An audience of over 250 delegates were present through the event to hear from leaders and drivers of banking and payments innovation in the Kingdom and to recognise the winners of the awards following the summit.
Debates focused on key matters shaping the rapidly advancing banking and payments sectors, being driven by a growing, more diversified economy and the aspirations of the Vision 2030 initiative. Following the panel discussions, the MEA Finance, Saudi Arabia, Banking Technology, Innovation and Payments Summit and Awards, 2025 were presented to the winners.
The occasion was opened with the theme of the event underlined in an address to the gathered delegates by Cem Soydemir, Swift’s Regional Head of Payments, Go-To-Market. The debate sessions then started with the first panel, titled Cross Border, Happy Clients, that looked at the role and development of technology in corporate payments in and out of Saudi Arabia. The discussion was moderated by Cem Soydemir, Swift’s Regional Head of Payments, Go-To-Market, joined by Mustafa Al Luwaimi, Head of Digital Channels and Payments at SAB – Saudi Awwal Bank, Khaled AlQassem, an expert in payments, Camelia Olteanu, Senior Vice President, Operations Excellence at QNB – Qatar National Bank, Hugo Palis, Managing Director at Kyriba, a leading cloud-based financial and treasury software company and Rasheed Alshaikh, Executive Director, Head of Transaction Banking Cash Products for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia at Standard Chartered Bank.
A presentation followed the first panel, made by Samer Fawadleh, Regional Director for Eastnets, then panel two, The Progress of Progress continued, looking at banking technology and AI in Saudi Arabia with Rezwan Shafique, Principal, Global Financial Services at Arthur D Little as moderator. He was joined by Ayman Alhabib, Chief Risk Officer at D360 Bank, Abdulaziz Alqahtani, Head of Technology Strategy and Planning at Red Sea Global and Dr. Ahmed Darwish, Head of Digital Delivery at Bank Albilad.
Safety in Numbers was the title of the third discussion session, where cybersecurity and regulatory compliance in Saudi Arabia were discussed by Hesham Elzoghby Ismail, Senior Cyber Security Advisor/Swift Global Assessor & PCI – CEMEA, at Versos, who led the discussion. He was joined by Ghada Al-Shammari, CISO at Alraedah Finance and Dr. Ahmed Darwish, Head of Digital Delivery at Bank Albilad also joined.
The final panel of the summit was Key to the Kingdom, which took an overarching look at banking technology in Saudi Arabia. Once again, the moderator for this session was Rezwan Shafique, Principal, Global Financial Services at Arthur D Little accompanied by Saud Swar, Country Manager for Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Jordan and other Levant at Mastercard, Hussain Alkhaja, GCC Regional Director for DDCAP (DIFC) Limited and Tareq Shaheen, PDM Director, Payment Solutions at Eastnets.
Following the final panel were the presentations for the 2025 Saudi Arabia Leaders in Banking Technology, Innovation and Payments Awards. Organised by MEA Finance Magazine, these awards are held to ensure rightful recognition to the businesses and individuals making significant contributions to the fast-developing world of banking innovation and payments in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
A huge number of nominations for these awards were submitted, reflecting the importance of Saudi Arabia’s banking and financial markets, as a key engine in the GCC’s largest economy.
Here follows the full list of the 2025 MEA Finance Saudi Arabia Leaders in Banking Technology, Innovation and Payments Awards winners:
- Digital Banking Innovation of the Year in Saudi Arabia: Alrajhi Bank
- Best Cybersecurity and Risk Management Implementation in Saudi Arabia: Alraedah Finance
- Best Mobile Banking Services in Saudi Arabia: Alrajhi Bank
- Best Risk & Compliance Implementation in Saudi Arabia: Versos
- Best AI Technology Implementation in Saudi Arabia: Alrajhi Bank
- Best AI Technology Implementation Saudi Arabia – Public Sector: OptiBot – Ministry of Finance
- Best Use of AI for Fraud Prevention and Detection in Saudi Arabia: D360 Bank
- Best AI Provider to Banks and Financial Institutions: Pulse iD
- Islamic Digital Banking Provider of the Year – Saudi Arabia: DDCAP Group™ for ETHOS AFP
- Best Cybersecurity Provider – Saudi Arabia: Versos
- Best Fraud Prevention and Detection AI Provider: Mozn
- Most Innovative Cloud Services Provider – Saudi Arabia: Eastnets – Swift Service Bureau
- Best AML/KYC Solution Provider – Saudi Arabia: Eastnets – SafeWatch KYC
- Islamic Banking Technology Provider in Saudi Arabia: DDCAP Group™ for ETHOS AFP
- Most Innovative Payment Solutions Provider in Saudi Arabia: Eastnets PaymentSafe
- Best Payments Technology Implementation in Saudi Arabia: Mozn
- Best Cross-Border Payments Technology Provider in Saudi Arabia: Eastnets
- Best Innovation in Payments Technology in Saudi Arabia: Geidea
- Overall Best Payments Platform in Saudi Arabia: Geidea
- Best Innovation Leadership in Banking in Saudi Arabia: SAB
- Best Anti-Fraud and KYC Payments Solution in Saudi Arabia: Eastnets – PaymentGuard
- Technology Leadership Award in Saudi Arabia: Ghada Al-Shammari, Chief Information Security Officer, Alraedah Finance
- Digital Transformation Leader of the Year in Saudi Arabia: Usman Abrar, Head of Technology, PKF Al Bassam
- In recognition of his contribution to banking services in Saudi Arabia: Anwar Al-Nakhli, Head of Products Management & Solutions, BSF
- In recognition of his contribution to banking services in Saudi Arabia: Dr. Ahmed Darwish Elsayed, Head of Digital Delivery, Bank Albilad
