THE 2026 AGENDA

Take a look at the Money20/20 Middle East 2026 agenda to see who's taking the stage and the conversations that are defining the future of fintech

Stage

Next-Gen Money

Off The Record

The Bridge

The Capital

Session Type

Day 1

1:10 PM

The Bridge

Monday 14 September, 01:10 PM—01:30 PM (20 min)

Fireside Chat : Designing Financial Systems That Scale Safely

Balancing innovation, competition, and systemic stability

Speakers

William Mason

Director General | Guernsey Financial Services Commission

Balaji Rajagopalan

CTO | State Bank of India

The Capital

Monday 14 September, 01:10 PM—01:25 PM (15 min)

Fireside Chat : Capital Markets Outlook

Global investment is entering a new era, driven by structural shifts rather than short-term market cycles. As geopolitics, technology, and economic transformation reshape the global economy, investors are rethinking where capital flows and where long-term value will be created.This session explores the macroeconomic trends, investment strategies, and cross-border capital flows shaping the future of global finance and what they mean for investors, institutions, and markets worldwide.

Off The Record

Monday 14 September, 01:10 PM—01:50 PM (40 min)

Panel Discussion : The Threat Has Scaled. Have We?

We assume security spend equals security. It doesn’t. Cybercrime is now automated, organised and AI-powered and it targets fintech first, faster than anyone wants to admit.This session combats the comfortable belief that the threat is “handled", and asks what the industry is still treating as covered when it plainly isn’t.

Speakers

Christophe Makni

Head of Data, Automation and AI | Migros Bank

Vittorio Furlan

Independent Non-Executive Director | Malayan Banking Berhad (Maybank)

Sumnesh Joshi

Deputy Director General | Government of India

Next-Gen Money

Monday 14 September, 01:10 PM—01:30 PM (20 min)

Live Demo : Meet the Other Joseph: A Digital Twin Takes the Stage

Joseph Bradley opens Next-Gen Money Stage alongside his own AI twin, live and unscripted, and the audience questions both. When the room can no longer tell the difference, the question stops being philosophical and becomes a governance problem. Joseph then opens the twin up, shows what actually keeps an agent accountable, names the one decision no institution should ever delegate, and hands the audience the harder question of where their own line sits.

Speakers

Joseph Bradley

Chairman & CEO | JMB X

Beverly Rider

Co-Founder & COO | JMB X

Hamza Aqeel

CTO | JBM X

1:25 PM

The Capital

Monday 14 September, 01:25 PM—01:55 PM (30 min)

Panel Discussion : Part. 1 Capital Flow Equation: Entry, Retention & Exit

Attracting investment is only the first step. The real measure of a competitive investment ecosystem lies in its ability to deploy capital efficiently, retain investor confidence, and deliver successful exits. From market access and regulatory certainty to liquidity, IPO readiness, and secondary markets, this session explores the conditions that enable capital to flow, grow, and recycle - creating sustainable investment ecosystems that attract long-term global capital.

Speaker

Lukas Bonko

CEO | Bratislava Stock Exchange

1:30 PM

The Bridge

Monday 14 September, 01:30 PM—02:00 PM (30 min)

Fireside Chat : Trust Corridors: Where Policy Alignment and Fintech Infrastructure Meet

A strategic conversation on how diplomacy, policy alignment, and fintech infrastructure can unlock resilient Cross-Border investment and payments corridors across high-growth emerging markets.

Speakers

Nilixa Devlukia

CEO | Payments Solved

Petra Janež

Financial Controller | Ministry of Finance, Republic of Slovenia

Next-Gen Money

Monday 14 September, 01:30 PM—02:10 PM (40 min)

Panel Discussion : Influence Is the New Distribution: Who Owns the Financial Customer?

