Nordic Fintech Summit

About this event

Nordic pioneering spirit on full display at decade-old fintech summit

*From AI-powered lending to embedded finance, industry leaders chart the course for the region's financial future*

The Nordic Fintech Summit marked its milestone tenth year with a powerful showcase of the region's collaborative innovation ecosystem, bringing together hundreds of executives, entrepreneurs, regulators, and thought leaders at Helsinki's Wanha Satama. The event highlighted how Nordic countries are leveraging their technological expertise and cooperative spirit to compete globally in an industry undergoing rapid transformation.

The decade of fintech: From infrastructure to AI revolution

In their opening remarks, Ola Sundell and Janne Salminen of Fintech Farm reflected on the evolution of fintech over the past decade, emphasizing that despite all the technological changes, "The fundamental you always have to fall back on is strategy."

The early years of fintech focused heavily on building infrastructure, creating the foundation for today's innovations. Now, with artificial intelligence accelerating the rate of change, industry leaders anticipate an even more transformative landscape by 2035.

This sentiment was echoed by Stockholm Fintech's Love Dager, who presented the first Nordic Fintech Ecosystem "Across and Beyond" Award, highlighting what he called "the Nordic secret sauce" - the balance of competition and cooperation that enables these small high-tech countries to innovate locally while uniting to compete globally.

Security and digital trust in an era of accelerating change

Member of Parliament Jarno Limnéll delivered a sobering assessment of today's security landscape, noting that "There are weeks when decades happen—this is our moment." He emphasized that as warfare domains expand beyond traditional spheres to potentially include the human mind, trusted partnerships sharing cultural understanding become fundamental for effective cooperation in security and technology development.

The theme of trust resonated throughout the summit, with speakers highlighting how the banking industry must balance technological advancement with maintaining customer confidence. As Barry de Leeuw from Backbase provocatively asked during his presentation on maximizing customer lifetime value through AI, "Are you just processing transactions or building relationships that last a lifetime?"

Nordic payments innovation takes center stage

A significant focus of the summit was the transformation of payment systems, with discussions highlighting the region's leadership in developing new payment rails and digital wallet solutions.

Liisa Kanniainen from Nordea outlined how payments are undergoing a paradigm shift driven by geopolitical factors pushing Europe toward account-to-account instant payments and digital euro adoption. The growing ecosystem of local and pan-European schemes like Bismarck, CEIBS, Banco Mat, and EPI is fostering greater interoperability.

In a dynamic panel discussion on the future of digital wallets, experts from Nordea, IN Groupe, and DNB explained how wallets are evolving beyond payments to become platforms for consumers' daily lives. As one panelist noted, "Wallets are becoming platforms for consumers' daily lives, integrating payments, identity, and value-added services."

The rise of embedded finance transforms banking models

Perhaps the most discussed trend at the summit was embedded finance - the integration of financial services directly into non-financial platforms and customer journeys.

Danske Bank's Christie Holm Kristensen delivered a compelling opening keynote on embedding financial services within ERPs, emphasizing that "Technology is no longer the hero; it is people." She explained how businesses must focus on serving customers through real-time data, trusted APIs, and collaboration to navigate extreme market changes.

In a provocative strategy talk on banking-as-a-service, Lars Markull from Embedded Finance Review posed the question of whether every bank should launch BaaS, concluding that such decisions involve fundamental choices about future infrastructure, business models, and market relevance.

The practical applications of embedded finance were demonstrated through case studies like Wolt's merchant financing program. Anniina Heinonen, Managing Director of Payments at Wolt, explained how they transformed their platform to provide working capital to small merchants, noting that "The biggest problem is that SMBs can't grow because they can't access financing."

AI's transformative impact across the financial sector

Artificial intelligence emerged as a cross-cutting theme, with presentations and panels exploring its application in lending, risk management, customer service, and compliance.

Darko Popovic from Multitude explained how they had invested over 4,000 hours in AI reskilling for their 800 employees, resulting in remarkable efficiency gains. Their AI assistants now handle around 80% of customer service queries with a 93% satisfaction score, while also generating 30% of their IT code.

In a session on AI in lending, Petri Nikkilä from Openbank & Santander emphasized that "The greatest potential of AI isn't just in improving productivity or customer service, but in building new revenue models and transforming entire ecosystems by becoming a trusted partner in agentic commerce."

Preparing for a digital future with geopolitical complexities

The summit closed with forward-looking perspectives on how the Nordic fintech ecosystem should position itself amid growing geopolitical tensions and technological disruption.

Marine Krasovska from the Bank of Latvia delivered a compelling closing address, stressing that "Our new reality is just a default setting, like on your phone—it is here to stay. Resilience alone is not enough; we must build long-term competitive edge where security, availability, and fintech leadership are in place to compete as Europe."

Deutsche Bank's Ramesh Gopal compared fintech to Batman in his keynote on credit risk modeling during global trade wars: "Fintech is the Batman for credit risk: fast, intelligent, and equipped with powerful tools." He emphasized that only by being "adaptfully adept and adeptly adaptful" can the industry master fintech to overcome challenges.

As the Nordic Fintech Summit celebrated its first decade, the event demonstrated that the region's collaborative approach to innovation continues to yield results in an increasingly complex global financial landscape. With its emphasis on trust, customer-centricity, and technological expertise, the Nordic fintech ecosystem appears well-positioned to maintain its influence as financial services enter a new era of embedded, AI-powered transformation.