The annual MEA Finance Banking Technology Summit and Awards, were held on the 24th of June 2026 in the Jumeriah Emirates Hotel, by Dubai’s DIFC.
Once again, the summit identified and defined the developing regional financial technology agenda before a gathering of over 700 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. Jonathan Holman, CEO of Nebras Open Finance, who provided the keynote address, setting the tone for the event.
The summit then began with the first panel discussion – The Age of Agency – How Agentic AI will Change Regional banks and Open New Routes to Growth. Moderating this discussion was Sandeep Shrivastava, Head of the IBM Business Unit at GBM, who was joined by Somu Roy, Managing Director and Country Head of the UAE for Network International; Gyan Srivastava, Group Head of Data and Analytics at Mashreq; Dr. Joseph George, Chief Technology Officer at Ajman Bank;Â Haishan Wu, Head of AI at Zand; Arun Mehta, Head of Data Analytics and AI at FAB and Ahmed Khidhir, Regional Director for the Middle East at Finshape
Following, after an audience presentation by Ismail Yavuz, CTO for the Financial Industry, Middle East and Central Asia Enterprise Sales at Huawei came Panel 2 – Making it Happen – How Far has Open Finance Progressed in the Region? In this discussion were Richard Parsons, Director and Financial services Leader at PwC, moderating, with Enaz Ebrahim, SVP and Head of Consumer Payments at Network International; Dr. Abdulla AlTaee, Chief operating Officer at United Arab Bank; Jonathan Holman, Head of Open Finance for the UAE at Nebras Open Finance; Praveen Sekar, Chief Executive Officer at Torus Innovations Inc.; Talga Capri, Head of Product and Mal AI and Sivakumar Rajakkannu, Chief Business Officer at Yubi, debating the progression of Open Finance in our region.
Audience presentations, this time by Ahmad Jishi, Data and AI Squad Leader at GBM with – The Agentic Workforce: Autonomous Banking, followed by Sriranga Sampathkumar, VP and Global Head of Sales at Infosys Finacle – From Products to Platforms – Composable Banking for the Next Phase of Banking Transformation.
Panel 3, The Future of the Nexus – How the Technology Trio of Banks, Fintechs and Technology Vendors will Evolve?, commenced shortly after with Rajesh Nagpal, Vice President of Sales – UAE, Enterprise Business at Huawei as moderator, accompanied by Giovani Everduin, Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer at Commercial Bank International; Naman Kapoor, Managing Director – Head of Payments for the Middle East and Africa for Citi; Sagar Chandiramani, Chief Financial Officer for Virtuzone; Cem Soydemir, Regional Lead, Payments Market Development at Swift; Osama Al Rama, Head of Business Development at Emirates Investment Bank and Tamas Erni, Managing Partner of Loxon.
The title of Panel 4, Technology and Payments – The Challenge of Payments Technology Growth in the Middle East and Africa debated the multiple challenges currently faced in the regional payments ecosystem and was moderated by Finali Fernando, MD, Regional Head of Products, CCO and Business Management, Global Payments Solutions at HSBC who was joined by Mohit Aery, SVP, Acceptance and Merchant Solutions at Mastercard; Roland Brandli, Global Strategy Director at Smartstream; Paul Carey, EVP Cards, Payments and Fintech at Al-Futtaim; Sandeep Dhawan, Regional Head of Products – Payments at JP Morgan; Hasan Jabar, Deputy CEO of Al-Fardan Exchange and Huny Garg, Country Head – KSA for Swift.
Following lunch, Panel 5, Working in Harmony – How Composable Banking Enhances both Banks and Customers Experiences, was moderated by Amol Bahuguna, Financial Services Expert an EY who was with Shoaib Rizvi, Group Head of Digital Products at Emirates NBD; Sudarshan Seshadri, Head of Retail Banking, National Bank of Umm Al Qaiwain; Sandro Schmid, Managing Director at Epam Advisory EMEA at EPAM and Mohammed Khayata, Chief Executive Officer of Mbank and Mohamed Roushdy, Chief Technology Officer at Reem Bank.
Panel 6 – Safety in Numbers – Cybersecurity and Regulatory Compliance was led by Mohamed Roushdy, Chief Technology Officer at Reem Bank who was with Bryan Stirewalt, Executive Advisor for Grant Thornton and Zsombor Brommer, Chief Compliance Officer at United Arab Bank.
Finally, Panel 7 – Special Effects – What Have Been the Standout Banking Technologies of the Past Five Years – closed the summit and was helmed by the moderator, Bryan Stirewalt and included Samy Nizami, Executive Director and Head of Deposits, Digital and Payments at Standard Chartered Bank; Suraj Jadhav, Vice President of Solutions and Consulting at Quality Kiosk, Sajeev Kumar, Head of Corporate Banking and Enterprise Risk Technology for Mashreq Bank and Nicoleta Remmlinger, Director at 4most.
The MEA Finance Banking Technology Summit 2025 was supported by…
Event Partners: UBF, Al Etihad Payments and Nebras Open Finance
Lead Sponsor – Swift
Strategic Technology Partner – GBM
Executive Advisory Dialogue Sponsor – Backbase
Gold Level Sponsors: Huawei, Quality Kiosk, Torus Innovations, Infosys Finacle, Epam
Silver level Sponsors: Mastercard Merchant Cloud, Finshape, Smartstream
Delegates Badge Sponsor: Loxon
Official Lanyard Partner: Instant Cash
Supporting Partners: ACI Worldwide, Yubi, DDCAP Group, 4most, Finesse, Signzy, Virtuzone
