Last month, the Oscilar team joined thousands of fintech professionals at The Venetian in Las Vegas for Fintech Meetup 2025. As providers of an AI Risk Decisioning™ platform, we were eager to engage with the industry and explore how the financial landscape is reshaping its approach to fraud prevention, credit decisioning, and compliance.
Now in its third physical edition, Fintech Meetup has quickly established itself as a cornerstone of the Q1 fintech calendar, and our team took full advantage of the event's unique blend of structured networking sessions, in-depth panels, and informal conversations. These interactions provided valuable insights into the challenges our customers and prospects are facing.
As we reflect on our three days in Vegas, several key themes emerged that are particularly relevant to our work in risk intelligence. Here's our take on what we saw and learned at this year's event.
1. The AI Arms Race in Fraud Prevention
If there was one topic that dominated conversations on the show floor and in sessions, it was the dual-edged sword of AI in financial security. The panel "Dealing with AI: Fighting on Both Sides of Financial Fraud" offered a sobering look at how generative AI lowers the barrier to entry for sophisticated fraud.
"Fraud has never been easier," warned Catherine Porter from Prove, a sentiment that resonated with many attendees we spoke with. The explosion of synthetic identity fraud—where criminals combine real and fake data to create entirely fictional identities—concerns organizations across the industry.
But equally impressive defensive innovations emerged. We saw multiple companies showcase advanced behavioral biometrics that analyze everything from typing patterns to device movements. As one industry expert noted during a panel discussion, "Fraudsters can fake documents, but they can't fake how they use their devices."
This technological arms race highlights a challenge we see across our own client base: organizations need configurable, adaptable security solutions that respond to emerging threats in real-time. Traditional approaches that require weeks to implement changes no longer work in today's fast-moving threat landscape.
How Oscilar Helps: Our AI Risk Decisioning™ platform specifically addresses this challenge. We unify fraud signals across channels and enable no-code rule changes, helping risk teams respond to new threats in minutes rather than weeks. Our customers use our behavioral intelligence capabilities to detect sophisticated fraud patterns while maintaining a frictionless experience for legitimate users.
2. Open Banking's Evolution
Another standout theme was the transformation of open banking from a regulatory requirement to a market-driven competitive advantage. The panel "Unleashing Open Finance's Transformative Potential" explored how consumer demand, not just compliance, is now driving adoption.
Pay-by-Bank transactions emerged as one of the most promising innovations in this space. As Brian Dammeir from Plaid noted, "Consumers are realizing they don't need a credit card to pay online." This shift will fundamentally alter payment flows, potentially disrupt traditional card networks, and create new opportunities for both established players and startups.
Our conversations revealed how organizations now view open banking through a strategic rather than purely technical lens. They ask not just "How do we implement these APIs?" but "How can open banking transform our business model and customer relationships?"
Recent policy shifts have created regulatory uncertainty and an interesting dynamic: while some players hesitate, industry leaders forge ahead, recognizing that controlling financial data will determine success in the coming years.
How Oscilar Helps: As open banking expands, so do the risk vectors. Our platform helps financial institutions securely leverage open banking data through our open data fabric, which seamlessly integrates diverse data sources—including account verification data, payment information, and third-party risk signals. This gives risk teams a comprehensive view of customer activity across multiple channels, enabling safer innovation in the open banking ecosystem.
3. Strategic Specialization: The New Path Forward
A third theme emerged: the shift toward strategic specialization and sustainable business models. Ryan Breslow's first public appearance since reclaiming his role as Bolt's CEO generated significant buzz with his ambitious plans for a fintech super app. Meanwhile, Ally Bank's CEO Michael Rhodes presented a contrasting approach, explaining their strategic exit from credit cards and mortgage lending to double down on auto financing and core digital banking services.
This tension between expansion and focus reflects broader market shifts in fintech. The growth-at-all-costs mentality that dominated previous years has given way to a renewed emphasis on sustainable revenue models, strategic differentiation, and profitability.
In our own conversations with clients and prospects, we're seeing similar recalibrations—a move away from trying to be everything to everyone, and toward identifying and doubling down on specific areas of competitive advantage.
How Oscilar Helps: Our modular platform supports this trend toward specialization by allowing organizations to implement precisely the risk capabilities they need—whether that's fraud prevention, credit decisioning, compliance, or all three. Our customers start with their most pressing risk challenge and expand as needed, avoiding the all-or-nothing approach that plagues traditional risk solutions. This flexibility enables our clients to align their risk infrastructure with their strategic focus areas.
Building Community with Oscilar Events
While the main conference offered valuable insights, we hosted several events that sparked our most productive conversations. Our Tuesday Credit & Fraud Breakfast with SentiLink brought together leaders from lending organizations to discuss the evolving credit landscape, while our Wednesday Compliance & Fraud Breakfast with FS Vector focused on navigating regulatory expectations in an AI-powered world.
These focused gatherings enabled candid discussions of specific pain points and collaborative problem-solving in a way that the busy show floor makes difficult. Participants consistently told us these intimate settings delivered some of their most valuable takeaways from the entire conference.
Looking Ahead: Fintech's Next Chapter
In advance of Fintech Meetup Mandalay Bay in 2026, the conversations at this year's event show the industry at an inflection point. The organizations that will thrive in the coming years will be those that can:
Balance innovation with security, leveraging AI to enhance both customer experience and fraud prevention
Transform open banking from a technical challenge to a strategic advantage, creating new value for customers through financial data
Find their focus, prioritizing sustainable growth and differentiation over expansion for its own sake
At Oscilar, we commit to helping our customers navigate these challenges. Our AI Risk Decisioning™ platform speeds up risk operations by 10x, giving organizations the agility to innovate securely in this rapidly evolving landscape.
We left Las Vegas energized by these opportunities and grateful for the connections we made.
If you missed us at the event, you can still learn how Oscilar helps your organization balance innovation and security in today's dynamic risk environment—request a demo today.
