January has brought renewed energy across all our client campaigns. We’ve been focused on sharing funding announcements, supporting product launches, and preparing for a busy event season alongside our clients. This follows the closing of WBR’s Equity Leaders Summit in Miami this week, chaired by our CEO, Julia Streets, MBE, with FIA Boca, the Investment Association’s EmTech Global Conference and the FIX EMEA London event just around the corner.
Earlier this year, we took time to speak with several clients about their reflections on 2025 and their expectations for 2026. Highlights from a few of these conversations are captured in the videos below.
From a thematic perspective, we continue to step back and assess the bigger picture. In our blogs, we explore the industry developments affecting our clients, the regulatory priorities shaping our industry, and the global fintech funding landscape. Alongside this, we are pleased to share a first piece from our new Deputy CEO, Ian Stirling, examining the current state of the digital assets market and what 2026 may hold.
On the coaching front, we are looking ahead to our next collaboration with the Investment Association’s Engine accelerator programme. As proud mentors and long-standing supporters (this year is our 6th year of working with IA Engine), we will once again be delivering pitch coaching for the incoming cohort.
As always, if you have any questions about what we do for our clients, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
We look forward to hearing from you, and in the meantime, we hope you find the insights below of interest.
Kind Regards,
Sybille Mueller, Director
Our Deputy CEO, Ian Stirling looks into how 2026 is the year digital assets becomes “boring” and why this is better for business. He explores how new global regulations are transforming speculative volatility into the reliable, structural infrastructure required for professional finance. From the UK’s landmark property laws to US custodial shifts, Ian explains why the era of “wild west” experimentation has been replaced by the high-stakes reality of institutional execution.
2026 is shaping up to be the year of infrastructure – either defining or implementing it. From incorporating AI into workflows, to modernising the industry’s plumbing to meet T+1 deadlines, the consolidated tapes, the rise of retail trading and the popularity of ATSes, the technology infrastructure is set for an overhaul. We share this and more on the fintech funding landscape and 2026 opportunities in our latest blog.
Global fintech investment rebounded in 2025, rising 21% to $53 billion, with the UK retaining its position as the second-largest market behind the US. Our Director, Sybille Mueller, shares the key takeaways from the Innovate Finance Panel discussion on the fintech investment landscape and some of the key highlights of the report, including the scale-up funding gap, the routes to exit and anticipated areas of focus for 2026.
We’ve watched AI accelerate from experimentation to integration, quietly reshaping workflows, roles, and expectations across every industry and every role. And yet, amid all the technological noise, one truth is becoming increasingly clear: the skills that will define the future of work are the ones AI simply cannot learn. Our CEO, Julia Streets, MBE, shared her thoughts on this with CityAM.
Institutional appetite for digital assets is here to stay, but operational challenges are still creating obstacles for traditional finance firms looking to enter these markets. The latest report from our friends at Acuiti looks at Navigating the Path to Crypto: A Guide for TradFi Firms. The report is based on a survey of firms that have made the transition from TradFi to crypto, and provides actionable insights into how traditional firms can best enter the market for digital assets trading, covering a range of areas from custody to liquidity to the front office technology. Download the report here.
Stephan Dreyer, Managing Director of the Association of National Numbering Agencies,reflects on the advancement of standards, key milestones from 2025, and the priorities for 2026, including the development of ISO standards, driving membership growth, and fostering the adoption of standards across new use cases.
Paul Humphrey, CEO of BMLL, talks to us about the game-changing year BMLL had in 2025 and areas of focus for 2026. Following the acquisition by Nordic Capital, BMLL now has a partner at its side that will accelerate its growth, team expansion, data coverage, product development and global footprint.
Somerset Pheasant, Chief Strategy Officer at Droit, reflects on the defining moments of 2025 and shares what lies ahead for the industry in 2026. The discussions cover the emergence of a ‘shift left’ mindset, the regulatory horizon, AI and auditability, Droit’s global expansion and commitment to industry collaborations.
Ben Parker, Co-Founder and COO of InTick, shares updates on InTick’s momentum in 2025 and the ambitions driving their 2026 roadmap. The conversation explores network expansion, strategic growth and market-leading functionality, and how InTick is reshaping the listed derivatives block trading landscape.
Tonight, we will be attending the launch of the second edition of ‘Founders Unfiltered’, a collaboration between Ninety Two Ventures, Sam Shaw Media, EY and Innovate Finance, sharing insights from leaders of UK fintech startups about people and talent. The event panel will discuss the findings of the most recent report and explore how UK fintech founders are using technology to improve how they find, retain and nurture their teams. Details about the event can be found here.
Industry analysis
Gartner forecasts that worldwide AI spending will reach $2.52 trillion in 2026, marking a 44% year-on-year increase driven largely by a surge in investment for foundational infrastructure. This growth suggests a shift towards maturity as organisations move past speculative projects, with many enterprises now favouring integrated solutions from established software providers to ensure more predictable returns.
Regulation
The Financial Conduct Authority has initiated a comprehensive review of how advances in AI transform retail financial services, focusing on consumer protection and market integrity. The ‘Mills Review’, which includes a Call for Input, will inform whether existing principle-based regulations are sufficient as AI becomes embedded in banking and insurance.
The Treasury Committee has urged the Financial Conduct Authority to issue comprehensive guidance by the end of 2026 to clarify how existing consumer protection and accountability rules apply to artificial intelligence. While the regulator maintains that current frameworks like the Consumer Duty are sufficient, the report recommends stricter deadlines for stress testing and the formal designation of major AI providers as critical third parties to mitigate systemic risks.
The European Commission progressed its Code of Practice for the marking and labelling of AI-generated content, aiming to enforce machine-readable watermarks for synthetic media. Signatories of the code will be required to provide publicly available detectors and maintain compliance frameworks to prevent AI-driven misinformation under the mighty EU AI Act.
New pricing model and age safeguards come to ChatGPT
ChatGPT Go was also launched by Open AI, offering a lower, more accessible pricing plan, allowing more document uploads and image generation requests, with a larger context window than its free cousin. In addition, as the AI giant prepares to allow adult content on its platforms, the company rolled out age prediction features, which will detect where an account is held by a minor and automatically restrict access.
The AI arms race reaches healthcare
OpenAI introduced ChatGPT Health, a secure tool developed with physicians. Just days later, Anthropic launched Claude for Healthcare, an enterprise-oriented solution designed for clinical workflows, alongside the breakout success of “Claude Code.” Both platforms allow users to connect medical records, wearable tech and wellness apps to the AIs for data-driven health insights.
AI in consumer retail and payments
Google launched the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) for AI Agents – an open-standard protocol designed to allow AI agents to work together across the retail shopping journey from discovery to checkout. This infrastructure move aims to facilitate direct AI-powered transactions in Search and Gemini, to create an end-to-end ‘personal AI shopper’ for consumers.
PayPal announced an agreement to acquire Israeli fintech Cymbio to enhance its “agent-ready” solutions, allowing merchants to accept payments directly on AI surfaces. This acquisition integrates PayPal’s checkout into platforms like Microsoft Copilot and Perplexity, positioning PayPal as the primary financial layer for AI agents.
