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Fintech Forward 2026 returns for its 4th edition, bringing together leading voices from the global financial services and fintech ecosystem to explore the future of innovation, investment, and digital transformation. Hosted by the Bahrain Economic Development Board (Bahrain EDB) programmed by Forbes Middle East, and supported by the Central Bank of Bahrain and Bahrain Fintech Bay, Fintech Forward convenes industry leaders, policymakers, investors, and innovators from across the globe to discuss emerging trends, share insights, and foster collaboration that shapes the future of financial services. Through thought-provoking discussions, and networking opportunities, the event reinforces Bahrain’s position as a leading hub for fintech innovation in the region.
Why attend?
• Connect with industry experts, innovators, and thought leaders from around the world.
• Gain insights into the latest trends shaping financial services.
• Discover new investment, partnership, and business opportunities.
• Explore Bahrain’s thriving fintech ecosystem, supported by robust regulations and business-friendly environment.
• Be part of the conversation driving the future of finance.
Watch this page for the latest announcements, programme updates, and event highlights.
Financial centres are competing to become the operating layer for AI and tech-enabled finance. The jurisdictions best placed to lead will be those that pair institutional trust with the connectivity and resilience to scale it, across emerging fintech opportunities. This session sets out the macro forces driving that competition and draws on Bahrain's experience of building resilient financial infrastructure under global geopolitical and technological uncertainty.
Fintech is moving from the edge of financial services into the operating core of banks, payment companies, platforms and global institutions. As the sector matures, the focus is shifting from disruption to scale, resilience, regulation and long-term relevance. This panel explores how financial institutions, technology platforms and investors are responding as fintech becomes part of mainstream financial infrastructure, and what this means for competition, consolidation, partnerships and trust.
Stablecoins are moving from digital asset discussion to practical payment infrastructure. Regulated stablecoins could support a wide range of services, from cross-border transfers, merchant settlement and remittances to treasury flows, digital commerce and digital asset transactions. This session explores how stablecoin applications can connect safely with existing payment systems, banking rails, national payment infrastructure, compliance controls and customer protection frameworks.
Tokenization is no longer limited to asset issuance; it is beginning to affect the infrastructure banks use to process, settle and support digital financial services. As financial institutions prepare for programmable finance, panellists discuss the measures banks and market participants need to take across core banking systems to support digital securities, tokenized funds, deposits and bonds, and smart contract-enabled settlement flows.
Cross-border finance is being reshaped by real-time payment rails, digital assets, stablecoins, tokenized value and more interoperable payment networks. However, interoperability standards can either widen access for new entrants or create a barrier when systems are fragmented, expensive or difficult to access. What will it take to build faster, smarter and more trusted financial corridors that can support the next phase of regional and global growth?
Bahrain's financial future rests less on any single application and more on the infrastructure beneath it. Digital public infrastructure creates the conditions for secure access, faster onboarding, fintech scaling and regional interoperability, while reinforcing Bahrain's role as a trusted financial centre. Join this session to look beyond payments to the enabling layers being built across digital identity, data exchange and open finance, cloud-enabled banking, consent and trust frameworks and sovereign digital systems.
AI agents are moving from recommendation engines into financial workflows where they may initiate or support transactions. But who authorizes agentic payments, AI-assisted commerce or credit decision-making? Who is accountable when compliance agents and operational copilots act inside a regulated financial system? This session examines live and emerging case studies of autonomous agentic payments and AI-led transaction workflows to address whether responsibility and liability sit with the financial institution, model provider, technology vendor, platform or customer. Put another way: does the market need principles-based guidance or harder rules for AI-led financial activity?
As financial institutions automate more of their operating core, AI is being deployed across authentication, fraud detection, transaction monitoring, compliance checks, payment routing and back-office workflows. Join this discussion to learn how banks and fintechs are using AI in real-world deployments to improve control functions, reduce false declines, detect threats earlier and strengthen operational resilience without weakening regulatory oversight.
Innovation attracts capital only once investors trust the rules around it. This requires regulatory conditions that can move new financial infrastructure from early experimentation into credible, investable markets. What kinds of safeguards are needed around custody, settlement, disclosure and investor protection to give institutions the confidence to commit? Are these markets best served by flexible, principles-based guidance that can keep pace with change, or by firmer rules that offer certainty but less room to manoeuvre?
