Programme
7 Panels, +30 speakers, 2 Receptions
September 23, 2026
DLA Annual Reception
6 – 10pm – Participation Upon Invitation Only
september 24, 2026
Registration, Café & Croissants
8:30am
Welcome Address
9am
- Guillaume Malaty, Partner @ Linklaters
- Esther Hackl, DLA Executive Board Member & General Counsel @ auxmoney
Keynote: tba
9:10am
- tba
Investor Panel: Opportunities, Headwinds & Market Evolution in Digital Lending
A conference highlight! We bring debt investors together to discuss the latest trends, risks, and returns. Hear from experts about how the market is developing, where the best opportunities lie, and what tomorrow’s topics might be.
9:30am
- Erich Bonnet, Owner & CEO @ Smart Lenders Asset Management (France)
- Nassos Politis, Portfolio Manager Secured Finance @ Insight Investment (Great Britain)
- François Lamy, Co-Founder & CEO @ embd (Great Britain)
- Paul Varty, Investment Director @ Pollen Street (Great Britain)
- Olivier Boisserie, Director @ Citi (France)
- Jördis Heckt-Harbeck, Partner @ Linklaters (Moderator)
Café Networking
10:20am
Crypto Assets Panel: Debt Tokenization & Accessibility for Investors – How Crypto Assets are Reshaping Digital Lending and Investing
The tokenization of debt has ushered in a new era for global financial markets. Fintech lenders play an important role in this process because they have revolutionized access to asset classes. But how exactly do investors benefit in terms of efficiency, security, liquidity, and costs? What’s now possible for investors that used to be impossible? On this panel, we will discuss the current challenges, opportunities, and risks. Together, we explore the space between financial innovation and regulatory oversight.
11:00am
- Charlotte Marc, Policy Advisor @ Digital Finance Unit, European Banking Authority (EBA)
- Lauris Borodovskis, Co-Founder & CEO @ 3Pine Capital (Luxembourg)
- Marius Jurgilas, Co-Founder & CEO @ Axiology (Lithuania)
- Daniel Maier, Founder & CEO @ Chartered Investment (Luxembourg)
- Ali Celiker, Founder & CEO @ BPX Markets (Great Britain)
- Sébastien Herbert, Managing Associate @ Linklaters (Moderator)
Presentation: The Control Gap – How Technology Eliminates the Risks Hidden Inside Debt Facilities
Greensill, MFS, Tricolor: three collapses, billions in losses, one common failure. Not bad credit models but missing controls. This presentation examines how automated verification, real-time fraud pattern detection, and live backup servicing infrastructure close the risk gap that conventional due diligence leaves open.
11:50am
- Nicolas Kipp, Founder & CEO @ Credibur (Germany)
- Natalie Schleiz, Vice President @ Credibur (Germany)
Lunch
12:10pm
Mixed Panel: Navigating Specialty Finance Markets – Impact and Challenges
Specialty finance often operates beyond the reach of standard regulatory frameworks, making careful navigation essential. Robust guardrails — both regulatory and financial — are critical to protecting stakeholder interests, yet the sector continues to attract investors and funders drawn by the prospect of outsized returns. Rigorous due diligence remains the cornerstone of sound decision-making in specialty finance and Fintech lending, where the tension between high yield potential and adequate investor protection is ever present. This panel examines that tension at a pivotal moment, as growing capital flows into this dynamic sector play an increasingly significant role in funding the EU and broader global economy.
1:30pm
- Sara Codreanu, CIO @ Multitude Bank (Malta)
- Delia D. König, Partner & COO @ 0TO9 (Sweden)
- Charlotte Gounot, Deputy CEO @ Defacto (France)
- Walter Gontarek, Founder, CEO & Chairman @ Channel Capital (Great Britain)
- Philip Reicherstorfer, Group Treasurer @ AUTO1 (Germany)
- Guillaume Malaty, Partner @ Linklaters (Moderator)
Presentation: One Lens, Many Lenders: Bringing Comparability and Transparency to the Ecosystem
Digital Lending is establishing itself as an asset class – but a fragmented one, where every originator scores and prices credit differently. Luca makes the case that the missing piece is an independent, explainable layer of comparability on top of originator underwriting – and shows how AI-based scoring across millions of loans loans turns fragmentation into a market which institutional investors can read and scale.