For a growing share of consumers, financial decisions begin before they ever reach a bank or fintech app. Creators, communities and social platforms increasingly shape what people save, invest in, trust and how they understand risk.This panel explores who owns the customer relationship when financial influence moves outside the institution. How should fintechs engage with creators without outsourcing trust, and when influence turns into product adoption or financial loss, where does responsibility sit?

Speakers

Raji Kaippallil Raji

Financial Advisor & Content Creator | FinancewithRaji

Aydan Al-Saad

Influencer | What do you do?

Panagiotis Kriaris

Director / Strategic Advisor | Unzer / Nordic Fintech

Hatem Jarad

Head of SMB - Saudi | Snapchat

1:55 PM

The Capital

Monday 14 September, 01:55 PM—02:15 PM (20 min)

Fireside Chat : Part 2. The MENA Exit Gap: Where Liquidity Breaks Down

As investment into the MENA region continues to accelerate, the next challenge is ensuring capital can exit as effectively as it enters. Without deeper public markets, more active secondary transactions, and stronger cross-border M&A activity, venture ecosystems risk stalling before reaching full maturity.This conversation explores the reforms, market infrastructure, and capital market evolution required to close the region's liquidity gap and enable a more self-sustaining investment cycle.

Speakers

Yazeed Alturki

Associate Partner | STV

Alex Hageman

Managing Director, Head of EMEA ECM | Moelis & Company

2:00 PM

Off The Record

Monday 14 September, 02:00 PM—02:30 PM (30 min)

Deep Dive : Young, Digital, Credit-Shy: Why BNPL is Quietly Winning in KSA & GCC

The accepted wisdom says a young, credit-wary, cash-first population won’t take on credit. The data says the opposite, nearly 85% of payments are already digital, smartphones are universal, and BNPL fits the behaviour like a glove.So why are we still designing for a consumer who no longer exists?

2:10 PM

Next-Gen Money

Monday 14 September, 02:10 PM—02:40 PM (30 min)

Deep Dive : Engineered Money: Who Is Programming Financial Behaviour?

Every nudge has an economic consequence. Credit limits, savings defaults, repayment reminders, rewards, streaks and AI prompts are no longer just UX features — they influence conversion, retention, borrowing, savings behaviour and credit performance.As fintechs race to make money more personalised and frictionless, the same mechanics that improve engagement can also encourage overspending, dependency and debt.This panel asks what financial products should optimise for when engagement and customer outcomes start to diverge, where behavioural design becomes manipulation, and who is accountable when a product is deliberately built to change how people use money.

2:30 PM

Off The Record

Monday 14 September, 02:30 PM—02:50 PM (20 min)

Fireside Chat : Innovation or Imitation? Beyond the Copy-Paste Playbook

Fintech sold itself on disruption, yet most startups are reskinning the same five business models. Payments, lending, neobanks, embedded finance: proven, scalable, fundable... and identical. Has the industry mistaken a copy-paste playbook for innovation?

Speaker

Brad Maasdorp

FinTech Growth Partner | TMC (The Member Company)

2:40 PM

The Capital

Monday 14 September, 02:40 PM—03:20 PM (40 min)

Panel Discussion : Capital Meets Africa’s Growth Opportunity

As global investors diversify beyond traditional regional allocations, Africa is emerging as one of the world’s fastest-growing investment corridors. Sovereign wealth funds, institutional investors, family offices and strategic partners are increasingly deploying capital across infrastructure, energy, digital economies, manufacturing and financial services.

Speakers

Neo Mooki

Chairwoman | Botswana Stock Exchange

Efayomi Carr

Investment Partner | Flourish Ventures

Hortense Mudenge

CEO | Kigali International Financial Centre (KIFC)

Next-Gen Money

Monday 14 September, 02:40 PM—03:00 PM (20 min)

Fireside Chat : Building the Next Digital Economy: What the New MENA Consumer Expects

MENA is moving from digital adoption to digital advantage. Consumers are shopping more frequently, managing money through digital wallets and increasingly expecting payments to disappear into the experience: fast, secure and effortless.But convenience is changing more than checkout. It is reshaping where consumers shop, which brands they trust, how quickly they abandon a poor experience and how much control they expect to retain as payments become increasingly automated.The session explores what these changing behaviours reveal about the next MENA consumer, and how merchants and financial institutions can translate better performance, local relevance and trust into sustainable growth.

