Banking 4.0 returns to Bucharest on 24-25 November with a bold new theme: „The shift from automation to autonomy in banking” and an Agentic AI Hackathon powered by Tremend

This year, Banking 4.0 international fintech conference is about moving beyond digitalization, towards intelligent, autonomous financial systems. It explores the shift from automation to autonomy in banking and asks how financial services will be redefined in the age of AI, Open Finance & Digital Assets.

What comes after digitalization?

For over a decade, the industry talked about digital transformation. While most banks were digitizing old systems, a different revolution quietly began driven by autonomous, reasoning AI, programmable infrastructure, and value created across networks rather than inside institutions.

„What happens when finance stops being operated and starts operating itself?” This is the question this Banking 4.0 edition is built around.” – said Nic Balaceanu, board member of RoFintech, institutional partner of Banking 4.0.

Elements of the new paradigm

Three structural shifts define the move from digital banking to intelligent, autonomous financial systems.

1- AI systems don’t just assist — they act

For the past 10–15 years, digital transformation has been the defining challenge for the banking industry. But while many institutions focused on digitizing legacy systems, a new revolution quietly emerged—driven by autonomous, reasoning AI agents capable of transforming how organizations think, act, and collaborate.

Today, AI and intelligent systems are reshaping decision-making, customer engagement, and the very fabric of modern banking. Agentic systems are evolving beyond tools into teammates that can reason, make decisions, and create value alongside humans.

Real impact, however, will require leaders to move beyond isolated pilots and fundamentally redesign how work is organized, decisions are made, and services are delivered from end to end. The key question is: How can we build AI-native institutions designed for trust, speed, and intelligence at scale?

Banking 4.0 will provide practical answers to that question through expert discussions, real-world use cases, and – for the first time – an Agentic AI Hackathon powered by Tremend Publicis Sapient, a digital business transformation company.

Something agentic is coming to Banking 4.0

The future of financial services is no longer something to be debated—it is already being built.

This autumn, Tremend, part of Publicis Sapient, is bringing an Agentic AI Hackathon to Banking 4.0, offering banks, fintechs, payments companies, and other financial institutions the opportunity to participate in a live innovation challenge focused on solving real business problems with Agentic AI.

The final challenge theme remains under wraps and will be revealed soon.

The mission, however, is clear: transform AI’s potential into a working minimum viable product (MVP).

“Throughout the event, participating teams will work in a dedicated space, supported by experts from Tremend Publicis Sapient, to design and build an Agentic AI-powered prototype that addresses a real business need. At the end of the competition, the top three teams will receive awards,” said Madalina Popa, Regional Director of Business Development at Tremend.

2. Infrastructure becomes programmable and real-time

For decades, banking infrastructure was built around batch processes, fixed operating hours, and manual controls.

Today, APIs, cloud-native architectures, real-time payment rails, AI, and programmable money are transforming infrastructure into an intelligent, always-on platform.

The winners of the next decade will not be those with the biggest balance sheets, but those with the most programmable, connected, and responsive infrastructure — capable of moving money, data, decisions, and compliance in real time.

3. Ecosystems replace institutions as the primary unit of value creation

This is one of the most powerful Banking 4.0 themes because it captures the shift from institution-centric banking to network-centric value creation.

For more than a century, banks competed as institutions. In the next decade, they will compete as participants in ecosystems.

Customers no longer seek products from individual providers; they seek outcomes delivered through networks of partners. The strategic question is no longer “How do we build everything ourselves?” but “What role will we play in the ecosystem that creates the most value?”

Quote from partners

CATALIN CRETU – General Manager, Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania, Slovenia at VISA Europe:

„Banking 4.0 is truly the place where all stakeholders in the payments ecosystem meet. I would like to congratulate you for bringing us together every year with more solutions, more stories that we share with each other, and more meetings.

We leave here with business leads and new contacts, whether from banks, fintechs, regulators from Romania and abroad, speakers, or researchers.

For us, it is a very important event because we not only present our latest solutions, but we also get to listen to all the people who come here, receive their feedback, and make new connections that drive new business. So, in a nutshell, I think Banking 4.0 is where innovation is grounded in reality, and that helps us move our business forward.”

MONIKA KANIA – Chief Revenue Officer at GFT Poland & CEE:

„Banking 4.0 is for me the kind of voice of the market gathering the leaders, gathering the experts, gathering the people who are very deep in technology but they are also very deep in banking.” 

DANIEL NICOLESCU – CEO SYMPHOPAY:
„The beauty of this event is the mix of people that are attending. You can have decision makers, innovative people and you can have partners across the industry in the same place. The outcome is that a lot of good ideas and even strong partnerships are coming after Banking 4.0, including in the case of Symphopay.”

GABRIELA NISTOR – Board Member Salt Bank – former Deputy CEO, Head of retail at Banca Transilvania
“There are people there who shape the industry and are building this industry. You can see what is happening and where the industry is heading. (…) Trends don’t set themselves. People set trends, and the people who set trends go to Banking 4.0.”

TOLGA BANYOCU – DEPUTY CEO GARANTI BBVA ROMANIA:
“Relationship starts. You exchange ideas, exchange solutions, exchange problems and then you meet new partners. Creates a lot of opportunities for everyone to attend. (…)

Banks are becoming technology companies, and this is a good start for all of us to meet under this umbrella to discuss how we can improve and become more technological companies, to create more customer value, with everyone in that room, everyone in that panel, everyone involved and how we can help each other. This is the biggest contribution for my case. That’s why I’m very glad to attend the event.”

FLORIAN TELEABA – Partner at KEARNEY:
“Every year it benefits from a great location, you get simply great topics to attend to speak about, great panels, roundtables, invitees from the entire region. I think it is the place to reconnect every year on the hottest topics that are happening in banking to openly see also what competition does to learn from the industry back.”

VALENTINA DRAGOMIR – COUNTRY MANAGER ROMANIA at EVROTRUST
“The most beautiful experience that we have. Very good networking. We started a very good collaboration that we succeeded to finalize the next year; actually, created the pipeline for the next year.”

Banking 4.0 — where innovation meets reality and industry leaders shape what’s next

Banking 4.0 brings together around 300 experts, innovators, and technology leaders from more than 20 countries, representing nearly 100 organizations across the financial ecosystem. Participants include traditional and digital banks, insurers, telecom operators, software developers, payment networks, card processors, infrastructure providers, consulting and law firms, regulators, and industry associations.

As AI systems become capable of acting autonomously, infrastructure grows increasingly programmable, and ecosystems emerge as the new engines of value creation, financial institutions face a defining question: What comes after digitalization?

Banking 4.0 is where that question is explored – and where practical answers take shape through debate, collaboration, and real-world innovation.

Mark your calendar for 24–25 November and join us at the InterContinental Athénée Palace Bucharest.