New credit ideas are easy to sketch but hard to deliver. Most banks still rely on systems that update balances overnight and lock in core elements such as interest, fees and repayment rules. Even minor adjustments can trigger weeks of development and testing, so many product concepts never make it past the design stage.
Banks have responded by investing heavily in what customers see, while leaving the credit engines underneath largely untouched. In Publicis Sapient’s survey of Middle Eastern banking leaders, most said legacy systems are holding them back, yet the bulk of spend is still going into channels, data and cybersecurity. The result: slick apps and smooth onboarding sitting on top of infrastructure that remains slow to change.
On the customer side, habits have shifted quickly. BNPL volumes in MENA have been growing at close to 30% a year since 2021 and are forecast to more than double again by 2030. Digital wallets have gone from niche to normal: estimates put GCC wallet users at around 38 million, and recent surveys in the UAE suggest that close to half the population now pays for everyday purchases with their phone.
Inherited systems, limited room to move
Credit systems are hard to modernise mainly because of how they were built in the first place. In most banks they started life as extensions of debit platforms, with fixed processes and rule sets that were never meant to change often. Over the years, each new product tweak or regulatory change has been added as another exception or workaround. That history means even a small adjustment can be time-consuming, risky and expensive.
Regional regulators such as the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) and the Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE) are pushing ahead with open banking, payment-token and digital currency frameworks, which raises expectations that banks can adapt quickly to new rules and product designs.
To get around this, some banks are taking a more focused route. They keep their existing cores in place for deposits and payments but add modern credit platforms alongside them. The core continues to handle ledger, settlement and reconciliation, while the new layer gives product teams somewhere more flexible to design and run credit products without disturbing day-to-day operations.
Credit platforms designed for change
The newer platforms being deployed look different to the legacy stacks they sit next to. They are built around credit from the start, rather than trying to stretch debit logic to fit lending. Balance rollovers, interest hierarchies, different fee structures and variable repayment models are treated as standard building blocks instead of one-off exceptions. Flexible features for instalment plans and cashback reward programmes are also important, reflecting the broader shift towards credit-native architectures that accommodate modern customer expectations.
That shows up in how teams work. A product manager can change how repayments are allocated, alter a billing cycle or switch on a new instalment option without waiting for a long development cycle. Finance teams see the impact of those changes in their reporting straight away. Compliance can apply the right checks and limits through configuration instead of pushing for another code change. The distance between an idea and a live product gets shorter – which is where many banks operating across multiple Middle Eastern markets, have struggled.
Some issuers now see these credit platforms as part of their strategic infrastructure rather than just another IT system. They are choosing setups that can support different product types and markets in real time, often combining card issuing and ledger logic in a single environment. That lets teams launch new propositions without building a fresh integration pattern every time they move into a new country or segment.
For customers, the benefit is simple: they can choose payment plans to manage their finances, see charges update, and expect their account to reflect those decisions straight away.
When credit becomes a growth lever
Once the underlying systems improve, credit stops acting as a constraint and starts to support growth. With real-time control over pricing, repayment logic and product configuration, issuers can test new designs in weeks rather than quarters. That makes it easier to sharpen propositions, tailor features for local conditions and serve specific customer groups with more than a one-size-fits-all product.
You can see the impact most clearly in merchant-led journeys. In sectors like Saudi retail and Dubai’s travel market, instalment options at checkout are becoming far more common, and they only work smoothly when platforms can support sector-specific credit journeys without custom builds every time.
The ability to adapt these offers quickly and responsibly is what will separate fast‑moving issuers from those still constrained by legacy logic. Across the GCC, credit appetite is already visible in funding markets: by September 2025, Fitch reported nearly USD 55 billion of US‑dollar debt issued by regional banks, with full‑year volumes expected to exceed USD 60 billion. Saudi and UAE banks led the surge, underscoring how the capacity to design and launch new credit products quickly is becoming a direct route to sustainable growth.
What trust in credit looks like
For customers, the quality of a credit product isn’t defined by its features but by how clearly it behaves. When balances update in real time, when charges make sense, and when repayment options feel flexible, confidence builds. When information lags or rules seem arbitrary, trust erodes.
This shift in expectations is playing out against an inclusion gap that is still very visible in the Middle East. Global Findex data shows that while roughly four in five adults worldwide now have an account, in the Middle East and North Africa the share is closer to three in five, and the region has the widest gender gap in account ownership of any part of the world.
Modern credit infrastructure helps narrow that gap by making it easier to adapt products to local regulation and customer behaviour without overhauling the core. The same systems can then be rolled out across markets, fine-tuning compliance through configuration instead of rewriting code.
Smarter systems make it possible to show every interest calculation, repayment, and fee transparently in the moment, not as a statement weeks later. They allow banks to design lending journeys that encourage better decisions rather than penalise mistakes. Credit becomes not only faster to deploy but fairer and easier to understand.
Intelligent, integrated, inclusive
Progress in credit isn’t only about technology; it’s also about mindset. Institutions that treat their platforms as evolving systems to be refined continuously, rather than rebuilt once a decade, will stay closest to customer needs. Credit‑native architectures make that possible, giving banks the flexibility and control to innovate responsibly.
The next stage is about smarter, more connected systems. With automation and richer data, issuers can anticipate risk and demand earlier, adjusting products in real time. The aim is straightforward: provide credit where it adds value, not simply where it can be extended.
For credit to power growth again, banks need infrastructure built for the speed of what’s ahead, not the constraints of what’s behind.
