UNCHAIN Festival, a dialogue platform for the financial and technological ecosystem, which took place in Oradea on June 17-18, brought together more than 1,000 leaders from approximately 40 countries and addressed topics such as the influence of AI in financial services, the future of the Digital Euro, the role of stablecoins, but also the development of instant payments or the prevention of financial fraud, according to the information provided by UNCHAIN representatives. «This year’s edition demonstrated that UNCHAIN Festival has become one of the most relevant dialogue platforms for the financial industry in Central and Eastern Europe. The fact that more than a thousand leaders from more than 40 countries chose to be present at the event in Oradea confirms the growing need for collaboration between financial institutions, authorities, fintechs and technology providers in a period of accelerated transformation of the industry», declares Alexandra Pollack, Founder & CEO UNCHAIN Festival. This edition brought together participants from both mature and emerging markets, as well as official delegations from Georgia, Armenia, Israel and Hong Kong, present for the first time at the event. You may also be interested: The 2026 edition also brought to the festival for the first time 250 new organizations from the European financial ecosystem, including commercial banks, insurance companies, technology providers and fintechs that are helping to transform financial services across the region. A special emphasis was placed on innovation and on companies in full development. Through the Innovation Showcase program, fintech and insurtech startups from the entire region presented their solutions to investors, financial institutions and strategic partners, creating new opportunities for collaboration and development. Excellence and innovation in the financial and technological industry were also recognized at the UNCHAIN Awards 2026, which awarded organizations and companies with the greatest impact on the transformation of financial services in Central and Eastern Europe. In the Industry Awards category, awards were given to mBank (Digital Bank of the Year), Comarch (Innovation Excellence Award), Transfond (Trust & Resilience Award), Magnetiq Bank (Growth & Achievement Award), Payten (Collaboration & Partnership Award), Partners Banka (Future Readiness Award), Paymentology (Payments Impact Award), Hellas Direct (Insurance Impact Award), Tremend Software Consulting (Technology Leadership Award) and Leanpay (Future of Finance Award). At the same time, in the Innovation Awards, the program dedicated to startups and innovative companies under development, the awards went to Cryptoswift from Estonia (Market Impact Award), Processlab from Romania (Regulatory Readiness Award), Okazio from Slovakia (Innovation Excellence Award), Clym from Romania (Responsible Finance Award) and HackenProof from Ukraine (Future of Finance Award), highlighting the diversity and dynamism of the regional fintech ecosystem. The national institutions had an important role in the UNCHAIN Festival 2026, through the consistent participation of the representatives of the National Bank of Romania (BNR) and the Financial Supervisory Authority (ASF). They were joined by senior representatives of central banks and financial supervisory authorities from over 18 countries, including the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Albania, the Republic of Moldova, Georgia, Kazakhstan and many others. Among the reference speakers of this year’s edition was Marek Belka, former prime minister of Poland, former president of the National Bank of Poland and former member of the European Parliament.
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