We have updated our Privacy Policy, click here for more information.
Thank you
Last week saw our North America and Europe Financial Services Sales and GTM teams come together in Budapest, Hungary. The goal? To get our global FS sales teams in one room, collaborate, and dive into our joint services catalogues as one EPAM company. Financial Services is EPAMs largest business unit and continues to represent an exciting growth opportunity for the business.
EPAM partners with financial institutions around the world to modernise technology, adopt cloud and AI, and drive innovation. Our Financial Services offering spans banking, capital markets, wealth management, payments, and insurance, with deep expertise across data and analytics, regulatory compliance, customer experience, and platform modernisation. With First Derivative now part of the mix, we have strengthened our capital markets and regulated industry capabilities, combining domain expertise with AI driven engineering and global delivery at scale.
So why Budapest? Aside from being home to one of EPAM’s largest EU global offices, it is a city with a long standing place in the EPAM story. Last year marked 25 years of presence in Hungary. And of course, Budapest did not disappoint on the weather front, serving up the heaviest snowfall the city has seen in years and reminding us that even the best planned kick offs can come with a surprise or two.
Day one started with Ben, EU Head of FS, and Neiv, NA Head of FS, setting the scene with a warm welcome and business overview and outlook of our FS practice. With many new faces meeting for the first time, getting acquainted was top of the agenda. “Draw a portrait of the person to your left” proved a surprisingly effective icebreaker. A few questionable sketches delivered a few laughs to kick things off.
Andy and Ferreol then led a Capital Markets overview, followed by a deep dive from the team into First Derivative service offerings. Aidan presented on COTS modernisation, topped off with an exclusive sneak peek of our CalX-AI video (coming soon to a screen near you!)
Next, Chris set the stage on Regulation and Compliance, teeing up Nicola to showcase our Agentic KYX offerings, followed by Grant on all things Transaction Reporting. The room buzzed with questions and discussion as experts explored how to tackle client challenges and bring these world class solutions to market.
After a full day of collaboration, roundtables, and lively debate, the team headed to a traditional Hungarian restaurant overlooking the river. The menu showcased local cuisine, paired with a wine tasting led by an expert sommelier. And of course, no team dinner would be complete without a quiz. Despite the fierce yet friendly competition, I was delighted to be on the winning table alongside my teammates Alistair, Victoria, Deborah, and Nicola.
Day two kicked off early with a focus on our data expertise. Igor and Aleksandr led Real Time Data and Analytics, followed by presentations from Victoria and Jordan on Trade Surveillance and TickEdge. Sharing the history of our FD / KX story gave our new colleagues a flavour of the FD journey to date.
In the afternoon, we shifted gears to AI across our horizontal capabilities, with Martin, Jim, and Antonio presenting AI RUN and the AI Maturity Programme. AI featured heavily across the two days, and as we continue our journey as an AI native organisation, the future of our service offerings is full of fascinating advancements for clients. The final session saw Chris Tapley and Dennis present on Agentic Mortgage Operations.
Ben and Neiv closed the workshop by bringing everything together with key learnings and next steps. Personally, my biggest takeaway was hearing first hand from our subject matter experts about what we can now deliver collectively as a GTM strategy, combining deep domain knowledge with AI and engineering expertise across our Financial Services portfolio. It is hard to beat hearing directly from the experts in the room, while also getting to know new colleagues in person, away from the digital world that dominates so much of how we work today.
From a marketing perspective, it reinforced how clearly we can articulate our value in the market, the strength of the stories we have to tell around real client impact, and the opportunity to better showcase our end to end capabilities across channels. It is clear that, as an EPAM company, we are leading the charge in this space globally.
With so much expertise in one space, everyone was challenged to step outside their comfort zone and left feeling far more informed about our true potential as a Financial Services organisation. Beyond the learning, one of the biggest benefits of bringing people together in person is the chance to connect beyond Teams calls, leaving us energised and ready to tackle an ambitious 2026 ahead.
The landscape of Financial Services is shifting fast. Discover how our combined global teams are helping the world’s leading financial institutions stay ahead of the curve through innovation and scale.
