In Q3 2025, venture funding rebounded to $97 billion, but the rebound came with a clause: 46% of that money went into AI, and much of the rest concentrated in $100M+ rounds. The recovery is in the numbers — capital returned, but it did so narrowly, and the bar is much higher. That is the backdrop for fintech PR in 2026.
It may look like “VC is back,” yet we think the better frame is “VC is selective.” This cycle rewards teams with disciplined operations and claims they can defend under diligence. In 2026, visibility is earned through proof — so the pitch that wins is the one that survives scrutiny.
This report spotlights what’s changing in the market, how it raises the bar for fintech PR, and what leaders can do to protect credibility while sustaining growth.
Market Conditions Fintech Faces in 2026
In 2026, capital has returned, yet attention is getting harder to capture. The recovery in 2025 was driven by a small set of very large deals, led primarily by AI. This year, that concentration affects how fintechs are judged, as execution discipline and governance directly influence fundraising, partnerships, and customer acquisition.
Regionally, the pace remains uneven. Europe faces softer venture activity amid macro uncertainty and constrained liquidity pathways, so selectivity is tighter. India has been gaining momentum, including in fintech, as investors tend to ensure support for scalable platforms. The UK continues to stand out in Europe, with stronger early-stage activity relative to many peers.
For the PR industry, this means that a single global narrative rarely performs well across different locations in 2026. Local proof points, regulatory context, and channel mix must follow the region’s risk appetite and buyer priorities.
Key Fintech PR Trends 2026
Fintech communication in 2026 runs on proof. The trends below explain what’s driving this and how teams can adapt their execution strategies to be visible and trusted.
AI Transparency Becomes a Reputation Requirement
What’s Happening Right Now
AI agents are moving into core fintech workflows, such as compliance checks, transaction monitoring, fraud detection, and customer support.
Recent industry research suggests that over 50% of fintech companies already use AI agents in production, and many have deployed ten or more across their systems. Once automation starts affecting customer outcomes or risk decisions, the AI layer becomes visible to stakeholders, even when it operates behind the interface.
What It Changes for Fintech PR
AI stops being a feature story and becomes a trust one. The question isn’t “what can your AI do?” anymore — right now it’s “what happens when it's wrong, and who owns that?” And that switch lands first in external conversations — media, partners, and enterprise diligence — so communications teams are forced to answer three questions early:
Where exactly is AI used?
Who is accountable when it fails?
What safeguards prevent silent errors, bias, or runaway automation?
If these answers are vague, AI creates friction, which reveals itself in more scepticism during media conversations, longer enterprise sales cycles, and tougher partner diligence.
How to Apply It
Make ownership visible. Name who owns the AI workflow, who approves changes, who can override outputs, and who leads escalation during incidents.
Describe controls you can stand behind. Explain, at a safe level of detail, how you monitor performance, detect drift, test updates, and handle edge cases. Avoid “AI-powered” claims unless you can transparently explain the mechanism behind them.
Prepare an “AI Trust Pack.” One page that sales, PR, and leadership can reuse, e.g. scope, accountability, safeguards, incident response posture, and a short Q&A for buyers and media.
In 2026, fintech teams should talk about AI the way they talk about risk, with defined boundaries, named owners, and controls they can prove.
Partnerships Become a Credibility Multiplier
What’s Happening Right Now
Partnerships are playing a larger role in how fintech builds reach and legitimacy because distribution primarily runs through ecosystems. They include platforms, SaaS stacks, marketplaces, and intermediaries that already have user trust. Nielsen, for example, reports that 88% of respondents trust recommendations from people they know more than any other channel. That is why third-party distribution and partner endorsement carry more weight than standalone claims.
What It Changes for Fintech PR
Partnership communications become a credibility shortcut. In 2026, the strongest partnership stories read as proof that the product is real and works. They show the product is already embedded in a workflow people use, and that a credible counterparty is willing to attach its name — and operating model — to the outcome. That’s why ecosystem narratives tend to perform better in diligence-heavy cycles than standalone claims.
How to Apply It
Build the partnership story around “shared reality.”
Start from the user journey, only then the press release. Describe where the fintech appears inside the partner’s flow (checkout, payouts, onboarding, invoice, risk checks). If readers cannot picture the touchpoint, the partnership will not feel real.
Use a “before/after” proof frame. One simple comparison beats broad promises: before the integration vs after it. Speed, approval rate, fraud rate, manual steps removed, time-to-cash — pick one and make it concrete.