Speaker

Remo Giovanni Abbondandolo

General Manager, MENA | Checkout.com

2:50 PM

Off The Record

Monday 14 September, 02:50 PM—03:20 PM (30 min)

Networking : Networking Break

3:00 PM

Next-Gen Money

Monday 14 September, 03:00 PM—03:40 PM (40 min)

Panel Discussion : The Business of One: Financial Services for Independent Work

Income has fragmented. Banking has not.Millions now earn across platforms, projects and several sources at once, while credit models, account structures and financial planning still assume one employer, one salary and a predictable month.Creators, freelancers, drivers, merchants, consultants and AI-enabled entrepreneurs run financial lives that sit half in the personal column and half in the commercial one, and are routinely served well by neither.The question on the table is what financial services owe the business of one, and how much of the existing stack has to be rebuilt rather than adapted to deliver it.

Speakers

Susana Ponce Froment

Board Advisor | Gifftid

Panagiotis Kriaris

Director / Strategic Advisor | Unzer / Nordic Fintech

Omair Ansari

Co-Founder & CEO | Abhi FinTech Ltd

3:20 PM

The Capital

Monday 14 September, 03:20 PM—03:50 PM (30 min)

Panel Discussion : Governments as Financial System Builders

The world's most competitive investment destinations are being shaped not only by markets, but by governments building the institutions and infrastructure that enable capital to thrive. From sovereign wealth funds acting as ecosystem builders to state-led capital market development and forward-looking regulation, governments are redefining their role as architects of financial systems designed to attract investment, accelerate growth, and strengthen long-term economic competitiveness.

Speakers

Senator Osita Izunaso

Chairman, Senate Committee on Capital Markets | Federal Republic of Nigeria Government

William Mason

Director General | Guernsey Financial Services Commission

Akshata Namjoshi

Equity Partner | KARM Legal

The Bridge

Monday 14 September, 03:20 PM—03:35 PM (15 min)

Live Demo : Innovation Sandboxes: What We Learned from Real-World Experiments

3:35 PM

The Bridge

Monday 14 September, 03:35 PM—04:00 PM (25 min)

Fireside Chat : Quiet Layer: Why is Insurance the Framework Nobody Talks About?

Every mortgage, trade finance deal and infrastructure project depends on someone agreeing to carry the risk. This session treats insurance as core financial infrastructure rather than an add-on, and asks what changes when protection is designed into the system alongside payments and credit rather than layered on afterwards.

Speaker

Basil Mimi

CEO | Mantas

3:40 PM

Next-Gen Money

Monday 14 September, 03:40 PM—04:20 PM (40 min)

Panel Discussion : The Borderless Customer: Building One Financial Life Across Many Markets

Consumers increasingly earn, spend, save and support family across multiple countries, currencies and platforms, while financial services remain fragmented by market.This panel explores how fintechs can build a more connected financial life for borderless customers, bringing payments, FX, savings, credit and investing together across markets, and competing to become the primary financial relationship wherever the customer goes.

Speakers

Sandra Mianda

Founder & CEO | Paypr.work

Ravi Jakhodia

CEO | MonieWorld (from Moniepoint)

Neil Ni

Chief Strategy officer | XTransfer

4:00 PM

The Capital

Monday 14 September, 04:00 PM—04:20 PM (20 min)

Fireside Chat : Building an Investable Nation: Why Global Capital is Choosing Saudi Arabia

Global capital is increasingly favouring markets with long-term vision, institutional credibility and investment-ready ecosystems. Saudi Arabia has emerged as a focal point for this shift, driven by regulatory reform, sovereign investment, expanding capital markets and a rapidly evolving innovation economy.Explore what makes a market truly investable, why investors are increasing their allocation to the Kingdom, and what it will take for Saudi Arabia to become one of the world’s leading long-term capital hubs.

