The Banking Scene Amsterdam 2026

There is something about a room of 130 people who have all chosen to show up, in person, to talk seriously about the future of banking that puts things in perspective. On March 24, 2026, I attended #TBSCONF26AMS, the fifth Dutch edition of The Banking Scene's boutique conference, held at the iconic Eye Filmmuseum on Amsterdam's waterfront. And it was, as it tends to be, one of the most valuable days I spend in any given year.

Why Boutique Still Wins

I have been to conferences of all sizes. The ones that stay with me are always the smaller ones, and not by accident. When the room is intimate, people stop performing and start thinking out loud. That is where the real exchange happens. The Banking Scene understands this well, and their Amsterdam event consistently delivers on it.

This year's theme, "Rethinking Relevance," was a deliberate provocation. Not "how do we stay relevant," but a deeper interrogation: relevant to whom, in what context, and to what end? As someone who has spent years helping fintechs, financial institutions, and the people within them connect more meaningfully with each other, I find this question genuinely important. Relevance is not a feature you ship. It is a relationship you maintain.

The AI Conversation We Actually Need

The session I found most grounding was the one featuring Peter van Hees, who shared insights from his book "AI Agents: They Act, You Orchestrate." The title alone tells you something useful. As AI becomes more capable of acting autonomously on behalf of customers, the question for financial institutions is not just "how do we implement this?" but "where does that leave us in our customers' lives?"

For those of us in the business of connecting people and organisations across the financial ecosystem, this is not a threat. It is an invitation to be more intentional about the value we bring that cannot be automated: trust, judgment, context, and genuine human connection.

Tokenised Assets and the Perception Shift

The discussions around tokenised assets and digital currencies were similarly grounded in customer reality rather than technical abstraction. The key insight that stuck with me: these developments do not just change what banks offer, they change how customers think about what a bank is. That perception shift is already underway, and it is moving faster than most institutions' strategic planning cycles.

What I Take Back to The Connector

At The Connector, our mission is to make positive waves in the financial industry, and we do that by starting conversations. Events like #TBSCONF26AMS are a reminder that the best conversations are still the face-to-face ones, where you can read the room, challenge an idea in real time, and walk away with a connection that actually goes somewhere.

If you attended the conference and want to continue any of the conversations from the day, or if these themes are relevant to something you are working on, I would genuinely love to connect. That is, after all, what The Connector is here for.