The region’s most dynamic actors and payments pioneers took part in the MEA Finance, Leaders in Payments Summit and Awards held on the 22nd of September 2026, at the Ritz Carlton Hotel, JBR in Dubai.
Once again, by thoughtfully assembling and curating over thirty key industry leaders at the forefront of our regions payments world, addressing almost 500 avidly engaged delegates at this important industry occasion, MEA Finance again underscores its place as the host of the GCC’s apex single day dedicated payments summit.
Proceedings were opened by Andrea Ciancetti, Chief Products Officer at Al Etihad Payments, who set the tone with a thought-provoking keynote address.
The debates started with the panel titled Digital Defense, assessing how recent have challenged regional payments, how they have been faced and how they have been overcome. The discussion was moderated by Bryan Stirewalt, Executive Advisor at Grant Thornton and included by Somu Roy, Managing Director for Outsourced Payment Services in the UAE for Network International, Diaa Moustafa, Chief Information Officer at National Bank of Fujairah and Zarina Tariq, BFSI Lead at Trend AI.
Following the panel was the first of the events’ standalone sessions titled, From Agentic to AI, presented by Faisal Ameer Malik, Chief Technical Officer and Huawei.
The second panel, Trust Issues, tackled questions around risks associated with AI in payments and was moderated by Sandeep Singh, Director at Huawei UAE Finance Business. Sandeep was joined in this session by Dima Stiran, Head of Payments and Wallet Partnership for the Middle East and Africa for Google Pay, Sagar Chandiramani, CFO at Virtuzone, Venkata Indraganti, Thought Leader in Transaction Banking for Commercial Bank of Qatar, Osama Al Rahma, Head of Business Development and Wealth Management at Emirates Investment Bank and the Chairman of FERG and Jonathan Holman, CEO of Nebras Open Finance.
Next came the second standalone session titled, AI Agents in Fraud Operations, given by Ahmad Jishi, Data and AI Squad Leader at GBM.
Panel three, In From the Cold, debated the growing use of stablecoins and the rehabilitation of crypto and digital assets in payments and was headed by Anna Zeitlin, Partner at Addleshaw Goddard, accompanied by Dr. Bhaskar Dasgupta, Chairman of the Middle East Stable Coin Association – MESA, Arif Khan, CEO for MENA at Crown Agents Bank, Kartik Taneja, EVP, Head of Payments and Consumer Lending at Mashreq, Sagar Chandiramani, CFO at Virtuzone and Nisreen Al Matarweh, BD, Middle East and North Africa at Swift.
The fourth panel, Payments Technology and AI, asked what roles can Agentic AI expect to take in the world of payments. Moderating was Malika Beri, Founder and Principal Advisor at Blaze Meridian Group, joined by Dr. Abdulla Altaee, Chief Operating Officer at United Arab Bank, Dr. Joseph George, Chief Technology Officer at Ajman Bank, Vani Rao, MEA Head for Domestic Payments and Accounts Payable for Citi and Surya Arora, Head of Platform Payments for ENDB.
Panel five, the closing panel of the day was Border Crossing, focused on developments and challenges still faced in and by the region in the processes of cross-border payments. The panel moderator was Moller Agaiby, Leader for Digital Business Automation at GBM and included Siddharth Ghaisas, Payments Strategy and Technology at Accenture, Preetham Prabhu, Product Head, Aani and Al Etihad Payments, Ananth Srivatsa, EVP Digital Payments Solutions at Rakbank and Cem Soydemir, Regional Lead – Payments Market Development, MENAT and India at Swift.
Also, during this busy day, the audience were asked to take part in two polls. Their responses revealed important insights into thoughts about key current issues in the realm of payments.
- In the coming five years, do you expect that Stablecoins, CBDCs and Tokenised Payments will regularly feature in your business or personal payments activities?
Answers were. Yes 82%, No 4%, Maybe 15%
- How comfortable are you with Agentic AI making your business or personal payments, or purchasing decisions for you?
Comfortable 31%, In two minds 51%, No way 19%
Though an unscientific poll, the results are telling.
