities. Chair of the Taskforce, Caroline Haines, will present the report’s findings.

15.50 – 16.20: Chairman's closing remarks, quiz and end of conference

16.20 – 17.00: Networking drinks reception