Speaker

Sebastian Frederiks

CEO | ING Securities Capital

4:10 PM

The Bridge

Monday 14 September, 04:10 PM—04:50 PM (40 min)

Panel Discussion : Closing the Wealth Gap by Design

Learn how intentional inclusion by design can create better financial infrastructure that expands access, builds real economic participation, and drives long-term wealth creation for all.

Speakers

Uyoyo Edosio

Chief ICT Operations Expert | African Development Bank (AfDB)

Nadine Jaafar

Chief Business Officer | Moyasar Payment Services

Maria Medvedeva

Managing Director, Middle East | Skyro

Margaret O’Connor

Chairman | Launch Africa Ventures

4:20 PM

The Capital

Monday 14 September, 04:20 PM—06:00 PM (1 h 40 min)

Startup Competition : DAY 1: MoneySurge Pitch Competition

Next-Gen Money

Monday 14 September, 04:20 PM—04:50 PM (30 min)

Fireside Chat : From Saving to Investing: Who Will Own the Next Generation Investor?

Investing is increasingly moving beyond traditional brokers and wealth managers into fintech apps, wallets, banks, super apps and digital wealth platforms, powered by APIs, embedded brokerage, robo-advisory and AI.As access becomes more seamless and investing moves closer to the consumer, this panel explores how the next generation will discover and experience investing, whether easier access leads to better financial outcomes, and what happens to trust as investing becomes increasingly embedded and automated.

Speaker

Roger Rouhana

Co-founder & CEO | Alpheya

4:30 PM

Off The Record

Monday 14 September, 04:30 PM—05:00 PM (30 min)

Fireside Chat : Founder Story: “It Started With A $90 Problem”

What do you do when you stumble across a problem that you simply can’t ignore? For Chris Maurice, it started with a $90 fee and a question: why should moving money be this hard? That question took him from spotting a broken system to building Yellow Card, and ultimately serving millions across Africa and beyond. This is the personal, messy and unexpected story of what happens when you decide to solve the problem yourself.

Speakers

Christopher Maurice

Co-founder & CEO | Yellow Card

Afua Hagan

Journalist & Broadcaster | News Central

4:50 PM

The Bridge

Monday 14 September, 04:50 PM—05:00 PM (10 min)

Panel Discussion : Rewiring Capital from the Inside

The incentive structures that quietly decide who finance reaches.How venture capital decisions shape who gets access to financial tools, credit, and wealth creation globally. From bias in funding pipelines to emerging inclusive fintech models, this session unpacks how investors can actively redesign access. Expect insights from operators-turned-investors deploying capital into underserved founders and cross-border financial ecosystem

Speakers

Nivesh Pather

Investment Principal | Norrsken22

Mareme Dieng

Head of M&A, Strategy & Fintech Future | Axian Group

Arth Malani

Founder & CEO | NorthStar Insights

Next-Gen Money

Monday 14 September, 04:50 PM—05:30 PM (40 min)

Fireside Chat : The Consumer the Credit File Cannot See

Credit models were built to read one kind of life: a single employer, a documented salary, a visible history of borrowing and repaying. Millions of people live outside that pattern. They have income but no payslip, discipline but no credit history, years of digital activity but no established banking relationship.Alternative data, open banking and verified income could bring them inside the system. They could equally create a new form of exclusion, harder to see and harder to contest, because the reasoning sits inside a model rather than a policy.The session turns on three questions: which signals deserve weight in a lending decision, how credit-information providers widen the file without lowering the standard, and what recourse a person has when an automated decision concludes they are not creditworthy.

