Lisbon AI Week 2026 Panel: "The role of AI in banking and financial crime prevention"

As financial crime grows more sophisticated, banks across Europe are turning to AI to stay ahead of it — not just to detect fraud faster, but to rethink prevention as a strategic capability. This panel brings together Manuel Fonseca Soares (Caixa Geral de Depósitos) and João Morais Fernandes (Novobanco) to explore how AI is reshaping financial crime prevention across the banking sector, and how Portuguese banks compare with their European counterparts. Moderated by Hugo Ferreira, of Feedzai's Research team, the conversation offers an industry-wide view of where AI in banking security stands today, and where it's headed. AGENDA 18:00 - Reception18:30 - Panel 19:30 - Networking with snacks and drinks PANELISTS Manuel Fonseca Soares is Deputy Director of Anti-Financial Crime at Caixa Geral de Depósitos, where he leads Fraud Prevention and helps shape the bank’s financial crime strategy. With more than 15 years of international experience in banking and consulting, he specialises in fraud, AML/CFT, investigations and the application of AI and advanced analytics to financial crime prevention. João Morais Fernandes is the Managing Director of Economic Crime Prevention (1LOD) at novobanco. With over a decade of experience across banking and consulting, he specialises in fraud prevention and financial crime, with a focus on technology, analytics, and innovation in economic crime prevention. Hugo Ferreira is the Senior Director of AI Research at Feedzai, where he leads teams developing AI-based solutions for financial crime prevention, including fraud detection and anti-money laundering. He joined Feedzai in 2018 as a data scientist, working with some of the world's biggest financial institutions to develop AI models for fraud detection.