The ground under finance moved, and most people only felt a rumble. We spent 2025 translating messy tech estates into DORA‑ready living registers, turning spreadsheets into real‑time risk maps, and discovering that fintech isn’t a sidecar anymore—it’s the engine. When a major processor or open banking provider hiccups, payments across entire regions stall. That’s why regulators accelerated, why critical third parties now face continuous oversight, and why instant payments became Europe’s quiet new normal.
We walk through the practical realities of this shift: how DPM 4.0 and XBRL CSV forced banks and fintechs into a shared language; how SCT Inst mandated 24/7/365 settlement and price parity; and how compliance stopped being a box to tick and started acting like telemetry you can steer with. Then we pivot to AI, where the real gap isn’t enthusiasm—it’s insurance and accountability. Traditional policies didn’t imagine self‑learning systems that fail without a hack or a human mistake. Enter AI assurance: controlled testing, stress simulation, and continuous scoring that translate governance into measurable evidence aligned to the EU AI Act’s high‑risk rules hitting in 2026.
Of course, intelligent agents need rails they can actually use. That’s where DeFi’s programmable architecture, stablecoins like USDC and PYUSD, and agent payment protocols meet internal policy engines to build compliant, verifiable machine transactions. Alongside, we show how teams killed the Excel grind by automating customer reports that cut churn and DSO, and by issuing immutable premium reports for boards and regulators. Beyond the big hubs, APAC’s VLEI momentum, India’s privacy advantage, and Latvia’s capital‑efficient scale point to a broader acceleration powered by standards and verifiable data.
The takeaway is simple and demanding: the winners in 2026 will treat compliance as a product feature, build AI‑literate operations, and interoperate across cards, account‑to‑account, and stablecoin rails. Real‑time is here, rules are written, and execution is the frontier. If AI is about to run finance at machine speed, who should own the proof of continuous resilience? Subscribe, share, and tell us your view—because the answer will define the next decade.

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Koen Vanderhoydonk
[email protected]
#FinTech #RegTech #Scaleup #WealthTech