Over the past 12 months, three topics have consistently come up in our conversations with CFOs and finance leaders across fintech and payments: AI, talent and the increasing strategic demands of the finance function.
As organizations look to unlock productivity through AI, they’re simultaneously redefining what they need from finance leaders and grappling with how to develop the next generation of talent. Against a backdrop of continued M&A activity, investment in new technologies and several notable CFO appointments, the role of the CFO continues to evolve.
This paper brings together some of the key themes and observations we’re hearing from finance leaders across the market, and explores how AI, talent and strategic finance are reshaping the future CFO.
Theme 1: The Emergence of the AI-Augmented CFO
As AI becomes increasingly embedded in decision-making processes, a new leadership profile is emerging: the AI-augmented CFO.
Leading CFOs are no longer simply sponsoring AI initiatives. They are increasingly leveraging AI themselves to support:
Scenario planning
Investor preparation
Competitive intelligence
Resource allocation
Workforce planning
As a result, the CFO role continues to expand beyond traditional finance stewardship into broader enterprise leadership. Recent CFO appointments across fintech and payments suggest boards are increasingly prioritizing leaders who combine commercial judgement, strategic thinking, technology fluency and transformation experience. Continued M&A activity across the sector further reinforces the need for CFOs who can evaluate strategic investments, allocate capital effectively and navigate disruption.
Theme 2: FP&A Must Elevate
Reporting, forecasting and data gathering are becoming more automated, but the demand for insight has never been higher. Leadership teams are looking to finance not just to explain what happened, but to identify what matters, provide commercial challenge and help drive business performance through FP&A and strategic finance functions.
Over the last 12 months, we have led several Heads of FP&A searches where the mandate has extended far beyond planning and reporting. Organizations are increasingly looking for commercial finance leaders who can tell a compelling story with data, influence decision-making and act as true strategic partners to the business. At the same time, they need leaders with sufficient technical depth and financial rigor to assess the quality of AI-generated outputs, challenge assumptions and identify issues before they impact decision-making.
Today’s leading FP&A functions are expected to:
Deliver actionable insights, not just reporting
Partner closely with business leaders to drive performance
Support capital allocation and growth decisions
Lead finance transformation initiatives
Build best-in-class planning, reporting and analytics capabilities
Drive improvements in systems, data and operating models
As fintech organizations continue to grow, diversify their products and invest in transformation, the bar for FP&A leadership is rising. Technical finance expertise remains important, but increasingly the strongest leaders are those who can combine commercial acumen, effective communication and sound judgement to influence decision-making.
The most effective FP&A functions will be those that combine robust data, intelligent use of AI and commercial insight to shape business outcomes.
Theme 3: Who Develops the Next Generation of Finance Leaders?
From our conversations across the market, organizations are taking very different approaches to AI adoption. Some are using AI as an opportunity to significantly reduce headcount, with reductions of up to 30% being discussed in certain functions. Others are taking a more measured approach, targeting reductions closer to 5% while redeploying talent into transformation initiatives, FP&A and other higher-value activities.
While much of the current debate has focused on productivity gains and cost savings, a growing number of CFOs and HR leaders are asking a different question: how do we develop the next generation of finance talent?
Many of the activities being automated, from reporting and reconciliations to forecasting and analysis, have traditionally been the training ground for future finance leaders. At the same time, we’re seeing fewer graduate and trainee opportunities across the market. The result is a growing concern around where future Controllers, Heads of FP&A and CFOs will gain the technical grounding and commercial experience that has historically been built early in their careers.
This raises a broader question for finance leaders: if the traditional apprenticeship model is changing, what replaces it?
The organizations that get this right will be those that look beyond short-term efficiency gains and think carefully about how they build capability for the future. That may mean creating new career pathways, exposing talent to commercial decision-making earlier and using AI to augment, rather than replace, human development.
Ultimately, the challenge for CFOs is not simply how to deploy AI, but how to ensure that in driving productivity today, they continue to build the leadership pipeline they will rely on tomorrow.
Conclusion
If there is one consistent theme we’ve seen across fintech and payments this year, it’s that the role of the CFO is becoming broader, more strategic and increasingly intertwined with technology. Whether it’s AI, FP&A transformation, M&A or talent development, finance leaders are finding themselves at the center of some of the most important decisions facing their organizations today.
The challenge now is not simply keeping pace with change, but using it as an opportunity to build stronger teams, better insights and more effective leadership.
Recent moves
Adyen appoints Niclas Neglen as CFO, currently serving as CFO at Klarna. He will join in February 2027.
Mastercard appointed Ling Hai as CFO, he was previously President, Asia Pacific, Europe, Middle East & Africa. (Appointed August 2026)
Bakkt appointed Matt White as CFO, he joins from CoreCard Corporation where he served as CFO. (Appointed August 2026)
Temenos appointed Daniel Schmucki as CFO, he was previously CFO at Grupo BME. (Appointed August 2026)
Nuvei appointed David McLaughlin as CFO, he joined from Blackhawk Network where he was CFO. (Appointed July 2026)
OnePay appointed Patrick O’Connell as CFO, he joined from AMC Networks. (April 2026)
Moneygram appointed Marc Winniford as CFO, he previously served as CFO, Corporate & Investment Banking at Wells Fargo. (February 2026)
Marqeta appointed Patti Kangwankij as CFO, she joined from Roofstock where she was CFO and previously spent 5 years at Stripe. (January 2026)
Helen Parker (née Prudhoe)
Helen is a Director in the Financial Officers practice in New York. She specialises in placing CFOs and their direct reports across North America. Helen has been with Leathwaite since 2018 and was previously a Consultant in the UK and…
