The Financial World Remains Characterized by Uncertainty – But That’s Not a Bad Thing

Rather than painting 2026 as a year of disruption to be feared, the panel framed it as a year of selective growth, structural change, and opportunity for those prepared to act.

Watch the full panel discussion in the video below to explore these themes in depth and hear directly from some of the leaders shaping the financial market infrastructure of 2026.

Market volatility, geopolitical tension, and regulatory complexity dominated 2025 – and Bjørn Sibbern, CEO SIX expects these conditions to persist into 2026. The other panelists agreed: volatile markets drive growth. Heightened uncertainty brings opportunities for trading volumes, post-trade processing, data usage, and risk management.

Importantly, volatility has not derailed capital raising: IPO pipelines in Switzerland and Spain remain healthy, including strong momentum in the SME segment.

The message was pragmatic rather than optimistic for optimism’s sake: markets don’t need calm to function – they need reliable infrastructure.

One of the most recurring themes was fragmentation – across trading venues, post-trade infrastructure, regulation, and data standards. Europe’s market structure, shaped by decades of competition-focused regulation, has created complexity, inefficiency, and operational risk.

The panel made a strong case that 2026 will be less about fragmentation increasing – and more about how intelligently it is addressed:

• Consolidation where scale matters
• Interoperability where choice is important
• European solutions where national silos no longer make sense

Rafael Moral Santiago, Head Securities Services of SIX, positioned integration across trading, clearing, settlement, and custody as a competitive advantage, not just an efficiency play.

In an environment shaped by sanctions, regulatory divergence, and fast-moving markets, trust in data emerged as non-negotiable. Marion Leslie, Head Financial Information of SIX, highlighted how the explosion in sanctioned securities and regulatory obligations has made high-quality, well-governed data as essential as electricity or water.

Artificial intelligence plays a growing role here, but not as a silver bullet. AI’s real value lies in speed, scale, and personalization: earlier availability of data, better reconciliation, more targeted insights, and significant efficiency gains in compliance and surveillance. In a nutshell: The fundamentals remain unchanged – accuracy, completeness, timeliness – but the way data is delivered and consumed is evolving rapidly.

Christoph Müller, Head Banking Services of SIX, expects payments in 2026 to be shaped by instant payments, AI-driven fraud prevention, and platform expansion. The discussion made clear that fraud is no longer a rules-based problem – it’s an AI-versus-AI race. Collaboration across banks and infrastructure providers will be essential.

Beyond fraud, AI-driven automation is improving service quality while reducing cost, from multilingual customer support to real-time transaction monitoring. At the same time, the financial center is closely tracking new payment instruments, including stablecoins and crypto-based solutions, without losing sight of reliability and trust.

The panel framed digital assets, tokenization, and stablecoins not as fringe innovations, but as structural extensions of market infrastructure. The institutional adoption will accelerate in 2026, driven by regulation, client demand, and efficiency gains.

The key shift is integration: connecting digital and traditional assets across, settlement, custody, and collateral management. Stablecoins are a potential foundation for 24/7 market infrastructure – with significant implications for liquidity and settlement models.

Despite frequent narratives positioning private and public markets as competitors, the panel rejected this framing. Instead, public markets were positioned as a natural evolution point in a company’s lifecycle – offering transparency, liquidity, visibility, and access to a broader investor base.

SME listings, especially in Spain, were highlighted by Tomas Kindler, Global Head Exchanges of SIX, as proof that public markets remain relevant and attractive when the value proposition is clearly communicated. Encouraging retail participation and telling the story of long-term value creation of listings will be increasingly important in 2026 and beyond.

The outlook 2026 for the financial industry  converges on a few clear signals:

• Uncertainty will persist,
• complexity will increase,
• integration will accelerate,
• and those who invest in resilient, scalable, and client-centric infrastructure will win.

Rather than betting on a return to stability, the panel’s conclusion was more realistic – and more compelling: the industry is learning how to operate, grow, and innovate in permanent uncertainty.