Wharton Convenes Finance Leaders on Digital Assets and Central Bank Policy as Industry Faces AI Disruption

Wharton's Finance Department gathered academics, policymakers, and industry executives at its 2026 Future of Finance Forum last week to address the forces reshaping global finance, with particular focus on digital assets and central bank policy in an era of rapid technological change.

The forum, discussed in a February 10 podcast by Joao Gomes, Wharton's senior vice dean, and Itay Goldstein, chair of the Finance Department, brought together stakeholders to examine how emerging technologies and regulatory frameworks are converging to redefine financial infrastructure. For CFOs navigating the intersection of traditional banking systems and blockchain-based alternatives, the event highlighted tensions that will likely shape treasury operations and capital allocation decisions through the end of the decade.

The timing is notable. Finance leaders are simultaneously managing AI integration into core processes while watching central banks worldwide experiment with digital currencies that could fundamentally alter payment rails and liquidity management. The forum's focus on digital assets suggests Wharton sees this as a live issue for corporate finance teams, not merely a speculative technology play.

Goldstein and Gomes structured the discussion around what they termed "key takeaways" from the forum, though the podcast format—a 17-minute conversation—suggests the event generated enough substantive debate to warrant executive summary for practitioners. The involvement of policymakers alongside academics and industry participants indicates the regulatory dimension remains unsettled, a reality that complicates long-term planning for finance organizations.

The forum represents Wharton's ongoing "Future of Finance" series, which has previously tackled financial technology, AI regulation, behavioral investing, and banking sector evolution. The December 2024 session on "The Future of Banking" preceded this year's digital assets focus, suggesting the school is tracking a progression from institutional transformation to infrastructure-level change.

For corporate finance leaders, the subtext matters as much as the stated agenda. When a top-tier business school convenes policymakers and industry executives to discuss central bank digital currencies, it signals that what seemed theoretical is becoming operational. Treasury teams accustomed to managing relationships with commercial banks may soon need protocols for interacting with central bank digital infrastructure directly—a shift that would compress intermediation layers and potentially alter everything from working capital management to foreign exchange hedging.

The podcast's brief runtime belies the complexity of the issues at stake. Digital assets and central bank policy intersect with questions about monetary sovereignty, cross-border payment efficiency, and the role of traditional financial intermediaries. These aren't abstract academic concerns; they're questions that will determine whether CFOs need to rethink their entire approach to cash management and liquidity planning.

What remains unclear from the forum discussion is whether participants reached any consensus on timeline or implementation pathways. The presence of policymakers suggests regulatory frameworks are still being negotiated, which means finance leaders face the uncomfortable reality of needing to prepare for infrastructure changes whose final form remains uncertain.

The broader question for CFOs: at what point does monitoring become action? Wharton's decision to make this a tentpole event suggests the answer is "soon."