State of The Market 2026

The skills, talent and engagement models shaping effective delivery and innovation in 2026

2026 is sharpening familiar pressures across financial services: accelerating technology adoption, rising regulatory expectations and persistent cyber threats, now compounded by a shortage of specialist expertise.

Firms are expected to deliver multiple, overlapping transformation programmes at pace, often with overstretched teams. This increases execution risk, leading to missed regulatory deadlines, stalled innovation and delivery models that fail to scale safely.

The challenge is no longer understanding what is changing, but ensuring the specialist skills and delivery models needed to execute change quickly, safely and repeatedly.

In this whitepaper, we explore six market drivers shaping financial services in 2026, and critically, the delivery model required to respond to them:

• Risk, Regulation & Compliance
  Why regulatory and cyber controls must be embedded directly into transformation programmes, and the specialist expertise required to reduce execution risk.
  

• Data & Interoperability
  How ISO 20022, API-led architectures and strong data governance underpin regulatory accuracy, operational efficiency and trustworthy AI.
  

• Technology Innovation
  What the EU AI Act means for enterprise-scale deployment, and the skills firms need to balance innovation with control.
  

• Digital Growth & Expansion
  How tokenisation, digital assets and programmable money are reshaping regulated financial services, and the delivery capabilities required to scale safely.
  

• Operational Excellence
  Why hybrid workforce models are becoming essential, and how to design them to accelerate delivery while retaining critical knowledge.
  
• Client Services
  Building trust in a digital environment through effective remediation, customer operations and conduct risk management.
  

For practical insight into building resilient delivery capability that endures beyond individual programmes, download the whitepaper today.

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