New Jersey's banking industry is heading to the Jersey Shore next week for a crash course in the threats and opportunities reshaping the business of banking. The New Jersey Bankers Association, known as NJBankers, will hold its annual Banking on the Future Conference at the Borgata Hotel in Atlantic City from Oct. 5 through Oct. 7.
The three-day gathering kicks off with a welcome party and dinner on Oct. 5, according to ROI-NJ, before settling into a full slate of sessions designed to help New Jersey banks navigate change and seize new opportunities. Programming runs from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on Oct. 6, then wraps up with a shorter morning session from 8:30 a.m. to 11:05 a.m. on Oct. 7.
Economic Uncertainty and the Fraud Fight Take Center Stage
Among the listed topics is a 2026 economic overview and Federal Reserve policy outlook, giving bankers a read on where interest rates and broader conditions may be headed. Another session, titled the 2026 fraud landscape, is billed as a look at how banks fight back against what organizers describe as a faster, smarter fraud economy, per the same ROI-NJ report.
That framing lines up with what's happening well beyond New Jersey. Nasdaq Verafin estimated that global losses from bank fraud and scams hit $579.4 billion in 2025, with those losses compounding at an annualized growth rate of 9.2% since 2023, according to The Banker. The publication also reported that 90% of surveyed financial-crime professionals said AI-enabled attacks had increased over the prior two years, and that authorized push-payment scam losses rose 19% year over year in the United Kingdom in 2025.
AI, Blockchain and M&A Round Out the Agenda
Artificial intelligence gets its own dedicated attention at the conference, with sessions covering what's described as the transition from efficiency to return on invested capital and a look at what leading banks are building as they move toward becoming AI-native institutions, the ROI-NJ report notes. Blockchain banking also makes the agenda, with a session billed as covering regulatory developments every banker should know.
Rounding out the lineup are sessions on bank M&A readiness and market outlook aimed at boards and CEOs, along with a session titled from balance sheet to boardroom, focused on leading through uncertainty. Together, the topics reflect an effort to help New Jersey banks navigate change and pursue new opportunities amid a shifting economic and technological landscape.
A Model From Abroad for Fighting Fraud Together
While NJBankers has not announced any specific fraud-sharing initiative of its own, one example of interbank collaboration comes from Australia. BioCatch Trust Australia launched in 2024 with five of the country's largest banks joining forces to share behavioral and device-based fraud intelligence, the article in The Banker states. By the third quarter of 2025, that network covered more than 85% of Australia's banked population and had analyzed more than 180 million payments worth A$330 billion, identifying over A$60 million in attempted fraud during that quarter alone.
Whether New Jersey banks discuss anything resembling that kind of cross-institution data sharing remains to be seen once sessions get underway at the Borgata. For now, the published agenda points to a conference built around the twin pressures every bank is facing: an economy clouded by uncertainty and a fraud landscape that keeps moving faster than the defenses built to stop it.
