2026 Canadian Finance Summit

Rewiring Canadian Finance: Canada’s investing landscape is being reshaped by higher-for-longer rates, new product wrappers, and AI-driven personalization. In this fireside, Som Seif will share what innovations actually matter (vs. hype), how Canadian portfolios evolve over the next decade, and the tradeoffs between broader access, transparency, and risk.

Stablecoins vs Real-Time Payments: Will Canada’s Real-Time Rail define the 24-hour economy, or will tokenised money become the preferred settlement layer? This debate focuses on liquidity economics, compliance programmability, cross-border efficiency, and finality. The future may not be either-or, but the commercial implications of each are profound.

Irrevocability, Disputes, and Risk in a 24/7 Payments System: Instant payments eliminate delay. They also eliminate hesitation. As money moves in seconds, disputes, fraud, and error escalate just as quickly. Who absorbs the losses? How do institutions redesign controls for a world where reversals are no longer routine?

Confirmation of Payee and the Infrastructure of Prevention: Fraud is shifting from brute force to persuasion. Confirmation of Payee, directory services, and identity verification tools promise protection, but friction kills conversion. This session examines how to verify without paralysing commerce, and who governs the data backbone of trust.

Rewriting the Rules of Credit: The traditional bureau score was built for a thinner-data economy. Today’s lenders deploy cash-flow analytics, alternative data, AI-assisted underwriting, and consortium intelligence. Speed has increased. So have losses in unexpected tiers. This panel examines how to expand access without underwriting illusion and how collections and recoveries are evolving in parallel.

Fraud in the Age of Generative AI: Deepfake voices, synthetic identities, and automated social engineering are industrialising fraud. At the same time, AI-driven defence promises detection at machine speed. This session explores the AI-versus-AI arms race and the case for real-time, cross-institution intelligence sharing.

Where AI Is Actually Delivering ROI: Artificial intelligence is replacing manual layers across servicing, disputes, underwriting, compliance review, and fraud operations. The hype cycle has passed. The economics remain. This panel examines where AI is reducing cost and risk, where it is failing, and what it takes to move from pilot to production.

Model Risk and Governance in an AI-Native Institution: AI systems now generate decisions, escalate cases, and draft communications. Regulators are sharpening expectations around explainability, third-party model oversight, and documentation. Boards are asking new questions. What does defensible AI governance look like in practice?

Embedded Finance and the Fight for Distribution: Financial services increasingly appear inside platforms that are not banks. Embedded lending, cards, and payments promise scale, but margins compress and ownership blurs. Who owns the customer? Who carries the risk? And does embedded finance create distribution leverage or channel conflict?

The Quiet Reinvention of Treasury: Corporate treasury is being rebuilt around APIs, virtual accounts, and 24/7 liquidity tools. Real-time settlement and programmable money are collapsing the distinction between payments and cash management. The back office is becoming strategic.

Scaling Canadian Finance Beyond Canada: Canada is an exceptional proving ground but rarely the final market. Scaling requires disciplined metrics, partner distribution, regulatory fluency, and often acquisition. This closing address examines what it takes to build globally competitive financial institutions without losing the advantages of being Canadian.