As Brunnhilde clears her throat, we can start to reflect on the 10th Anniversary of the Singapore FinTech Festival (SFF), the Insights Forum (IF), and the busy year here at GFTN.
SFF and IF saw over 70,000 attendees and 1,000 speakers, with both platforms jam packed with tangible outcomes and growth opportunities. One of my personal highlights was a closed-door roundtable which brought together stellar public and private sector leaders* to chart the principles for the future of digital money, centred on rails, rules, resilience and trust. These principles, to be released next year and refined through consultations across APAC, Europe and MEA, will guide global collaboration around universal interoperability, mutual compliance standards, informed transitions and tech neutral competition.
At SFF, we experienced a veritable feast for the policy, tech and finance community to frame, align and shape what we can expect in 2026 and beyond.
Some of the highlights include:
AI – enterprise and agentic AI moving from pilot to product. Specifically, the movement of AI becoming a core layer in the financial tech stack, beyond pilots and PoCs. All this despite the concerns around business and commercial outcomes. From the policymaker side, a number of discussions centred around aligning on standards for safe deployment (governance, explainability, data-lineage)
Tokenization – moving from demo to infrastructure play. While concerns remain around the value and what market plumbing is missing, there were a number of promising announcements from the public and private sectors. As tokenised finance scales, the race to establish safe and reliable settlement assets – CBDC, tokenised bank deposits, and regulated stables – is intensifying. Cross-ecosystem usability was a reoccurring theme.
Quantum – the continued urgency around Q-readiness, the quantum advantage and post-quantum crypto. There many discussions on concrete migration plans to post-quantum cryptography and inventorying high-value data that needs protection now. A number of banks and industry players are experimenting with quantum computing to solve business problems at production scale, from algorithmic trading to portfolio optimisation and long-term cybersecurity.
Talent – skills-first hiring, reskilling and cybersecurity scarcity. The increasing talent gap is causing many challenges around the world, specifically in AI, data science and cybersecurity. At the talent zone at SFF, there were many ideas around closing this gap, including GFTN’s very own initiatives which are currently being deployed in India.
Next-gen founders and entrepreneurship. There was an upbeat vibe amongst founders and investors this year, that hasn’t been seen for a few years. Challenges still persist around scaling and expanding into new markets, which GFTN is beginning to play a purposeful role to support through its network in the public and private sectors. A number of Asia-Pacific FinTech’s are entering a maturation phase where IPOs are no longer aspiration – they are becoming a realistic next step, backed by strong market confidence.
On the GFTN front, we continued pushing boundaries and delivering on our new mandate:
We announced our partnership with the Qatar Development Bank to build a Centre of Excellence in Doha which will include policy development, innovation acceleration, capacity building and convening platforms.
We expanded our digital solutions ecosystem with five new platforms, strengthening our suite of digital offerings.
We expanded our Capital business with a partnership with SBI Holdings, and a strategic alliance with Accion.
As we wrap up for the year, I'd like to leave you with a quote from Dr Axel Weber:
“FinTech is about speeding up finance [...] good regulation needs to be a safety belt, not a break.” – SFF 2025
Thanks for reading.
Pat Patel
CEO, MEA, Americas & Co-CEO, GFTN Forums
* Agustín Carstens, Former General Manager, Bank for International Settlements (BIS) • Nandan Nilekani, Co-Founder & Chairman of the Board, Infosys • Siddharth Shetty (Finternet Labs) • Sopnendu Mohanty (GFTN) • Leong Sing Chiong (MAS) • Dr. Veerathai Santhiprabhob (Former Governor, Bank of Thailand) • Forest Lin (Tencent) • Richard Verma (Mastercard) • Chan Yam Ki (Circle) • Toh Wee Kee (J.P. Morgan) • Pradyumna Agrawal (Temasek) • Mishal Ruparel (Banking Circle) • Tommaso Mancini-Griffoli (Former IMF, now BIS) • Peter Kerstens (European Commission) • Sasha Mills (Bank of England) • Jawed Ashraf (Indian Foreign Service) • Dr. Patrick Njoroge (Former Governor, Central Bank of Kenya)
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Chart your course
Stay ahead of the curve through education
Building a pipeline of future-ready professionals
As part of the comprehensive four-pronged strategy and the BharatNetra/I-GFTCH roadmap with the Government of Odisha, we commenced the in-person training for the Certificate in FinTech and InsurTech in Bhubaneswar this week. This forms a key component of the five-month programme, which began on 22 September 2025 and will conclude on 16 January 2026. Approximately 300 students joined the first physical session. The programme sits under the Global Learning pillar, one of the four components of Odisha’s FinTech capability strategy.
At GFTN, we're committed to building the next generation of FinTech leaders. Our talent development programmes empower individuals and enhance the knowledge they need to thrive in an evolving financial landscape. Learn about the programmes we offer.
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Connecting Financial Corridors at GFTN Forum Japan
We're starting the series of Forums in 2026 in February next year, in no other place than the Land of the Rising Sun. From next gen transactions to rethinking capital flow, and mapping out technology blueprints for AI and digital assets, ignite your curiosity and experience how Japan is taking technology-driven approaches to address the challenges and opportunities unique to the nation, while making a global impact. Get your pass. Early bird promo ends Sunday, 30th November.
