Scaling fintech across Europe: webinar to tackle barriers

Finextra and Visa Direct will host a webinar framed around Finextra’s upcoming 2026 State of Fintech in Europe report. The online session will bring industry leaders together to examine barriers and opportunities for fintech expansion across European markets.

The panel includes Olga Ovchinnikova, vice president and head of Visa Direct Europe, and Benjamin Kruk, executive director and global head of product and client solutions at Bitpanda Enterprise. Scott Hamilton, a global payments and liquidity expert and contributing editor at Finextra, will moderate the discussion.

Speakers will address market fragmentation, differing national regulations and uneven payments and digital infrastructure that affect cross-border growth. The session will distinguish the operational and compliance challenges facing neobanks from those affecting fintechs focused on payments, wealth management and lending.

Panelists will consider how firms choose an expansion strategy for multiple markets. Topics set for discussion include when to build in-house capabilities, when to form commercial and technical partnerships, and how alliances with incumbents, payment networks and regional platform providers can support market entry and access to liquidity.

The webinar will review new technologies and infrastructure changes, including the use of artificial intelligence, upgrades to payments rails and the growing adoption of digital assets. The conversation will focus on concrete ways these technologies affect product design, risk management and customer servicing in multi-market rollouts.

Industry data cited for the session note a projected increase in the European fintech market from $85.52 billion in 2025 to $94.14 billion in 2026, according to Finch Capital. Panelists will discuss how that market growth may or may not translate into cross-border scale for individual companies.

Interested parties can register for the Finextra webinar hosted in association with Visa Direct to hear the panel’s perspectives on scaling fintech in Europe for 2026 and the near-term outlook for the sector.