SME finance is moving from collateral-heavy lending towards data-led and platform-based credit infrastructure – offering a lifeline for SMEs and new entrants that lack traditional credit histories or loan security. This session explores how open banking, cashflow data, digital identity, AI-led credit models and micro-lending platforms can help lenders assess SMEs faster and expand their access to working capital. A key question for SME owners is: How can smarter data rails support small businesses that are often underserved by traditional lending models?
As banking, wealth management and technology continue to converge, financial institutions, fintechs and digital platforms are competing for the same customers, assets and data. This panel explores how they are adapting their business models, forming strategic partnerships and using technology to expand investor access, improve customer experience and stay competitive in a rapidly changing financial marketplace.
Digital identity and eKYC are becoming the trust layer for digital finance. Join this session to understand how banks, fintechs, insurers and wealth platforms can verify customers, businesses and digital interactions more securely, while preparing for a future where AI agents may act on behalf of people and companies. The session examines how identity, consent, fraud controls and compliance need to evolve as finance becomes more automated.
Scams, phishing, fake payment alerts, identity theft, social engineering and AI-enabled fraud are affecting confidence in banking, wallets, payments and fintech platforms. Digital finance cannot scale up if users do not trust the channels they are using. How can banks, regulators, payment companies, cybersecurity leaders and digital platforms work together to detect threats earlier and protect users?
Wealth management is expanding beyond traditional high-net-worth audiences. This session explores how digital advisory, private market access, AI-powered insights, tokenized investment products and hybrid wealth platforms are creating new opportunities for a wider range of affluent and next-generation investors.
As economies become more digital, AI-led and interconnected, insurance is evolving to cover new exposures across cyber risk, AI systems, data centres, cloud infrastructure, autonomous technologies, digital assets, smart cities, climate resilience and platform-based finance. What new kinds of protection can insurers, banks, regulators, technology companies and fintech platforms build to help businesses, SMEs and financial institutions scale up with greater confidence?
As financial services become faster, more connected and more dependent on external technology partners, banks need core systems that can operate in real time, integrate securely and scale up without disruption. This session explores how financial institutions are modernizing legacy platforms, moving workloads to the cloud, improving data architecture, strengthening API orchestration and building more resilient operating models. The discussion will consider how banks need to change internally so that new products, partnerships and infrastructure can move from pilots into secure, production-ready financial services.
Financial services are becoming faster, more connected and more shaped by intelligent infrastructure. For banks, fintechs and platforms, the challenge is not only to innovate, but to build models that can scale responsibly, remain commercially sustainable and adapt as the market changes. This closing conversation reflects on the major themes discussed across the two days, from AI-enabled operations and embedded finance to digital asset readiness, stronger unit economics and resilient infrastructure, and considers what kind of financial models are best positioned for the next decade.
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Inaugurated in November 2022 and owned by the Bahrain Tourism and Exhibitions Authority (BTEA), Exhibition World Bahrain (EWB) is the World’s Leading New Exhibition and Convention for 2023, the Middle East’s Leading largest MICE venue.
The venue offers a wide range and variety of leasable spaces for all types of events of all sizes, from large conventions and exhibitions to conferences and meetings, live entertainment performances, galas, celebrations, corporate functions and more.
Forbes Middle East is a licensee of Forbes Media and extends the Forbes brand of journalism across the Arab world. Forbes Middle East’s distinctive editorial style attracts a readership of Arab leaders, entrepreneurs, C-level executives, government officials and investors united by a belief in the spirit of free enterprise and entrepreneurial values.Across the region, Forbes Middle East sets the pace for preemptive business journalism. By uncovering trends and anticipating opportunities in the regional marketplace, each monthly issue brings top executives the information critical to their success – in both Arabic and English language editions. The magazine researches and publishes original rankings, based on methodologies set by Forbes Media.
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Forbes Middle East is a licensee of Forbes Media and extends the Forbes brand of journalism across the Arab world. Forbes Middle East’s distinctive editorial style attracts a readership of Arab leaders, entrepreneurs, C-level executives, government officials and investors united by a belief in the spirit of free enterprise and entrepreneurial values.Across the region, Forbes Middle East sets the pace for preemptive business journalism. By uncovering trends and anticipating opportunities in the regional marketplace, each monthly issue brings top executives the information critical to their success – in both Arabic and English language editions. The magazine researches and publishes original rankings, based on methodologies set by Forbes Media.
