Europe’s Fintechs: Scaling Barriers and Growth Paths

Finextra and Visa Direct project the European fintech market will grow from $85.52 billion in 2025 to $94.14 billion in 2026. The estimate appears in material released ahead of Finextra’s 2026 State of Fintech in Europe report and an associated webinar on cross‑border expansion.

The webinar brings together industry figures including Olga Ovchinnikova, vice president and head of Visa Direct Europe, and moderator Scott Hamilton, a global payments and liquidity expert. The session is intended to examine strategies neobanks and fintechs in payments, wealth and lending use when expanding across multiple European markets.

Organisers identify three main barriers to scaling across Europe: fragmented national markets, differing regulation and uneven payments and banking infrastructure. Fragmentation forces firms to adapt products for different languages, payment habits and local distribution channels.

Regulatory variation covers licensing regimes, data protection rules and anti‑money‑laundering requirements. Those differences raise compliance costs and can slow product roll‑outs as companies enter additional countries.

Infrastructure differences affect the ability to offer consistent services. Some markets have fast settlement systems and broad open‑banking coverage; others rely on older systems or lack real‑time rails. Credit underwriting and identity verification practices also vary, creating challenges for lenders and wealth managers that need reliable cross‑country scoring and KYC processes.

The webinar agenda lists technology and partnership topics, including artificial intelligence, payments infrastructure upgrades and increased use of digital assets. Panelists will consider whether those elements can support repeatable cross‑border operations rather than one‑off pilots.

Current expansion approaches described by participants include hub‑and‑spoke legal and technology models, partnerships with incumbent banks, card schemes or payments networks to access local rails and channels, and white‑label or licensing deals to test markets without full regulatory entry.

Speakers are set to address where partnerships are most effective — for example using payment‑network capabilities for instant payouts or embedding services via established bank relationships — and the trade‑offs between building proprietary infrastructure and relying on third‑party platforms when entering multiple European markets.

Background material for the report cites data from Finch Capital and Finextra analysis showing continued investor interest and a projected rise in sector value. The webinar is part of Finextra’s reporting on the 2026 State of Fintech in Europe and aims to present the factors founders and executives should weigh when considering regional expansion.