Innovating Finance Together Summit Highlights the Power of Collaboration in a Fast-Changing Financial Landscape

WHY THIS MATTERS: The convergence of AI and core modernization represents the single greatest imperative for financial institutions today. Finastra’s summit reinforces that the industry is rapidly moving past theoretical discussions around digital transformation to prioritizing the hard work of replacing monolithic legacy systems with flexible, microservices-based architectures. This is not merely an IT project; it is a critical strategic pivot. By adopting an open architecture model, banks and credit unions can seamlessly integrate third-party fintech capabilities and leverage practical AI use cases—from enhancing credit underwriting efficiency in lending to facilitating instant, cross-border payments. The shift highlights a necessary change in mindset: collaboration, or ‘co-creation,’ is the only viable path to building scalable, resilient, and client-centric services. Firms that fail to embrace this foundational technical overhaul risk becoming irrelevant as digital-native competitors accelerate time-to-market for innovative products.

Finastra’s inaugural Innovating Finance Together Summit, held in London, brought together more than 200 financial services professionals to discuss the trends reshaping lending, trade and payments.  

The event highlighted how modernization, co-creation and AI are moving from concept to real-world impact, helping financial institutions operate more efficiently and deliver better client outcomes.

Opening the summit, Chris Walters, CEO of Finastra, emphasized the growing importance of collaboration: “Against a backdrop of rapid change in technology, regulation and the global economy, collaboration matters more than ever. By working together with customers, partners, regulators and industry peers, we can move faster, solve real problems and build solutions that are ready for what’s next.”

Key themes from the summit included:

• Lending – Greater connectivity and interoperability across lending and trade ecosystems, enabling better data sharing, faster innovation and reduced friction. A cloud-first approach is improving resilience, while practical AI use cases are driving gains in day-to-day operations.
• Payments – The shift from monolithic systems to microservices-based architectures; cloud-agnostic and open-source approaches; and the rise of AI-assisted operations, including voice-enabled interfaces. Discussions also explored new payment rails, including stablecoins and digital assets, and their role in shaping the future of payments.
• Industry innovation – A cross-section of experts shared perspectives on the path to fully-digitized trade; the role of tokenization in securing transactions and enabling new models, and the evolution of private credit markets.

Additional highlights from the day included:

• A fireside chat between Chris Walters and Surath Sengupta, Managing Director & Head of Transaction Banking Products, Lloyds, on the macro trends influencing how the bank works alongside its clients, partners and the wider ecosystem and why co-creation is becoming critical to staying ahead.
• An opening keynote from Olivier Garcia, Global Head of Corporate and Investment Banking (CIB) at Capgemini Invent, examining the market shifts redefining corporate banking and the need for a step change in the way banks approach and deliver innovation.
• A closing keynote from Bronwen Maddox, CEO of Chatham House, sharing geopolitical insights and guidance on how organizations can navigate uncertainty and build resilience.

A live poll asked what comes to mind first on hearing the term ‘modernization’ and audience members ranked technology transformation highest (56%), encompassing the adoption of microservices, cloud, APIs, AI and real-time systems. Business transformation was ranked second (32%), including re-designed processes, automation, resilience, and operating model change. Third was customer and employee experience (12%), encompassing personalization, faster onboarding, intuitive journeys, and better UX/UI.

Following the success of the inaugural London event, Finastra will be hosting a series of Innovating Finance Together Summits across the world over the coming year.

FF NEWS TAKE: This event signals a definitive industry “move the needle” moment by shifting the conversation from if banks should modernize to how they must execute it. The overwhelming consensus on technology transformation as the core pillar of change indicates a renewed focus on foundational infrastructure. Financial institutions should closely watch the development and adoption of new digital assets and stablecoin rails, which promise to redefine global payments. Expect accelerated platform adoption as banks seek to outsource this complex modernization mandate.