Camilla Bullock

Countries worldwide are competing to attract fintech investment, talent, and innovation. But understanding the quality of fintech regulation remains a work-in-progress. Are rules and institutions working in lockstep to promote fintech? Are these rules findable, coherent, and comprehensive enough to give firms, consumers, and supervisors genuine confidence? Can they promote innovation, market access as well as economic opportunity?

The Financial Regulatory Futures Index (FRFI) is a joint initiative of the Fintech Foundation and GFTN designed to fill that gap. Structured around five analytical pillars, the FRFI will assess regulatory environments not by perception or reputation, but by reference to verifiable primary sources: statutes, supervisory guidance, licensing frameworks, and enforcement records. Its methodology is being developed by five specialist working groups comprising leading regulators, central bankers, academics, and industry practitioners from over 30 jurisdictions. An Executive Council – comprising globally recognized thought-leaders and experienced policy innovators – will oversee the development of this initiative.

This roundtable will offer one of the first public windows into the emerging draft methodology, including how the Index defines and scores: regulatory clarity and comprehensiveness, consumer protection and market conduct, innovation and market infrastructure, resilience and integrity as well as economic opportunity and market access.

It will open a moderated discussion on the Index's intended policy impact, the trade-offs embedded in any cross-jurisdictional benchmarking exercise, and how the FRFI can best serve as a tool for peer learning and reform rather than as a simplistic league table. Feedback from regulators, practitioners, academics and subject matter experts in this conversation will inform the methodology ahead of its launch at DC Fintech Week in October 2026.

Cross-border payments for merchants remain expensive, slow, and fragmented — and for SME sellers in emerging markets, often inaccessible entirely. This session tests whether tokenised money (stablecoins, tokenised deposits, CBDCs) is genuinely reducing cost, time, and friction for merchants in live corridors today, or whether the promise still outpaces reality. It then introduces agentic commerce — AI agents executing transactions autonomously on behalf of businesses — as the stress test that reveals whether the infrastructure, regulation, and trust frameworks being built are fit for what comes next. Participants will leave with a grounded picture of where tokenised money works for merchants today, where the gaps remain (particularly for SME sellers in emerging markets), and the specific policy and infrastructure conditions that would unlock the next stage of cross-border commerce.