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Published: June 16, 2026
Last week I had the privilege of travelling to Charlotte, North Carolina as part of an Invest Northern Ireland trade delegation. Charlotte is the second-largest financial centre in the United States and across three days of breakfast roundtables, one-to-one company meetings, conference stages and startup showcases, it was immediately clear why InvestNI chose it as a priority market.
The week opened in style at the Charlotte City Club, perched above the city skyline. The Welcome to Charlotte Breakfast brought together an impressive cross-section of the region’s business and economic development community including representatives from the Charlotte Regional Business Alliance, Innovate Charlotte, the NC Chamber, UNC, and Mecklenburg County, among others. It was also great to connect with the Wayflyer team, a Dublin-founded company now operating at serious scale in the US. The room was warm and set exactly the right tone for the days ahead.
After breakfast, the delegation moved to the Truist Center for a group meeting hosted by Eric Fender, Enterprise Transformation Executive at Truist. Eric’s work sits at the intersection of AI, low-code automation, and innovation ecosystems and the discussion focused on how financial institutions and startups can build more effective collaboration models. It was an energising conversation about where enterprise technology is heading, and how Northern Ireland talent can play a role in shaping it.
The afternoon brought us to Womble Bond Dickinson for a meeting with Amar Keshani, Head of Technology Governance and Transformation at SMBC Capital Markets which was one of the most insightful conversations of the trip. We covered the build vs buy debate in banking technology, the current focus of AI spend (productivity tools today, with workflow and test automation representing the bigger untapped opportunity) and the ambition many banks have to leapfrog legacy rather than incrementally patch it. For NI companies looking to enter this market, the takeaway was consistent: relationships come first, local presence matters and financial services-specific proof points are essential to getting onto preferred vendor lists.
Tuesday evening I joined the InsurTech Carolinas Social Meetup which was a great opportunity to pick up the day’s conversations in a more relaxed setting and connect further with Charlotte’s startup and investment community.
Wednesday was built around the Fintech & Insurtech Generations Conference at UNC Charlotte’s Centre City campus. The day opened with a keynote from Eric Fender of Truist, whose themes on AI-driven transformation flowed naturally from our meeting the day before.
The highlight of the day, and in many ways the trip was the “From Belfast to Global Markets: Fintech Innovation That Delivers” panel. It made the case for Belfast and Northern Ireland as a high-quality delivery hub for US and European financial institutions, exploring how our firms use talent, data and AI to innovate while staying compliant and human-centred. The lessons shared on breaking into global markets resonated strongly with the room: build for global from day one, show up in person, leverage your networks and be clearly known for one focused proposition.
The afternoon included AI-focused sessions, a RevTech Labs startup showcase, and a spotlight on Adoreboard, before concluding with the CO-LAB Reception, where we connected and socialized with Charlotte’s next-generation startup community.
Thursday morning opened with a CX Leadership Breakfast hosted by Adoreboard at the Charlotte Convention Center. A fitting way to start the final day with customer experience and AI at the centre of the conversation, themes that remained consistent throughout the week.
The week concluded with a Banking and Professional Services Pitch Lunch, run in partnership with the British American Business Council Carolinas and held back at the Charlotte City Club. NI delegation companies had 90 seconds each to make their case to a room that included representatives from First Citizens, First Horizon, FNB Bank, PNC, HSBC, TD Bank, and Wells Fargo and others across the banking community. The roundtable discussions over lunch that followed were some of the richest conversations of the week, with real depth of engagement from the banking community.
Charlotte exceeded expectations. It is a city actively investing in its technology future, building talent pipelines, attracting global firms and nurturing its own startup ecosystem. For NI companies in fintech, insurtech and financial services technology, it represents a genuinely promising market.
A trip like this is only as good as the team that builds it, and the Invest NI team delivered. The programme was exceptionally well put together — the right rooms, the right people, and meetings that felt genuinely purposeful. The level of access and preparation required to make a delegation like this work is significant, and it was evident throughout. A particular thank you to Una, Michael, Karen, Mark and Patrick for their work in making the week such a success.
I came home with a full notebook, a long list of follow-ups and a renewed conviction that Northern Ireland’s story in global financial technology is one well worth telling — and that Charlotte is a city very willing to listen.
Thanks
Kate