Make the operating model explicit (without legalese). Partnerships trigger a silent question: “Who is on the hook?” Add a plain-English line on roles, who supports users, who handles compliance checks, and what happens when something breaks.
These days, partnerships work best when PR makes integration and shared accountability visible. In an ecosystem-first market, credibility comes from showing where you are in the workflow, what improves, and how the partnership performs under stress.
Customer Experience is the Key Retention Driver
What’s Happening Right Now
Customer experience (CX) is now a key driver of retention in financial services. People expect banking to feel personal and helpful, and many are ready to share more data if it leads to a better experience.
MX reported in 2025 that 53% of consumers would give their financial provider access to more of their data if it improved the experience. Poor experience, in contrast, is closely linked to churn: 10x Banking cited research showing banks lose around one in five customers because of poor customer experience.
What It Changes for Fintech PR
In 2026, CX has become one of the fastest ways to build a reputation. What matters most is service in real situations, such as how quickly issues get fixed, how predictable results feel, and how the company communicates during a failure. This also changes what convinces enterprise buyers and partners: they read CX as a sign of strong operations, not just “nice UX.”
How to Apply It
Make CX a reputation asset by turning service into clear promises, then proving you meet them.
Publish a small set of service promises you can keep. Make 3–5 commitments, such as response times, escalation rules, dispute/refund timelines, fraud handling approach, and what users should expect during investigations. This gives PR stable messages to repeat.
Use customer language as your messaging source. Your best PR lines often come from support tickets and reviews. Take repeated phrases and common pain points and reuse them in FAQs, press lines, and product messaging, so the brand speaks the way customers think.
Have an “incident communications” posture. Even if you don’t publish a full status page, define how you communicate during outages or disruptions. People should see where updates are posted, how often you update, and what they should expect next. Silence causes customers’ churn and public backlash.
In 2026, customer experience is a reputation engine. Teams that communicate service standards and support them with simple, repeatable proof will keep trust longer, make diligence easier, and reduce churn when the product is under stress.
Embedded Finance is The Business Model of the Future
What’s Happening Right Now
Embedded finance is changing how people and companies use financial services. Payments, lending, insurance, and investing are built into online shops, marketplaces, delivery and logistics systems, and SaaS tools. This means the “banking moment” happens inside a non-financial journey. Grand View Research estimates the global embedded finance market at $83.32B in 2023 and projects it to reach $588.49B by 2030 (32.8% CAGR).
What It Changes for Fintech PR
This shifts PR away from “brand awareness for a standalone product” and toward “distribution credibility.” In 2026, the strongest message is: “we are already built into places where users already are.”
This makes platform fit, deep integration, and go-to-market partnerships central to reputation. Buyers also see embedded models as easier to adopt, so when a product is part of an existing workflow, it feels normal and less risky.
How to Apply It
To make embedded finance a PR advantage, tell the story from the platform’s point of view: the workflow, the result, and why the integration exists.
Position around “new revenue / less friction,” not “fintech innovation.” Embedded buyers care about conversion, retention, speed, and new revenue lines. Your messaging should sound like business results.
Make the integration concrete. Say what is embedded (payments, lending, cards, wallets, insurance), who it is for, and what is live versus pilot. Avoid “strategic partnership” language unless you explain what it includes.
Build a repeatable proof format. Use one short template across announcements: problem → embedded moment → result metric → rollout scope → quote from the platform team (not only the fintech CEO).
This year, embedded finance is a durable business model. Fintechs that clearly show where they are inside real workflows, and what results they improve, will look more like infrastructure for platforms people already use.
Thought Leadership is a Visibility Engine
What’s Happening Right Now
In 2026, attention is harder to earn and easier to lose. People filter information fast and trust repeated proof of competence more than one-off announcements. That’s why thought leadership works best as steady proof of expertise. It shows how a team/leader thinks, what they know, and what they can do.
What It Changes for Fintech PR
Thought leadership moves from “branding” to a distribution system for trust. The main success factor is consistency — one clear point of view repeated across formats, with proof that can withhold scrutiny.
Edelman and LinkedIn’s 2024 research found that 75% of decision-makers and C-suite executives said a piece of thought leadership made them research a product or service they were not considering before. That is how visibility becomes commercial. Content expands your “consideration set” before a sales conversation even starts.