Speakers

Adeola Adedewe

Founder & CEO | Kredete

Nilixa Devlukia

CEO | Payments Solved

Omar Saleh

Co-founder & Group CEO | Khazna.App

5:00 PM

The Bridge

Monday 14 September, 05:00 PM—05:20 PM (20 min)

Fireside Chat : Identity as financial infrastructure

Money can't move until identity is established and trusted. This session explores identity not as a compliance requirement, but as the foundation every financial system depends on. It examines how interoperable identity systems are being designed, who governs them, and how that foundation must evolve as AI agents begin acting on behalf of people and businesses.

Speaker

James Smith

Chief Strategy Officer | ADI Foundtation

5:20 PM

The Bridge

Monday 14 September, 05:20 PM—05:40 PM (20 min)

Fireside Chat : Both Sides of the Design Table

Financial systems are shaped as much by supervisors as by builders. As innovation accelerates, regulators are increasingly designing the frameworks that determine how new technologies scale safely and responsibly. This fireside explores how supervisors and industry are working together to create regulatory foundations that enable innovation while maintaining trust, resilience and financial stability.

Speakers

Joanne Kubba

SVP, head of Government Affairs CEMEA | VISA

Monica Jasuja

Chief Expansion and Innovation Officer | Emerging Payments Association Asia

5:30 PM

Next-Gen Money

Monday 14 September, 05:30 PM—05:50 PM (20 min)

Panel Discussion : Who Do You Trust With Your Money? The Rise of Community Finance

Money has always been social. People save with family, pool money with friends and learn financial habits from those they trust.Technology is now turning those behaviours into products, from digital savings circles to group investing and fractional ownership. This panel explores why consumers increasingly make financial decisions through communities, how social trust shapes behaviour, and whether fintech can turn collective saving into long-term ownership and wealth.

Speaker

Turki AlShlail

Co-Founder & CEO | Jozo

5:40 PM

Off The Record

Monday 14 September, 05:40 PM—05:40 PM ()

Closing Remarks

5:50 PM

Next-Gen Money

Monday 14 September, 05:50 PM—06:20 PM (30 min)

Fireside Chat : How Technology Shapes Financial Behaviour: Building Financial Confidence in the Digital Age

Technology is no longer just changing how consumers access financial services, it is reshaping how they think, decide and behave with money. From AI-powered financial guidance and behavioural design to creator-led advice, digital communities and embedded financial experiences, the next generation is developing new habits around spending, saving, investing and long-term financial planning. As trust shifts beyond traditional institutions towards digital experiences and personalised advice, this session explores how technology is redefining financial confidence, consumer behaviour and household wealth, and what banks, fintechs and wealth platforms must do to earn trust in the next era of money.

Speakers

Tolani Abere

Influencer & Investment Professional | Tolani Talks Money

Dr. Jasmin B. Gupta

Global Fintech Academic | University of Wollongong, Australia, GIFT City India

Dr. Preston Cherry

Founder & Wealth Advisor | Concurrent Wealth

6:00 PM

The Bridge

Monday 14 September, 06:00 PM—06:05 PM (5 min)

Closing Remarks

6:20 PM

Next-Gen Money

Monday 14 September, 06:20 PM—06:30 PM (10 min)

Closing Remarks : Closing Remarks

Day 2

12:00 PM

The Capital

Tuesday 15 September, 12:00 PM—12:30 PM (30 min)

Panel Discussion : Raising Capital in a More Disciplined World

Global capital is becoming more disciplined, with investors placing greater emphasis on resilience, governance, sustainable growth and clear paths to profitability. As economic uncertainty reshapes investment decisions, raising capital is no longer just about having a compelling vision, it requires institutional credibility, strategic positioning and alignment with evolving investor priorities across both public and private markets.

