The world is changing at unprecedented speed: geopolitically, technologically, and institutionally. Those shifts are cascading into every sector, including financial services and FinTech.
Over the past 18 months, the European Union has meaningfully advanced its trade agenda, reaching a political agreement with Mercosur after 25 years of negotiations, concluding a modernised framework with Mexico, and maintaining talks with India and Indonesia. Together, these pacts connect a USD 19 trillion internal market to an external footprint covering more than 2.4 billion people and about USD 44 trillion in combined economic value.
For financial services firms, the competitive map is being redrawn across cross-border trade finance, green project lending, digital banking, wealth and asset management, and mergers and acquisitions.
Sitting in Berlin, what strikes me is a tension surfacing in almost every conversation: the gap between momentum and operational readiness is closing faster than most expect. Europe now has more sense of urgency than at any point in the last decade, combined with a genuine conviction that the moment can be seized.
The Digital Euro is moving from trial to architecture. The Savings and Investments Union is gaining step-by-step real legislative traction. Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) has created a regulatory perimeter that the rest of the world is watching closely. And AI is no longer a pilot. It is being deployed as operational infrastructure across central banking, compliance, risk modelling, and wealth and asset management. At the same time, the underlying technological infrastructure is slowly coming into place.
How all these pieces fit together is exactly the question our Group CEO Sopnendu Mohanty takes up in his letter ahead of Point Zero Forum 2026, happening 23–25 June in Zürich.
Indeed, it’s an exciting time to be in Europe. With so much to discuss and look forward to, I hope to see you in Zürich.