Our CEO, Valentina Drofa, when asked about the value of thought leadership, said: “I publish thought leadership in multiple outlets because it’s the most reliable way to stay visible, sharp on the market, and keep a strong point of view on PR, trust, credibility, and capital.”
How to Apply It
Treat thought leadership like a simple routine that creates proof.
Choose 2–3 core topics linked to your product. They can be payment reliability, compliance work, fraud controls, platform distribution, or CX under stress.
Build a repeatable format. For example: one monthly “core insight” plus 5–7 smaller pieces (short posts, Q&A, a founder take, an operator take, a partner angle, a podcast pitch).
Lead with specifics. Include one market problem, one clear takeaway, and one example of how teams deal with it in real life.
In 2026, thought leadership becomes a visibility engine when it is consistent, focused, and based on proof. It keeps founders and brands present in the right conversations and turns reputation into a long-term growth lever.
Hyperpersonalisation and Micro-Segmentation Shape Differentiation
What’s Happening Right Now
Digital banks and fintech platforms use more AI for personalisation. The focus has moved from broad groups (age, income) to real-time context and intent. Accenture’s Global Banking Consumer Study 2025 reports that 72% of customers say personalisation affects their choice of bank, while only 3% use the personalisation tools banks offer today. This shows a clear gap between what people want and what banks deliver.
What It Changes for Fintech PR
Personalisation becomes a positioning risk. If you talk about hyperpersonalisation without consent, limits, and fairness, it can sound like tracking or “black box” decisions. Buyers and regulators will care less about whether it feels useful, and more about whether it is safe, explainable, and open to challenge. This changes what PR must prove: how decisions are made and how users stay in control.
How to Apply It
To use hyperpersonalisation as a real advantage, teams should frame it as a fair exchange.
Replace “we personalise” with a clear value message. Say what the customer gets for the data they share (fewer steps, fewer false alerts, better timing, clearer guidance). Keep it concrete and human.
Treat fairness and explainability as communication assets. Prepare simple lines on how you check for bias, how users can challenge a decision, and when a person steps in. For lending or risk decisions, this is the difference between “smart” and “unsafe.”
Use micro-segmentation as a proof story, not a tech story. Show one or two real examples (“when X happens, we do Y”) instead of abstract claims about models. The goal is to make it feel relevant and understandable.
In 2026, hyperpersonalisation can help fintechs stand out, but only if communications make the trade-offs easy to understand. They should explain what data is used, what users control, and how automated decisions stay fair and accountable. Otherwise, the market will compare you on price.
Talent and Skills Shortage Limit Fintech Growth
What’s Happening Right Now
Fintech growth is limited by talent. Across many industries, the World Economic Forum says skills gaps are a major barrier to business change. In financial services, this shows up as hiring being slow and hard.
ManpowerGroup’s Talent Shortage Survey (as cited in a financial services summary) reports that 67% of employers in financial services struggle to find skilled talent. Beyond hiring, teams also face continuity risks. They include knowledge distributed within a few people, grown burnout, and slowed execution when key expertise is not shared.
What It Changes for Fintech PR
Talent becomes a public trust factor. In 2026, buyers, partners, and investors look at “who can run this” as part of product risk. If a fintech company cannot show depth in compliance, risk, data, and operations, it looks harder to trust at scale, even if the product is strong.
This also changes thought leadership. People respond better to operator credibility (how controls work, how edge cases are handled, how decisions are made) than to broad “vision” statements.
How to Apply It
Treat talent as a credibility story by showing how expertise is built, shared, and kept.
Put operators on the record. Let heads of compliance, risk, fraud, and security publish practical explainers and simple playbooks (with sensitive details removed). This shows real capability and creates stronger PR angles.
Show “how we train” as much as “who we hire.” Share structured onboarding, internal training, mentorship, and support for certifications. The goal is continuity, so the company can scale expertise, not just headcount.
Use hiring content as proof of standards. Instead of only saying “we’re hiring,” explain what you expect (controls mindset, strong documentation, incident reporting). This turns recruitment into long-term positioning.
In 2026, how a fintech builds and keeps expertise shapes its reputation. Companies that can show operator depth and shared learning will look more reliable under scrutiny, even before a partner or investor starts diligence.
