The financial services industry is entering a period where technology, regulation, risk management, and customer expectations are converging at an unprecedented scale. Against this backdrop, Global Fintech Fest 2026 brings together leaders from across the global financial ecosystem to discuss how emerging technologies can create trusted, connected, and inclusive financial systems.
GFF 2026 is being held from 8 to 11 September 2026 in Mumbai, with the main conference and exhibition taking place at Jio World Centre and Trident BKC, bringing together policymakers, regulators, financial institutions, technology companies, fintechs, startups, and investors to discuss the future of finance.
What Is Global Fintech Fest?
Global Fintech Fest is a major platform for conversations around fintech, financial innovation, and the future of financial services, organised by the Payments Council of India and the Fintech Convergence Council of the Internet and Mobile Association of India.
- Plenary sessions and keynotes
- Thematic discussions
- Industry panels
- Startup showcases
- Technology and fintech exhibitions
- Networking and leadership engagements
The official GFF platform currently lists more than 1,000 speakers, reflecting the breadth of participation across government, regulation, banking, technology, and fintech.
GFF 2026 Theme and Technology Pillars
The central theme of GFF 2026 is Potential to Impact, Trusted, Connected, Global Systems for Inclusive Finance, reflecting a key question facing the financial sector, how emerging technologies can move beyond experimentation and create practical, scalable, and trusted outcomes. GFF 2026 places particular emphasis on three technology pillars that will shape the sector’s direction over the next several years.
- Agentic AI, a shift from traditional automation toward systems capable of coordinating workflows, supporting decisions, and taking actions within defined governance frameworks, creating opportunities across customer service, risk monitoring, fraud prevention, compliance, credit processes, and operational workflows, while raising questions around accountability, model risk, human oversight, and data governance
- Tokenisation, focused on transforming assets and value into programmable digital units, with implications for capital markets, payments, ownership, settlement, and access to financial assets, covering digital assets, programmable finance, fractional ownership, and interoperable financial infrastructure
- Quantum technology, a longer term shift in financial computation and security, with potential applications in advanced optimisation, complex financial modelling, risk analysis, and quantum-safe cybersecurity, requiring institutions to prepare for changes in both cybersecurity and computational capability
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Key Areas of Discussion at GFF 2026
Beyond the three headline technologies, GFF 2026 covers a broad range of issues affecting the financial ecosystem, with the official thematic framework spanning payments and lending, banking and financial institutions, digital public infrastructure, AI, cybersecurity, data governance, customer behaviour, and rural finance.
- Artificial Intelligence and Financial Services, with discussion centred on the movement from AI experimentation to enterprise scale implementation, and how AI can improve productivity, customer experience, and risk monitoring while maintaining appropriate controls
- Digital Payments and Financial Infrastructure, covering real time payments, cross border transactions, interoperability, payment security, and trust in the next generation of financial infrastructure
- Banking and Financial Institutions, examining how banks can balance innovation, customer experience, risk management, and regulatory compliance together
- Lending and Credit, covering digital lending, alternative underwriting models, data driven credit assessment, and intelligent risk monitoring for banks, NBFCs, and fintech companies
- Cybersecurity and Digital Trust, addressing cyber threats, data protection, cloud dependency, third party technology risk, and digital identity risks
- Financial Inclusion, examining how digital infrastructure can expand access for individuals, MSMEs, and underserved communities while creating new requirements around customer protection and responsible innovation
Why GFF 2026 Matters for the BFSI Sector
The significance of GFF extends well beyond fintech companies. For banks, NBFCs, insurance companies, and other financial institutions, the discussions have direct implications for business strategy, risk management, technology governance, and workforce capabilities.
- The convergence of AI, digital infrastructure, payments, tokenisation, and advanced computing means BFSI professionals increasingly need to understand both financial concepts and emerging technologies
- This creates a capability requirement spanning risk management, compliance, internal audit, cybersecurity, credit, fraud risk management, technology, operations, digital transformation, and leadership
- The future BFSI professional will increasingly need to connect business, technology, risk, and governance rather than operate within a single functional boundary
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GFF 2026: A Platform for Industry Collaboration
The scale of participation at GFF demonstrates the growing importance of collaboration between regulators, financial institutions, fintech companies, and technology providers. The speaker lineup includes senior policymakers and financial sector leaders, including representatives from the Government of India, Reserve Bank of India, Securities and Exchange Board of India, International Financial Services Centres Authority, Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority, and global institutions, alongside opportunities for networking and leadership engagement across the financial ecosystem.
RMAI at Global Fintech Fest 2026
Risk Management Association of India (RMAI) is attending Global Fintech Fest 2026 in Mumbai.
- RMAI’s participation provides an opportunity to engage with the latest developments across fintech, AI, risk management, cybersecurity, digital finance, compliance, and emerging financial technologies
- RMAI will be closely observing industry discussions, emerging risk themes, and capability requirements relevant to banks, NBFCs, insurers, fintechs, and BFSI professionals
- Insights from GFF 2026 will contribute to RMAI’s ongoing efforts in professional learning, industry knowledge, risk management capability development, and BFSI focused training
Conclusion
As financial services continue to integrate technology with risk and governance, platforms such as Global Fintech Fest provide an important opportunity to understand where the industry is heading and what capabilities organisations and professionals will need for the future. RMAI looks forward to being part of the Global Fintech Fest 2026 conversations and bringing relevant insights from the event to the wider BFSI community.
Build This Capability with RMAI
The Online Course on AI and Emerging Technologies in Banking covers AI governance, agentic AI applications, and emerging technology risk directly relevant to GFF 2026’s core themes. The Online Course on Cyber Security and Technology Risk Management in Banking builds the technology and cybersecurity risk capability BFSI professionals need as digital finance continues to converge with risk and governance.