The Capital

Tuesday 15 September, 12:00 PM—12:00 PM ()

Opening Remarks : MC Welcome

The Bridge

Tuesday 15 September, 12:00 PM—12:05 PM (5 min)

Opening Remarks : MC Welcome

Next-Gen Money

Tuesday 15 September, 12:00 PM—12:10 PM (10 min)

Opening Remarks : MC Welcome

The New Experience

12:10 PM

Next-Gen Money

Tuesday 15 September, 12:10 PM—12:30 PM (20 min)

Live Demo : Agentic Checkout: When AI Shops for You

A customer issues one instruction to an AI agent. The demonstration follows everything that happens after it: merchant selection, credential use, tokenisation, spending controls, authorisation, and then the unglamorous end of the process where a refund, a dispute and a liability decision all have to land somewhere.Every decision point stays visible.What the run makes concrete is the distance between an AI system that recommends a purchase and one that completes it. It ends where every autonomous transaction ends: who is responsible when the buyer is a bot?

12:30 PM

The Bridge

Tuesday 15 September, 12:30 PM—01:00 PM (30 min)

Fireside Chat : Who Pays for the Next Financial System? Financing the Infrastructure Behind Financial Transformation

Financial infrastructure doesn’t build itself. From digital identity and instant payment networks to cross-border corridors and digital public infrastructure, every transformation depends on long-term investment, strong public-private partnerships and sustainable funding models.This session explores how governments, development finance institutions, sovereign wealth funds, multilateral organisations and private investors are working together to finance the next generation of financial infrastructure. Where should public capital lead? Where should private capital follow? And what partnership models are proving most effective at delivering infrastructure that scales across countries and regions?

Speaker

Hortense Mudenge

CEO | Kigali International Financial Centre (KIFC)

The Capital

Tuesday 15 September, 12:30 PM—01:00 PM (30 min)

Debate : Who Should Allocate Capital?

AI is increasingly influencing how capital is raised, allocated, and managed across venture investing, private markets, and corporate finance. As intelligent systems become embedded in investment workflows, from sourcing opportunities and evaluating risk to executing allocation decisions - they are reshaping the mechanics of capital formation.The challenge is no longer whether AI will participate in investment decisions, but how responsibility, governance, and human oversight should evolve alongside it.

Speakers

Fariha Ansari Javed

Partner | Stride Ventures

Ivan Chelebiev

CEO | Chicago Global

Next-Gen Money

Tuesday 15 September, 12:30 PM—01:00 PM (30 min)

Panel Discussion : Reimagining Payments, Embedded by Design

Mobility platforms, marketplaces and consumer applications are no longer partnering their way to payments. They are building wallets, checkout and merchant services inside their own products.That moves the competitive question. Holding the licence matters less than controlling the experience wrapped around it, and platforms are now taking ownership of checkout, merchant services and working capital in one go.Operators who have already pushed financial services inside a broader digital journey give the unedited version: what had to be built rather than bought, which partnerships carried real weight, where implementation stalled, and how owning the money layer changed what customers expect of them.

1:00 PM

The Capital

Tuesday 15 September, 01:00 PM—01:20 PM (20 min)

Panel Discussion : Empowering Growth: Women’s Rising Role in Fintech Investment

As the fintech sector accelerates globally, women are playing an increasingly prominent role as founders, investors, and decision-makers. We explore the progress made in expanding women’s access to capital and leadership in fintech, alongside the opportunities ahead for building an even more inclusive and competitive innovation economy.

Next-Gen Money

Tuesday 15 September, 01:00 PM—01:40 PM (40 min)

Panel Discussion : Who Will Build Banking for the Next Billion Customers?

As financial services become embedded into everyday digital experiences, banks, fintechs, telecoms, super apps, marketplaces and digital platforms are competing to become the customer’s primary financial relationship.Some are expanding beyond banking, while others are integrating identity, payments, lending and wallets into messaging, mobility, e-commerce and other platforms people already use. As finance becomes part of the experience rather than a destination, this discussion asks who is best positioned to serve the next billion customers, how the boundaries between banking, commerce and technology will evolve, and what it will take to earn their trust.