Assets Tokenisation is the Technological Revolution
What’s Happening Right Now
Tokenisation is moving from a “crypto-side idea” to real financial infrastructure. Coinbase’s State of Crypto (Q2 2025) says real-world asset tokenisation grew from $85 million in April 2020 to over $21 billion by April 2025 (excluding stablecoins). Large institutions are also using tokenisation for familiar products. In July 2025, BNY Mellon and Goldman Sachs announced a way to record ownership of some money market fund shares using blockchain technology, to improve transferability and usefulness.
What It Changes for Fintech PR
Tokenisation communication starts to look more like capital markets communication. The audience focuses on how it works in practice: custody, settlement, legal structure, counterparties, risk controls, and what is live versus still a pilot. The PR risk is not “people don’t understand the innovation.” The risk is “people think it is unregulated or unsafe by design.”
It also changes what questions matter most. Journalists, partners, and institutional buyers want real answers: “Is this ready for traditional finance?”, “Who is responsible if something goes wrong?”, and “What happens under stress?” If PR cannot answer this in simple terms, tokenisation stays framed as speculative.
How to Apply It
Treat tokenisation like a diligence-led story.
Lead with the real instrument. Say what is being tokenised (money market fund shares, treasuries, private credit, fund units), who can hold it, and what problem it solves (faster settlement, better collateral use, easier transfer). Use clear capital markets language.
Draw a clear line between what is live and what is still a pilot. Tokenisation has many announcements. State status directly: live / limited rollout / pilot / sandbox. This prevents overpromising and protects credibility later.
Build a “Tokenisation Fact Pack” for comms and sales. One reusable page can include legal structure, where it is offered, how settlement works at a high level, redemption and transfer rules, key risk controls, and a short FAQ. This reduces friction with partners and shortens diligence.
Today, tokenisation PR works when it reads like real market infrastructure: real instruments, roles, status, and controls that can handle scrutiny. As tokenisation enters mainstream financial products, the ability to explain operational readiness turns into a company’s calling card.
ESG Stays on the Agenda in 2026
What’s Happening Right Now
ESG is still important in 2026. It now works more like a mix of compliance and capital. On the capital side, Bloomberg Intelligence said global ESG assets passed $30 trillion in 2022 and may go over $40 trillion by 2030. So sustainability still affects where money goes, even if interest is lower than before.
On the regulation side, the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) says companies in scope must report under ESRS. The reporting is built to be checked and verified, not to look good in marketing.
What It Changes for Fintech PR
ESG is no longer a broad “values statement.” It becomes proof a company can measure and show with documents. Stakeholders look for claims they can verify, steady metrics over time, and a link between ESG work and how the business operates.
The reputation risk is also higher. The cost is not only “greenwashing” accusations. Companies can also lose credibility with partners, investors, and regulators when ESG statements look inconsistent or hard to prove.
How to Apply It
To make ESG support reputation (instead of creating risk), treat it like reporting, with careful claims.
Replace “commitments” with measurable disclosures. Pick a small set of metrics you can report regularly and defend every quarter.
Align PR language with CSRD/Taxonomy logic. If you mention sustainability results, be ready to connect them to ESRS-style reporting or EU Taxonomy-style definitions, at least at a high level.
Use the social pillar as the clearest proof. Education, inclusion, workforce development, and governance of customer impact are often easier to show with real programs than broad climate claims, especially for many fintech models.
In 2026, ESG acts as a regulatory requirement, an investment filter, and a reputation risk area. Fintechs that communicate ESG through verifiable metrics and careful, consistent claims will look more stable under scrutiny, even while ESG remains politically and commercially debated.
Conclusion
In 2026, trust is the product that every fintech is actually selling — whether they know it or not. Capital has reopened, yet evaluation is stricter, and the earliest signals of weakness show up in public — through how a company explains risk, makes decisions, and behaves under pressure. That’s why communications now function as operating leverage. It turns reliability, governance, and customer outcomes into proof other people can verify.
“This year, the best compliment a fintech can get is ‘We understand how you work.’ People are tired of loud promises, so they judge a company by the details. The role of PR in this case matters more than ever before. It helps translate a company’s operating mechanics into plain, tangible proof. And that’s exactly what allows partners, investors, and customers alike to make decisions faster and with more confidence.” — Alina Sysoeva, Head of PR at Drofa Comms.
The teams that win this cycle align three things early: what the product does, how the company controls it, and what outcomes it produces repeatedly. When those layers match, fundraising conversations compress, partnerships evolve faster, and reputation stops being a cost centre and becomes an asset.
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