Futureproofing Fintech: Ready for What's Next

This year's theme reflected the moment we're all living through. Shifting geopolitics, trade disruptions, wars, and the rapid advance of AI are reshaping how businesses operate, how products are built, and how people find their footing in a rapidly changing world. Norway Fintech Festival 2026 set out to meet that uncertainty head-on - with ideas, conversations, and perspectives to help the industry navigate what's coming.

From Geopolitics to Football and Startup Growth

The festival opened with Jeremy Ghez, professor at HEC Paris, who challenged the audience to rethink Europe's place in the new global order. In a world that has shifted from multilateral cooperation to transactional deal-making, he argued that Europe's reputation for predictability and regulatory consistency, often dismissed as bureaucratic slowness, may actually be its greatest competitive advantage. For Norway, the question is: can stability become a platform to attract talent and capital in an era defined by volatility?

Norway Fintech Festival takes pride in thinking outside the normal bounds of finance and fintech. Day one featured a panel discussion with Brede Hangeland (player manager for the Norwegian football team) Therese Egeland (NHH), and Rune Garborg (Vipps) on building high-performing teams — a conversation that resonated well beyond sport.

The core argument: collective culture beats individual brilliance. Know your people, dream big, give honest feedback, and create the conditions for people to do their best work. Garborg brought it into the Vipps context, competing against Apple Pay and global big tech isn't easy, but passion for what you're building and genuine pride in your values goes a long way.

On day two of the festival, Matt Lerner, formerly of PayPal, delivered one of the most practical keynotes of the festival. His message: most startups don't have a growth problem, they have a focus problem. Talk to your customers. Experiment. Fail faster. This is perhaps not a new idea, but grounded in enough real examples that the room was taking notes (and pictures).

A Program Spanning the Full Width of Fintech

With 120 speakers and more than 60 sessions, there was a lot going on — and that was the point.

AI ran through the program like a live wire. Not as a buzzword, but as a genuine operational challenge that nearly every organisation in the room is grappling with. How do you deploy it responsibly in a regulated environment? What does it mean for your workforce and your risk profile? Speakers from DNB, Kantega, Noria, and Boost.ai brought grounded, practical perspectives - more "here's what we're learning" than "here's the future." Attendees also got to see AI inspirational pitches from AI companies like Crunched, Novem, Quantfolio, Bislab, and even NVIDIA.

Payments, digital identity, and financial crime all had strong tracks. Panagiotis Kriaris of Unzer kicked things off with a sharp keynote arguing that the old digital banking playbook is broken, before moderating a panel with leaders from Revolut, Vipps, and Klarna on where the new growth battlegrounds lie.

Signicat, Mobai, and the Norwegian Data Protection Authority worked through the EU Digital Identity framework, while Deloitte, Tieto Banktech and Strise tackled financial crime — a challenge that isn't getting any simpler.

Blockchain and digital assets, open banking, insurtech, wealth tech, and the regulatory horizon — DORA, PSD3, AI governance — all featured too. For founders and investors, there was a dedicated focus on what building and scaling in the Nordic ecosystem actually looks like right now, and what it takes to secure funding for startups in Norway and the Nordics.

Norway Fintech Festival Young: The Next Generation of Fintech

The festival kicked off on Tuesday morning with a social run through Bergen — open to students and festival-goers alike, and organised in collaboration with “run-fluencer” Hannah Stenersen. A great way to start the day, and proof that the best networking doesn't need to happen in a conference room.

From there, NFF Young took over - a free, half-day conference for students and young professionals. The program covered the future of banking, fintech, AI, and user experience, with speakers such as Erik Bohne (Astar), Marius Hauken (Heder Bank), Jenny Huse (influencer), Andreas Talseth (Revolut), Kinga Uthaug (Bulder), and Petter Haga (speaker, entrepreneur & entertainer).

Many of the festival partners set up stands, giving students a direct line to the people and companies shaping the industry. For anyone figuring out where to take their career, it's hard to think of a better place to be than this.

The Power of a Shared Ecosystem

The festival brought together startups, scaleups, established banks, investors, regulators, and global tech voices — and the value flows both ways. Partners get direct access to talent and ideas. Founders get in front of decision-makers and capital. Students at Norway Fintech Festival Young get a window into an industry that's actively hiring and changing fast - and in turn brought fresh perspectives that enriched the festival itself.

This kind of ecosystem doesn't happen by accident. It requires a hub at the centre — a connector that holds it together, builds trust across segments, and creates the conditions for collaboration. That's the role Finance Innovation plays. And it only works when its members actively contribute - sharing knowledge, opening doors, and not just asking "what does this do for me?" but "what can I contribute with?".

What the cluster has built over the years is genuinely unique. In a world where the race for talent, capital, and innovation is accelerating, that's worth protecting - and worth investing in.

See You in 2027!

Norway Fintech Festival returns to Bergen, 13–15 April 2027. We're already asking ourselves how we top this one...!