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Author
Karthik Sivaprakasam
Senior Vice President – UK & Americas
06 minute read
05 Nov 2026
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Reflections from Money20/20 USA 2026

What four days in Las Vegas revealed about AI, stablecoins, core modernisation and the enduring value of human connection.

In brief

  • AI took centre stage. Agentic AI emerged as the dominant conversation, while traditional core and digital banking platforms had a comparatively limited presence in the conference.
  • Fintech Innovation is entering the real world. Agentic commerce and stablecoins are moving towards practical deployment, bringing trust, identity and accountability into sharper focus.
  • Business moved beyond the exhibition floor. Private meetings and curated networking increasingly shape the event experience, but the industry must preserve the value of spontaneous conversations.
  • Execution will define the winners. The next phase of financial services will reward institutions that integrate emerging technologies responsibly, not simply those that adopt them first.
Four days in Las Vegas: Beyond the technology showcase
Every October, the global financial services calendar builds towards one of its most anticipated gatherings: Money20/20 USA in Las Vegas. Held from 18–21 October at The Venetian, this year’s edition brought together approximately 11,000 attendees, representing more than 3,400 companies, with one in three attendees from the C-suite.
The official agenda was framed around four themes: borderless financial architecture, technology as the great equalizer, partnerships as the engine to scale, and the guardrails needed for a new world of financial innovation.
I came away with a few observations that go beyond the keynotes, announcements and demonstrations. Here are some notes from the event and the meetings – both planned and spontaneous from those packed four days.

AI moved from the conversation to the transaction

If there was one defining theme this year, it was agentic AI.
Last year, much of the conversation centred on what AI could potentially achieve. This year, the discussion was noticeably different. Across the exhibition floor and conference sessions, the emphasis had shifted towards real-world applications, autonomous decision-making and agents capable of initiating and completing actions. Demonstrations were increasingly giving way to practical examples of AI agents being used in commerce and business operations.
Agentic payments emerged as an especially interesting development.
However, the more interesting question is not whether an AI agent can complete a transaction. It is whether the financial ecosystem can establish who authorised it, what it is permitted to do, how its actions are audited and who assumes responsibility when something goes wrong.
Intelligence alone cannot establish trust. That will require a new layer of identity, authorisation, security and governance.
The modernisation conversation is returning to the core
One interesting observation was the relatively limited visibility of traditional core banking and digital banking platforms on the exhibition floor compared to years past. Yet, conversations with banking professionals suggested that core modernisation remains very much on institutional agendas.
Quite a few banks we spoke to were keen on using LLMs to understand, translate and re-engineer legacy COBOL-based core banking systems. AI-assisted modernisation could potentially reduce the complexity, cost and risk associated with conventional core transformation.
The opportunity is significant. Banks have invested decades in their existing infrastructure, and wholesale replacement is neither straightforward nor always desirable. If AI can accelerate modernisation while preserving the reliability of critical banking operations, it could change the economics of transformation.
The real opportunity, therefore, may not be another disruptive core replacement proposition, but a more intelligent and incremental approach to modernising the foundations of banking.
Stablecoins are becoming a financial infrastructure conversation
Stablecoins and tokenised deposits continued to feature prominently, but the nature of the discussion has matured. The emphasis was increasingly on cross-border payments, settlement, treasury operations and liquidity rather than the technology itself.
Several announcements reinforced this direction. Visa and Mesh expanded the conversation around spending stablecoin balances through Visa’s global acceptance network. Western Union selected Noah’s infrastructure for stablecoin-enabled international transfers, while Mastercard introduced Stablecoin Security to help financial institutions assess risks associated with blockchain-based transactions.
What I found particularly interesting was the convergence between traditional financial infrastructure and digital asset ecosystems. The question is no longer whether stablecoins have a role in financial services. It is where they create genuine economic value, how they integrate with existing payment infrastructure, and how institutions manage the associated risks.
Ultimately, customers are unlikely to care whether a payment moves through a traditional rail, a stablecoin or a tokenised deposit. They care about speed, cost, reliability and the ability to access their money. That is where the real value will be created.
The distance between innovation and enterprise adoption
Despite the enthusiasm around AI, my conversations with bankers revealed a more measured reality.
While AI is finding applications in loan origination and servicing, fraud management, marketing and customer engagement, there weren’t substantial production deployments of autonomous agents within critical banking workflows. Lots of good POCs and demos, but very little in production. This distinction matters.
As agentic systems become more capable, the industry will need to address identity verification, delegated authority, transaction limits, auditability and liability. These are not peripheral technology considerations; they are prerequisites for adoption.
The next competitive advantage may well belong to those who can make autonomous systems dependable, explainable and accountable.
The deals moved indoors. The ideas still need the corridor.
As conferences become increasingly expensive, organisations are understandably looking for measurable business outcomes from their participation. Pre-scheduled meetings, private meeting spaces, curated networking and executive engagements are seemed to take precedence over the action on the exhibition floor.
I noticed that several meetings were taking place in the Venetian’s restaurants, coffee shops and private meeting spaces rather than on the exhibition floor. There is, of course, considerable value in this approach. Focused conversations with decision-makers can accelerate relationships and move business discussions forward.
However, I believe something important gets lost in the process. Some of the most valuable interactions at industry gatherings are unplanned. A chance meeting, an introduction or an exchange of perspectives with someone from an entirely different part of the ecosystem can often trigger ideas that a scheduled meeting may never uncover.
As financial services become increasingly interconnected, these informal exchanges are just as important as structured business engagements. Technology may increasingly automate interactions, but relationships will continue to shape how the industry builds trust and creates opportunities.
MOC - Karthik Sir - Bottom banner (1)
Key Takeaways
My biggest takeaway from Vegas is that the next phase of financial services will be defined less by the technologies attracting attention and more by the institutions that can translate them into meaningful, sustainable outcomes.
Four priorities stand out:
  • Modernise with intelligence, not disruption. Use AI to accelerate legacy transformation, but retain the governance, resilience and accountability that banking demands.
  • Establish trust before scaling autonomy. Identity, authorisation, security and auditability must become foundational to agentic financial services.
  • Focus on outcomes, not underlying rails. Stablecoins and tokenised deposits should solve tangible problems in payments, settlement and liquidity rather than become technology propositions looking for a use case.
  • Build ecosystems, not isolated capabilities. Partnerships across banks, fintechs, technology providers and payment networks will be essential to scaling innovation.
The Final Take
Money20/20 remains one of the more valuable global platforms for understanding the direction of financial services. This year’s conversations reinforced that we are entering a new phase: one where AI is moving closer to financial transactions, digital assets are finding practical applications, and the foundations of traditional banking are being reconsidered. But perhaps the most important takeaway is that technology alone will not define the next generation of financial services. Trust, execution, integration and collaboration will.
As Money20/20 prepares to move to a new home at the Las Vegas Convention Centre in 2027, it will be interesting to see the new trends that might emerge and how innovation in financial services moves forward.
Karthik Sivaprakasam
Karthik Sivaprakasam
Senior Vice President – UK & Americas
Karthik Sivaprakasam is Senior Vice President for the Americas and the UK at i-exceed, where he leads product strategy, business development, client delivery and marketing. His work sits at the intersection of corporate banking, treasury management, payments, and digital banking, areas where he has advised and delivered for some of the most complex banking platforms across North America, Latin America, and Europe.
Before joining i-exceed as part of the founding team, Karthik held senior leadership roles at Oracle and i-flex solutions, overseeing core banking and global cash management deployments across the Americas.
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