FTT Fintech Festival 2026: London’s Premier Finance Event Reveals Full Speaker Lineup

The FTT Fintech Festival and Future Identity Festival have finalized their 2026 agenda, bringing over 400 speakers to London’s Brewery this November. For fintech professionals, this massive gathering represents a critical convergence of AI, digital identity, and embedded finance, offering a comprehensive look at the technologies currently reshaping the global financial services infrastructure.

What was announced

The full agenda for the two-day event, scheduled for 9th - 10th November 2026, details a sprawling program designed to accommodate more than 2,500 festival-goers. The event features eight dedicated stages, each focusing on specific pillars of modern finance. Key specialized tracks include FTT AI Transformation, FID Fraud & FinCrime, FID IAM (Identity and Access Management), and FTT Mutuals, reflecting the industry's shift toward secure, automated, and community-focused banking models. This structure allows attendees to navigate complex topics like embedded finance and digital identity within a single venue.

The speaker roster includes high-profile executives from both traditional banking and the broader digital economy. Notable participants include David Rice, Chief AI Officer at HSBC, and Ari Cohen, Chief Data & AI Officer at Macquarie Group, who will address the integration of data and artificial intelligence. The payments and compliance sectors are represented by Olga Gunchenkova, Director of Payments at Flutter International, and Mitch Trehan, Chief Compliance Officer at Allica Bank. Sailesh Panchal, Chief Technology Officer & Director of Payments at TSB Bank, is also confirmed to join the lineup.

Beyond the financial core, the festival integrates perspectives from the wider tech ecosystem, featuring Jambu Palaniappan, CEO of Checkatrade.com, and Lian Ryan-Hume, Head of Trust & Safety Policy for MEA & Central Asia at TikTok. Edgars Kokins, Managing Director at Bolt, and Thiago Gaiao, Managing Director / General Manager – UK & Ireland at SharkNinja, are also slated to speak. The event also prioritizes peer-to-peer engagement through dedicated networking spaces, a festival reception, and a craft beer bar, aiming to bridge the gap between formal sessions and collaborative industry discussion.

The companies involved

The festival is organized by VC Innovations, a firm that has established itself as a central node in the UK and European fintech community. VC Innovations specializes in creating high-impact events and content that facilitate the exchange of ideas between established financial institutions, nimble startups, and technology providers. The company has a history of collaborating with major industry players to produce research and reports that go beyond simple event management, often focusing on the intersection of talent, technology, and financial services.

The festival's reach is further evidenced by the caliber of participating organizations. These include global banking giants like HSBC and Macquarie Group, as well as TSB Bank. The inclusion of Allica Bank, a significant player in the UK SME lending space, and digital-first brands like Bolt and SharkNinja, highlights the festival's role in connecting traditional finance with the burgeoning embedded finance and platform economy sectors. This cross-pollination is a hallmark of the VC Innovations approach to market engagement, bringing together diverse entities such as Flutter International and TikTok to discuss the future of trust, safety, and transaction processing in a globalized digital economy.

What FF News has reported before

FF News has closely followed the evolution of this event series and the work of its organizers. We previously covered how The Fintech Talents Festival is Changing, marking a shift in its format and scope. Our coverage also includes the expansion of the brand’s footprint, such as when FTT Payments launches in London alongside three additional co-located events. Furthermore, we reported on the collaborative research efforts of the organizers in Paymentology Launches “Employees with Benefits” Report with FTT Embedded Finance and VC Innovations, which explored the intersection of fintech and employee value propositions.

What this means

The scale of the FTT Fintech Festival suggests that the industry is moving past the era of siloed innovation. By co-locating digital identity, fraud prevention, and AI transformation, the event acknowledges that these are no longer separate departments but interdependent layers of a single digital stack. For legacy banks, the pressure is mounting to prove that their AI and data strategies can match the agility of platform-native companies like TikTok or Bolt. The inclusion of the mutuals sector also highlights a growing industry realization: as technology becomes more complex, maintaining the trust and community focus of traditional financial models remains a significant competitive advantage. The challenge for the sector remains whether these diverse players can move from networking to meaningful technical interoperability.