The annual MEA Finance Banking Technology Summit and Awards, held on the 8th of May 2025 in the Armani Hotel at the world famous Burj Khalifa in Dubai.
The title of this years’ summit – Banking and Finance Technology: The Evolution Continues, defined the developing regional financial technology agenda before a gathering of over 800 delegates and market stakeholders, all attending to hear from top market innovators, thinkers and financial sector leaders from across the region.
The event opened with a welcome note from Mr. Jamal Saleh, Director General, UAE Banks Federation, who was followed by Mr. Jan Pilbauer, Chief Executive Officer of Al Etihad Payments who provided the keynote address, setting the tone for the event.
The summit then began with the first panel discussion – Beyond the edge – Can banks build lasting leads over competition in today’s technology environment?, with Rajesh Nagpal, Director of Technology GBM (moderator); Giovanni Everduin, Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer, Commercial Bank International; Dr. Ali Shekaili, AGM – Head of Digital & e-Channels, National Bank of Oman; Rajsekhar Kar, Head of Solution Architects, Middle East and Africa, Swift; George Hojeige, Chief Executive Officer, Virtuzone; Mohamad Wassim Khayata, Chief Executive Officer, Mbank and Mohammed Muneebuddin, Vice President- Alliances, BFSI Business, Cloud4C, all discussing whether, in our technology driven environment, a bank can really get an edge over others.
Following, after an audience presentation by Sofyan Qasim, Group Presales Manager the Eastnets came panel two – Artificial Intelligence – Where it is taking regional banking? In this discussion were Dr. Eva Marie Stuller – Muller, Partner at EY (moderating); Gyan Prakash Srivastava, Global Head of Data , Analytics & AI Technology, Mashreq Bank; Mahendra Dhillon, Chief Technology Officer, National Bank of Fujairah; Christoph Koster, Chief Executive Officer, ruya; Reda Oummouy, Head of Marketing, Sales & Innovation, Adria Business & Technology; Ali Nanji, Regional Sales Director, Backbase and Antonina Skrypnyk, Head of FSI EMEA, Industry Success Leader, Softserve, talking about the results of the use of AI in banking have been across our region.
A second audience presentation, this time by Bahaa Eddin Zein, Digital Business Automation and Customer Experience Specialist, GBM followed the ending of this panel, then panel 3 was preceded by the third presentation given by Sriranga Sampathkumar, VP and General Manager – Middle East and Africa at Infosys.
Panel 3 – Technology and Payments – Pioneering ahead or settling comfortably?, commenced, asking what comes next for technology in payments, remittances and cross-border payments, featuring Alaa AlRousan, Head, Middle East & North Africa at Swift (moderating); Tareq Shaheen, PDM Director, Payment Solutions PDM, Eastnets; Andrea Cianchetti, Head of Products, Al Etihad Payments; Maria Parpou, EVP, Mastercard Gateway, Mastercard; Paul Carey, Chief Product Officer, Blue Rewards at Al Futtaim; Gurpreet Saluja, Executive Director, Financial Institutions, JP Morgan; Finali Fernando, Managing Director, Regional Head of Products, CCO at HSBC and Premdeep-Jagdeep Shah, Director, Head of New Economy at Deutsche Bank.
Mohammed Muneebuddin, Vice President – Global ISV and BFSI at Cloud4C gave the final audience presentation before the start of panel four, Developing Banking Technology – What is emerging and how is it getting to the markets?, looking into, excepting AI and ML, what are fastest developing technologies currently reshaping the sector in the region? With Richard Parsons, Financial Services – Managed Service Leader, PwC (moderating); Noman Rasheed, Chief Information Officer, Dubai Islamic Bank; Márk Hetényi, Co-Founder, Co-CEO & CTO, R34DY; Tamás Erni, Managing Partner, Loxon and Osama Al Rahma, Head of BD and WM Emirates Investment Bank, Chairman FERG.
Following lunch panel five, Regulation, Compliance and Technology – Staying ahead of the curve, asked how does technology help banks and financial institutions across our region stay up to speed and compliant with the increasingly more sophisticated regulatory requirements? The panel was, as always, flawlessly moderated by Bryan Stirewalt, Executive Advisor at Grant Thornton with Zsombor Brommer, Chief Compliance Officer at United Arab Bank; Mark Newfield, Group Head of Compliance Systems, Emirates NBD, Gabrielle Inzirillo, Head of Ecosystem Development at ADGM; Vibhor Mundhada, CEO, NEOPAY, Mashreq and Zarina Tariq, Risk & Compliance Advisor, BFSI, TrendMicro.
Panel six, the final discussion session of the summit was again moderated by Bryan Stirewalt, Executive Advisor at Grant Thornton joined by the following speakers, Amit Malhotra, Global Head of Retail Banking at ADIB; Mahmoud AbuEbeid, CEO & Co-Founder, GSS; Enaz Ebrahim; MD & Head of Consumer Payment Solutions, Magnati; Sudarshan Seshadri, Head of Retail Banking Division, NBQ; Mamoun Alhomssey, Chief Information Officer, Ajman Bank and Mohamad Najmeddine, Head of Platforms and Data Services (PDS) – Middle East and Africa (MEA) at Citi.
The MEA Finance Banking Technology Summit 2025 was supported by…
