Engaging at Every Stage of the Customer Journey: FTT Embedded Finance & Super-Apps & FTT Payments Return This May

The FTT Embedded Finance & Super Apps and FTT Payments events will return to London on May 12, 2026, to address the evolving landscape of digital value exchange. For fintech professionals, the co-located events highlight a critical shift toward integrating financial services directly into non-financial platforms, driven by AI and next-generation payment technologies.

What was announced

The 2026 iteration of FTT Embedded Finance & Super Apps and FTT Payments is set for May 12 in London, aiming to assemble a community of fintechs, financial institutions, and non-financial enterprises. The event is co-located with Customer Alpha, focusing on the intersection of embedded finance, payments, and customer-centric design. Participants also gain access to the Future Identity Customer and FID IAM events, covering the full digital customer journey.

The agenda showcases real-world use cases and new partnership models. Key themes include:

• Banking by default – key trends in embedded finance
• The digital payments debate
• Embedded Finance for SMEs
• The B2B stablecoin revolution
• Agentic commerce: AI that pays for you

The program highlights technologies turning customer touchpoints into opportunities to pay, borrow, save, and engage safely and at scale.

The speaker lineup includes David Twigg, Financial Services MD at Frasers Group; Isadora Turatti, Global Director, Partnerships & Expansion at BEES; and Pat O’Donnell, Global Commercial Director Payments and Embedded Finance at Phorest Salon Software. Representing the marketplace sector are Lisha Zhang, Enterprise, Global Marketplaces & Ecosystem Partnerships at Ant Financial; Lusine Kuchukyan, Senior Product Manager at Glovo; and Tania Ziegler, Head of New Venture – Business Development & Revenue at Booking.com. Technical and financial perspectives will be provided by Sean Hederman, Chief Technology Officer at Zilch; Sanjeev Pottay, Commercial Director, Financial Services at The Very Group; Letizia Pepe, Director at Bank of America; Ruwani Hewa, Director of Payments at Starling Bank; and Aleksander Kaczmarek, VP of Loyalty at CarTrawler.

The companies involved

The event features a broad spectrum of participants from the global financial and technology sectors, reflecting the diverse ecosystem required for embedded finance. Traditional financial institutions are represented by Bank of America and Starling Bank, illustrating the ongoing engagement of established lenders with digital-first distribution models. The retail and marketplace sectors are represented by major players such as Frasers Group, The Very Group, and Glovo, alongside travel and booking platforms like Booking.com and CarTrawler.

The technology and fintech landscape is represented by firms like Ant Financial and Zilch, which focus on ecosystem partnerships and next-generation consumer credit. Additionally, the presence of vertical SaaS providers, such as Phorest Salon Software, and B2B platforms like BEES, highlights the growing importance of specialized software in distributing financial products. David Twigg at Frasers Group and Sanjeev Pottay at The Very Group represent the retail sector's pivot toward integrated financial offerings. Meanwhile, Lisha Zhang at Ant Financial and Isadora Turatti at BEES represent the global scale of marketplace and partnership ecosystems. These companies collectively represent a market where financial services are increasingly decentralized, moving away from standalone banking apps and toward integrated experiences within the platforms customers use daily. This ecosystem approach reflects a market where the traditional boundaries between a bank and a service provider are increasingly blurred, as non-financial enterprises leverage technology to offer borrowing, saving, and payment options directly at the point of need.

What this means

The focus on "agentic commerce" and "banking by default" signals a shift in the industry's maturity. We are moving beyond simple API integrations toward a world where financial transactions are invisible and autonomous. This puts significant pressure on traditional financial institutions to provide the robust, "invisible" infrastructure that these non-financial brands require. The central question for the sector remains whether banks can maintain their brand relevance or if they will be relegated to the role of silent utility providers. Furthermore, the rise of B2B stablecoins suggests that the friction in cross-border corporate payments is finally reaching a breaking point that demands alternative rails.