How European fintechs can scale across fragmented markets

Finextra, in partnership with Visa Direct, will host an upcoming webinar tied to Finextra’s 2026 State of Fintech in Europe report to examine how neobanks and fintechs in payments, wealth and lending can expand across European markets.

The session will include Olga Ovchinnikova, vice president and head of Visa Direct Europe. Scott Hamilton, a global payments and liquidity expert, will serve as moderator. The webinar is presented as part of the research roll-out for Finextra’s 2026 report.

Research cited in the report projects the European fintech market to grow from $85.52 billion in 2025 to $94.14 billion in 2026, according to Finch Capital. The sector has attracted continued investor interest and has shown relative resilience during recent market volatility.

Speakers will discuss the main barriers to cross-border expansion. Organizers point to a patchwork of national regulations, inconsistent payments and settlement infrastructure across countries, and differing consumer and business practices. The impact varies by sector: payments firms must adapt to local payments rails and settlement systems; wealth platforms face different licensing and investor-protection rules; lenders encounter varied credit reporting, data access and local underwriting standards.

The webinar will also cover how technology and infrastructure changes are affecting product development and market entry. Topics on the agenda include payments infrastructure upgrades, use of artificial intelligence for underwriting and customer service, and the growing use of digital assets. The session will consider whether these technical changes can be applied to repeatable expansion approaches across multiple jurisdictions.

Panelists will address partnership strategies used to manage regulatory and market fragmentation. Examples to be discussed include working with incumbent banks for distribution and compliance support, integrating with local payment networks to access settlement rails, and forming alliances with data providers to improve credit decisioning. The discussion will consider how these partnerships affect time-to-market and cost of entry in new countries.

The webinar is intended as a forum for practitioners to compare expansion playbooks, share lessons from cross-border launches and assess how regulatory developments and technology trends affect next-stage growth for European fintech firms.