Fathom4sight at the Canada Fintech Forum: Session Recap
September 15, 2026 – On Day 1 of the Canada Fintech Forum, Fathom4sight’s Founder & CEO Surinderjit Kaur Bhatti (Jeet) took the stage to explore the state of the industry and the forces shaping what comes next.
The session, “Future of Banking and Financial Services: It’s Closer Than You Think,” looked at a shift happening across the industry: AI, payments, open banking, digital assets and other areas of financial innovation are often discussed separately, but their convergence has much bigger implications for how financial services will operate.
The Competitive Landscape Is Changing
Canada’s financial services market is becoming increasingly complex. Thousands of FinTechs are competing directly with or enabling incumbent financial institutions, while adjacent companies are embedding financial services into the platforms and experiences customers already use.
That means banks are no longer competing only with banks, and FinTechs are no longer competing only with other FinTechs.
Jeet highlighted companies such as Shopify, Amazon, Apple, Google, Uber and OpenAI as examples of players that can insert themselves into important financial moments without becoming traditional banks themselves.
Shopify is one example of how far that can extend. What begins with commerce can move into payments, lending and other financial services, allowing financial products to exist directly within the customer's existing workflow.
AI Could Change Where the Financial Relationship Begins
The customer journey is shifting too. Rather than automatically starting with a bank, customers can begin through search, platforms, marketplaces, apps and, increasingly, AI assistants.
As AI becomes more involved in helping consumers make financial decisions, it could increasingly sit between the customer and the financial institution. Jeet framed this as “AI becomes the interface,” raising an important question for financial institutions: Are you visible to the customer, or only to the agent?
Canada’s Financial Infrastructure Is Changing at the Same Time
These shifts are happening alongside major changes to Canada's financial infrastructure.
Real-time payments, open banking, the Retail Payment Activities Act, stablecoins and changes to banking licence approvals were highlighted as five layers being redesigned together. The significance is in their combined effect: as access to financial infrastructure expands, control - and where value is created - can shift as well.
The activity across Canadian FinTech provides another signal of that change. In 2026 YTD, 46 Canadian FinTechs raised C$1.85 billion, 30 FI-FinTech partnerships were announced, and 26 FinTech acquisitions were announced.
Looking Beyond the Individual Trends
The bigger takeaway from the session was not any single technology or trend. It was the need to understand how these changes connect.
As customer behaviour changes, new infrastructure emerges and the interface between consumers and financial services shifts, the risk for financial institutions is not necessarily sudden disruption. It is the gradual loss of relevance, losing control of the interface, engagement moment, advice layer, data signal and ultimately the point where value is captured.
As Jeet closed the session: the future will reward institutions that act structurally, not incrementally.
Thank you to everyone who joined us at the Canada Fintech Forum, and to Finance Montréal for bringing everyone together for another great event. Always valuable to share what we're seeing in the market and hear perspectives from across the industry!
About Fathom4sight
Fathom4sight is a Toronto-based FinTech and Financial Innovation Knowledge-as-a-Service firm. Its clients include the Big Six Canadian Banks, Top Credit Unions, Insurance Companies, Crown Corporations, Global FinTechs, and the Big Four consultancies. Through market intelligence platform, and strategic advisory, Fathom4sight empowers organizations to anticipate disruption and accelerate innovation.
Reach out at - hello@fathom4sight.com
