Payments in Moldova now take just a few seconds. Fraud is keeping pace, and the question for banks is no longer whether technology will change their architecture, but who will build it and how quickly. This is the discussion that DAAC Digital brought to the Fintech Moldova Conference 2026, held on October 2 at Chișinău Arena.

Now in its eighth edition, the conference organized by Fintech Moldova, powered by maib and Mastercard, brought together representatives from banks, payment companies, regulatory authorities, and global vendors. DAAC digital participated as a Gold Partner, hosting its own session and taking part in the day’s main panel discussion.

One Session, Three Perspectives

The session titled “How IBM Serves as a Strategic Engine in Moldova’s Financial Sector” was opened by Alexandru Savinov, CEO of DAAC Digital. The format brought together on the same stage three roles that rarely appear together: the local integrator, the specialized partner, and the technology provider.

The three IBM solutions discussed were demonstrated on screen: watsonx Orchestrate for process orchestration using AI agents, FlashSystem Storage for data protection, and IBM Safer Payments for fraud prevention. DAAC Digital is an IBM Silver Partner and acts as a bridge between these technologies and financial institutions in Moldova.

Fraud Doesn’t Wait

Robert Blatnik, Senior Fraud Management Advisor at IBS Bulgaria, an IBM Platinum Partner specializing in financial crime prevention, began by addressing the reality of the local market. According to data he presented, citing the National Bank of Moldova, the MIA instant payment system has over one million users, and losses from payment fraud reached 75 million lei in 2025. Online fraud is 11 times less common than card fraud, but results in twice as many losses.

His conclusion can be summed up in three words: “Built, not bolted.” An anti-fraud system assembled from separate parts can’t keep up with real-time payments. What works is a unified engine that analyzes transactions in milliseconds, combines rules with machine learning, and can explain its decisions to regulators.

As proof, Robert presented the case of BORICA, Bulgaria’s national payment operator: a single IBM Safer Payments platform, used by more than 16 banks, which processes over 70% of domestic card transactions at a rate of more than 4,000 transactions per second.

AI That Gets the Job Done

Horia-Gabriel Angelescu, Client Engineer at IBM, joined us online to discuss “Do More with Less: Scaling Financial Operations with AI Orchestration.” He started with a practical question: What do you do with AI agents once you have them? His answer was watsonx Orchestrate, the IBM platform where agents are registered, monitored, and tracked wherever they run.

The presentation concluded with a live demonstration of the platform’s interface, which, according to IBM, offers over 1,000 predefined AI capabilities and integration with more than 80 enterprise platforms.

The New Architecture of Banking

In the afternoon, Alexandru Savinov participated in the panel discussion “The New Architecture of Banking: How Open Finance, AI, Cloud, and Self-Service Are Reshaping Financial Institutions,” moderated by Natalia Țurcan-Munteanu, alongside Alina Beleuță (Salt Edge), Julien Defosse (AWS), and Klaudia Ochman (NCR Atleos).

When asked what technologies Moldova could adopt directly, without going through Western European markets, Alexandru pointed to an advantage that the local market underestimates. Moldova is a small country, but it has the same requirements as large markets and a digitally connected population. For this reason, it can serve as a testing ground for new technologies from major vendors, as has already happened in telecommunications, where Orange launched HD Voice in Moldova among the first countries to do so.

The second example concerned agent payments. If an AI agent executes a transaction in accordance with the user’s rules, but the intent was formulated incorrectly, who is liable and who bears the cost of the refund? Alexandru emphasized that Moldova will likely align with the European framework, but that there is currently room for experimentation, and this could position the local market at the forefront of agency payments in Europe.

Behind the Scenes

The event brought together on the same stage the governor of the National Bank of Moldova, representatives of the capital market, the international academic community, and global technology companies. For the DAAC digital team, the conference was also an opportunity to meet with clients and partners from the financial sector, with discussions continuing even after the event.

The technology for real-time fraud prevention and AI-driven process automation already exists. What makes the difference is who implements it locally and how well they adapt it to the needs of Moldovan banks.