The Digital Financial Services Summit NZ 2026 is a leadership event in Auckland focused on AI, digital transformation, and the future of banking and financial services.
Delegates
Speakers
Sessions
Building Trust, Intelligence and Resilience in Financial Services
The Digital Financial Services NZ Summit will bring together senior leaders for strategic conversations on how financial institutions can remain trusted, resilient and competitive as AI adoption accelerates, ecosystems expand, and regulatory and geopolitical pressures continue to evolve.
New Zealand’s financial services landscape is transforming quickly as organisations respond to shifting customer expectations in an increasingly digital-first environment. While some institutions are moving ahead by leveraging emerging technologies to reshape operations, products, and customer engagement, others risk falling behind as competition intensifies and innovation cycles accelerate.
This summit will bring together executives from across the financial services sector to connect, collaborate, and exchange practical insights on advancing digital strategies, strengthening customer trust, and delivering modern financial experiences that meet the demands of today’s connected customers.
Meet our Speakers
Executive General Manager, Technology & Chief Information Officer
Chief Technology Officer
General Manager Customer Delivery
CEO
NZ Head of Information Security
Head of Architecture, Data & AI
Chief Technology Officer
Head of Insurance & Digital Applications
Featured Topics for the Day
View Agenda
8:30 am
Registration & Networking
9:00 am
Welcome Remarks
9:10 am
Attendee Spotlight
9:40 am
Panel Discussion
Who Thrives When Technology Defines Financial Services?
Reframing what a financial institution actually is in a world of platforms, ecosystems, and super apps competing for the customer relationship
What separates the institutions that thrive from those that fall behind, and how resilience, trust, and innovation are engineered in as core capabilities
Asya Ihanoa
Chief Technology Officer
Generate KiwiSaver Scheme
Craig Lauchlan
Executive General Manager, Technology & Chief Information Officer
Suncorp
Penny Burgess
General Manager Customer Delivery
TSB New Zealand
Kirsten Boldarin
CEO
Amplifi Group
10:20 am
Case Study
Building Trust at Scale
Alex Hanaray
Lifecycle Marketing Manager
Kernel Wealth
10:40 am
Morning Tea
11:10 am
Interactive Scenario
Black Mirror Pitch: If We Can Build It... Should We?
11:30 am
Panel Discussion
Engineering Real-Time Financial Services for Scale & Resilience
Enabling real-time services without breaking under scale or complexity
Decoupling legacy systems to unlock speed, flexibility and continuous change
Engineering resilience into the system, not reacting to failure after it happens
Baskar Narayanaswamy
Head of Customer Data Platforms
Generate KiwiSaver Scheme
Jeevan James
Head of Insurance & Digital Applications
Fidelity Life Assurance
Eli Hirschauge
NZ Head of Information Security
ANZ Bank
Andrew Bates
Chief Technology Officer
Harmoney
Kato'one Kaho
AI, Digital & Data Manager
AMP New Zealand
12:10 pm
Case Study
Trust at AI speed: From Automation to Assurance in Financial Services
Joely Scott-Thomas
VP, Data & Platform Automation - Asia Pacific & Japan
Delphix
12:30 pm
Lunch
1:20 pm
Interactive Scenario: The Digital Financial Services Decision Room
1:50 pm
Panel Discussion
Rethinking the Value of AI in Financial Services
Where AI is genuinely improving financial experiences – from smarter personalisation and service to faster, more contextual decision-making
Embedding AI safely into core systems while maintaining explainability, governance and regulatory confidence
Balancing automation, human judgement and trust as AI reshapes how customers interact with financial institutions and how decisions are made
John Lewis
Head of Architecture, Data & AI
AA Insurance
Tim Reed
Head of Data & Analytics
Avanti Finance
Nikhil Ramrakhiani
Chief Technology Officer
Pie Funds
Matt Taylor
Head of Digital Transformation
SBS
Prabha Markandan
2:30 pm
Afternoon Tea & Networking
2:50 pm
Keynote
When Hard Becomes Easy (& Easy Becomes Hard): How Sharesies Got Here & Where It's Going Next
Leighton Roberts
Co-Founder & Co-CEO
Sharesies
Martyn Smith
Founder, Technical Director
Sharesies