2:20pm
- Luca Frignani, Founder & CEO @ Exaloan (Germany)
Café Networking
2:40pm
Fintech Lender Panel: State of the European Industry – Balancing Consolidation, Risks, and Investor Expectations
Many Fintechs have been undergoing a consolidation process throughout Europe for different reasons. Additionally, micro and macro risks have increased. And then there are the rising expectations of debt investors in an increasingly competitive environment. We bring together companies from different European countries for a panel discussion and explore the most important issues in 2026 from different regulatory and product perspectives.
3:20pm
- Julien Decherf Mathiolon, Co-Founder & CEO @ Wavo (France)
- Oscar Anzures, CFO & CRO @ ibancar (Spain)
- Florian Kuebler, Co-Founder & CEO @ Lend (Switzerland)
- Josh Snowden, Director Capital Markets @ Funding Circle (Great Britain)
- Gion van den Bogaert, Co-Founder & CEO @ floryn (Netherlands)
- Ate Weber, Director Peer-to-Peer Securitisation Markets @ Chartered Investment (Moderator)
Presentation: Beats’n’Bonds – Investing in Music Catalogues
What exactly is the securitization of cash flows from music rights, what role does Taylor Swift play in credit rating, and how do musicians take advantage of it? This presentation offers a visionary look at the innovative power of Digital Lending.
4:10pm
- Jan Deneke, Co-Founder & CEO @ twelve x twelve (Germany)
Café Networking
4:30pm
Fireside Chat: Soon
5:10pm
- Darius Noreika, CEO @ Finbee (Lithuania)
- tbn, UniCredit
Closing Remarks & 2027 Outlook
After a whole day spent discussing the opportunities, risks, and structures of digital lending, we finally dare to take a look into the crystal ball: What does the future have in store? After that, we’ll all definitely deserve a glass of champagne!
5:30pm
- Jördis Heckt-Harbeck, Partner @ Linklaters
- Esther Hackl, DLA Executive Board Member & General Counsel @ auxmoney
Networking Reception
6pm
End of Conference
10pm
Locations
Pre-Event on September 23, 2026 @ Lemonway, 8 Rue du Sentier, 75002 Paris, France
Conference on September 24, 2026 @ Linklaters, 25 Rue de Marignan, 75008 Paris, France – The Champs Élysées are just around the corner
Any questions?
Write an email or call us.
Email:Â event at digitallenders.eu
Landline:Â ++49 (0)30 94 85 46 60
Jördis has specialised experience in debt capital markets products with a focus on asset based structured finance, including, in particular, true sale and synthetic securitisation, warehouse financings (in particular, in the area of FinTech and digital business models), structured covered bonds, high yield bonds, secured bank financings and other secured financing of various asset classes.
Oliver Schimek ist Gründer und CEO der CrossLend GmbH. In dieser Funktion verantwortet er den gesamten Auf- und Ausbau des Geschäfts in Deutschland und Europa. Vor der Gründung von CrossLend im Jahr 2014 war er als Chief Financial & Investment Officer in wesentlicher Funktion für die Kreditech Holding in Hamburg tätig. Zu seinen Hauptaufgaben zählten dort die Leitung der Finanzabteilung und die Weiterentwicklung des Scoring-Modells. Davor trat der Data Scientist bereits als Gründer des Unternehmens Quantea in Erscheinung, welches Trading-Algorithmen und IT-Infrastrukturen für den Devisenhandel entwickelte. Oliver Schimek verfügt über zahlreiche Erfahrungen im Vertrieb für Finanzprodukte. Er hat Physik und Volkswirtschaft an der Freien Universität Berlin studiert.
Heinrich Grave leitet bei IDnow als Senior Vice President Digital Identity die Sparte Digitale Identität und treibt dabei die Entwicklung der IDnow Identity Wallet voran. Zuvor blickte Heinrich – als Executive Director beim Fintech Deposit Solutions und der Deutschen Bank sowie als Strategieberater bei Booz & Company – auf eine erfolgreiche Karriere in der Finanzindustrie zurück. Als Experte für KYC und Identitätsprüfung arbeitet Heiner überzeugt an der Weiterentwicklung von Digitaler Identität in Europa. 
