ICAM opens registration for its 5th International Congress on Digital Assets, AI and the Financial Sector: 26-27 November in Madrid

The Madrid Bar Association (ICAM) has opened registration for the 5th International Congress on Digital Assets, AI and the Financial Sector, to be held on 26 and 27 November 2026 in the ICAM assembly hall. The event will bring together more than 45 experts, including authorities and supervisors, representatives of financial institutions and professionals from technology, finance and the legal profession.

Organised by the Banking Law Section, the congress is directed by José Ramón Couso, deputy of ICAM's governing board and president of the Section, and by Alfredo Muñoz, professor of Commercial Law at the Complutense University.

Ten panels on financial transformation

The fifth edition centres the debate on the legal implications of the technological transformation of the financial sector. The programme is structured in ten round tables: regulation, supervision and compliance in the digital assets ecosystem; crypto-asset service providers, infrastructure and digital identity; tokenised money, tokenised deposits and stablecoins; regulation of the retail digital euro and the PONTES project for a wholesale CBDC; tokenisation of financial instruments in primary and secondary markets; investment funds and digital assets; DeFi, DAOs and new organisational models with AI; AI fundamentals, the AI Act and data protection; artificial intelligence in banking and markets, with governance, risks and use cases; and autonomous agents, agentic payments and automated contracting.

The full programme, with agenda and speakers, will be published soon, according to the bar.

The format is in person, across two full days combining round tables with floor debate, a setup designed for intensive updating of practising professionals who cannot take a full week away from clients.

Registration and fees

Registration is already open, and the bar's official registration page currently shows a price of 200 euros, with a 10% surcharge for law graduates registered with other bar associations. ICAM's note mentions an early bird fee of 200 euros against a general price of 250 euros, but does not clearly fix the reduced-fee deadline, so early registration is the safe way to secure it.

For firms with banking, fintech or compliance practices, the congress arrives at a moment of intense regulatory activity: the rollout of the European AI Act, the consolidation of the crypto-asset regime and the progress of the digital euro turn these two days into the kind of concentrated update the calendar offers only a few times a year.

What to expect from this edition

The congress's progression mirrors the maturing of the sector itself: from early editions describing what crypto-assets were, the programme has moved to effective regulation, supervision and compliance. The panels on autonomous agents and agentic payments are this year's novelty and anticipate the debate already occupying banks and supervisors: who answers when an AI system contracts or pays on a client's behalf. For the legal adviser, the practical value of the event lies in hearing first-hand how authorities interpret rules that have just entered into force and whose enforcement practice is still being built.

The profession's autumn agenda

ICAM's 5th congress joins a packed agenda for the coming weeks. The Aranzadi LA LEY congress on in-house lawyers recently gathered corporate legal departments, the 8th National Consumer Law Congress of ICAM and AEDC addressed consumer defence, and technology will have its trade-fair date at Legal Tech Expo 2026 at IFEMA Madrid. Further ahead, the 14th National Congress of the Spanish Legal Profession in Toledo already has closed dates.

All sector calls and conferences, in our Events section.