Kelli Keough, EVP at SoFi, takes the stage alongside Natalie Riso, Head of Startups & Partnerships at Rho, for a conversation exploring the balancing act between innovation, customer experience, and sustainable growth as fintech enters a new chapter.  

Keynote speaker:

Kelli Keough, EVP, Group Business Unit Leader for Spend, Invest, Protect and Save @ SoFi

Moderator:

Natalie Riso, Head of Startups & Partnerships @Rho

Stablecoins are moving from crypto experimentation to real financial infrastructure. This discussion dives into live use cases across cross-border payments, remittances, treasury, and neobank stacks, examines how regulation (including MiCA and the GENIUS Act) is shaping adoption, and explores what stablecoins mean for banks, monetary policy, and financial inclusion.

Moderator: Neha Narula, Director @ MIT Digital Currency Initiative

Panelists:

• Reena Verma: Vice President, Strategy @ The Clearing House

• Prat Vallabhaneni: Partner @ White & Case

• Adam Swartzbaugh: CEO @ Almond

• Caroline Hill: Senior Director of Global Policy and Regulatory Strategy @ Circle

From the rise of digital-first neobanks to the rapid adoption of AI inside legacy institutions, consumer banking is being rebuilt from the ground up. This panel explores how automation and data are transforming operations, sales, and customer experience - and what hyper-personalized, always-on banking will look like in the next decade. 

Moderator: Danielle Aviles Krueger, Head of Policy @ Plaid

Speakers:

• Monique Shivanandan, Former Chief Data & Analytics Officer @ HSBC

• Saptarshi Ganguly, Senior Partner @ McKinsey

• Baishi Wu, Director of Product Management @ Chime

What does it take to build credit where traditional systems don’t work? This panel explores how fintechs are extending lending to underserved populations and complex environments - from low-data contexts to politically and economically fragile markets - and the real-world impact, risks, and opportunities of building financial access at the frontier. 

Moderator: John Pitts, VP @ Affirm

Speakers:

• Arnoldo Gabaldon, CFO & Co-Founder @ Cashea

• Jonathan Goler, Co-Founder, EVP & Chief Risk Officer @ Propel

• Ettie Philitas, Global Head of Capital Markets @ Tala

• Jonathan Parker, Robert C. Merton Professor of Finance @ MIT Sloan

Arvind Purushotham, Global Head of Citi Ventures, is joined alongside Katy Nelson, Former Partner at a16z, for a dialogue exploring key fintech venture capital topics including the adoption of AI in financial services, embedded finance, and the role of banks in the future of financial services innovation. 

Speaker:

• Arvind Purushotham, Global Head @ Citi Ventures

Moderator:

• Katy Nelson, Former Partner @ a16z

This panel will explore how AI agents are beginning to participate directly in commerce, from discovering products to negotiating prices, authorizing payments, and completing purchases. Panelists will discuss how agent-driven shopping will reshape the e-commerce stack, merchant strategies, and consumer trust, and what it means when software, not humans, becomes the buyer. 

Moderator: Mike Storiale, SVP, Innovation, Payments, & AI @ Synchrony

Speakers:

• Phil Bruno, Chief Strategy & Growth Officer @ ACI Worldwide

• Pahal Patangia, Head of Global Industry Business Development, Payments @ NVIDIA

• Alex Godoy, Financial Partnerships @ Airwallex

• Sanchit Tiwari, Partner @ PwC Strategy&

The Cost of AI

• Manya Ghobadi, Founder & CEO @ Systalyze

AI in Private Equity

• Fadi Chehade, Founder & MP @ Ethos Capital

This fireside chat will explore how AI is reshaping the needs of small and medium-sized businesses - from AI-driven fraud prevention to payroll, credit, cash flow management, and trust in automated decision-making. Samant Nagpal (Head of Payments and Risk at Gusto) joins Vijay D’Silva (MIT Lecturer and Board Member at Worldpay and Moneycorp) to discuss how fintech platforms are evolving to deliver smarter, more integrated solutions while helping SMBs navigate an increasingly automated business landscape. 

Speakers:

• Samant Nagpal: Head of Payments and Risk @ Gusto

• Phil Bruno: Chief Strategy & Growth Officer @ ACI Worldwide

This panel will examine how fintech investing is evolving in the post-boom era, with VCs shifting from growth-at-all-costs to infrastructure, tooling, and AI-driven platforms. The discussion will cover where capital is flowing today - from payments and risk to compliance and fraud - and how AI and new financial “plumbing” are reshaping the financial services stack and the way institutions and consumers interact. 

Moderator: Kelly Shaw, Senior Vice President, Ventures @ Synchrony Ventures

Speakers:

• Frazer Anderson, Managing Director @ Link Ventures

• Michael DeAngelis, Executive Director, Fintech Strategy & Business Development @ JPMC

• Cristobal de Atucha, Principal @ Fintech Collective

• Abdul Abdirahman, Principal @ F-Prime

Seven startups compete for $25K in prize money

This panel will explore how AI and machine learning are transforming the role of the financial advisor - from manual portfolio management to high-tech, highly personalized financial curation at scale. Panelists will discuss how automation is reshaping workflows, how advisors can focus more on high-impact client moments, and how the industry is preparing for the massive intergenerational wealth transfer ahead. 

Moderator: Chris Blaine, Managing Director & Partner @ BCG

Speakers:

• Jay Megaro, Vice President, Head of Product & Strategy @ Fidelity Labs

• Sunil Abraham, Co-Founder & CEO @ AnchorZero

• Venu Palaparthi, Former COO @ DriveWealth

• Ben Haber, Co-Founder & CEO @ Monark