The Chatsworth team is looking forward to Fintech Week London, which will once again bring together founders, investors, financial institutions, regulators and policymakers from across the UK and international fintech community. 

Leading voices from across fintech, crypto, payments and financial services will explore what’s actually working in their markets, where firms are seeing tangible results, and what comes next.

This year’s theme, Growth with AI, captures the duality running through many of the conversations around the technology: how to harness its potential to go further, while building responsibly, remaining resilient and, ultimately, without breaking stuff.

Chatsworth will be attending alongside a number of our clients, speaking on panels, joining the discussions, and catching up with partners and friends across the sector. 

A look at this year’s agenda and themes

AI will be the major focus throughout the week, but as financial firms move beyond hype and experimentation towards wider deployment, the industry has moved well beyond simply asking whether firms should use AI. There are now more interesting questions as to whether AI is genuinely improving productivity, customer outcomes and decision-making, and where the technology may be introducing new operational and governance risks.

The UK’s Financial Services AI Adoption Plan, published in July, reflects that shift, with particular attention on scaling AI safely, strengthening resilience and the emergence of agentic payments.

There is also an interesting question for fintechs: if AI makes products easier to build and replicate, what becomes the real differentiator? Proprietary data, infrastructure, distribution, customer relationships and trust are likely to become increasingly important as access to the technology itself becomes less distinctive. For many firms, competitive advantage will increasingly depend on how effectively they apply AI to their business, products and customer experience. 

There will also be key discussions surrounding the foundations underlying fintech.

Core banking systems, APIs, data architecture and AI-ready infrastructure will feature prominently. The key question for firms is whether their technology stack is flexible and resilient enough to support whatever comes next, whether that be a new product launch, a major institutional partnership, or an international expansion.

Alongside this, the continued convergence of fintech, crypto and traditional finance will be an area to watch closely . Stablecoins, tokenisation and blockchain-based infrastructure are moving closer to established payments and financial markets, and the focus is shifting from the potential of these technologies towards the practical question of how will plug into the systems already underpinning global finance. Interoperability, integration, and the practicalities of wider adoption will therefore be key areas of discussion throughout the week. 

Running through many of these conversations will be trust and regulation. Fraud, cybersecurity, digital identity, governance and operational resilience are becoming increasingly important as new technologies are deployed at greater scale and become more deeply embedded in financial services. Digital identity feels particularly timely, as the UK’s new digital identity trust framework has now come into force.  

Plenty to discuss in London

This year’s programme reflects many of the questions currently facing fintech leaders: how to use AI effectively, build technology capable of scaling, navigate the convergence of traditional and digital finance, and maintain trust as the industry continues to evolve. 

There will be plenty to discuss and a strong lineup of speakers to hear from. Many conversations will likely continue well beyond the sessions themselves, and we look forward to being a part of those.

See you there.