Speakers

Ahmet Kayhan

Chief Payments and Digital Assets Officer | VEON Group Holding Company Ltd

Mohamed Roushdy

Chief Technology Officer | Reem Finance

Glauber Mota

CEO - Brazil | Revolut

1:10 PM

Off The Record

Tuesday 15 September, 01:10 PM—01:40 PM (30 min)

Deep Dive : Build Everything or Build One Thing Brilliantly?

Every bank wants an ecosystem. Every fintech wants a platform. Every platform wants financial services. Yet many of the industry’s biggest strategic bets have proven far harder to execute than expected.In this unfiltered discussion, leaders who have built banks, fintechs and digital platforms will challenge conventional wisdom and share the decisions they'd rethink today. From overestimating customer loyalty to underestimating execution complexity, no assumption is off limits. As AI and embedded finance reshape the competitive landscape, this is a rare opportunity to hear what really creates lasting advantage, and what the industry needs to stop believing.

Speakers

Farid Huseynov

CEO | Bir Ecosystem

Yasar Ahmad

Founder | OVO Lab

1:20 PM

The Bridge

Tuesday 15 September, 01:20 PM—02:00 PM (40 min)

Panel Discussion : “Beyond Remittances” Building Diaspora Capital Corridors, From money movement to investment ecosystems.

Remittances have transformed how money moves across borders, but can they become a catalyst for long-term investment and economic development? This session explores how governments, financial institutions, fintechs and diaspora communities can move beyond transfers to build investment ecosystems that channel global capital into entrepreneurship, infrastructure and wealth creation. From digital investment platforms to cross-border savings products and policy innovation, we’ll examine how financial infrastructure can unlock lasting economic impact.

Speakers

Benjamin Fernandes

CEO & Founder | NALA

Miranda Naidoo

Co-founder & CEO | Scale

Tolani Abere

Influencer & Investment Professional | Tolani Talks Money

The Capital

Tuesday 15 September, 01:20 PM—01:40 PM (20 min)

Fireside Chat : Beyond Spreadsheets: How Family Offices Are Modernising Wealth Management

Family offices are evolving to manage increasingly complex portfolios across venture capital, private markets, public equities and alternative assets.As new technologies reshape investment operations, family offices are rethinking how they source deals, conduct due diligence, monitor portfolios and make investment decisions.From operational efficiency to governance, data management and next-generation wealth infrastructure, what will define the family office of the future?

Speaker

Mosbah Kahaleh

Director | Al Rajhi Partners

1:40 PM

Next-Gen Money

Tuesday 15 September, 01:40 PM—02:00 PM (20 min)

Fireside Chat : Beyond Claims: Insurance That Finds You

Insurance is leaving the moment of purchase and moving into the flow of ordinary life: a trip booked, a car started, a checkout completed, a health target missed.Consumers now expect cover to surface when it is relevant, act before a loss becomes a crisis and adjust to how they actually live. Meeting that expectation means running on behavioural, wellness and connected-device data, which brings its own problems around transparency, fairness and whether anyone genuinely understands the protection they hold.The conversation follows the shift from reactive claims handling towards prevention, continuous value and cover that appears exactly when it’s needed, becoming another invisible layer of the digital customer journey.

Speaker

Faisal Alrajhi

Co-Founder & CEO | Almatar Company

The Capital

Tuesday 15 September, 01:40 PM—02:10 PM (30 min)

FIRESIDE : Beyond The Banks: Working Capital and the Alternative Financing Gap

Banks are retreating from mid-market and SME lending; private credit and fintech rails are filling the gap, with supply chain and working capital finance as the on-ramp.

Speaker

Walter Gontarek

CEO | Channel Capital

1:50 PM

Off The Record

Tuesday 15 September, 01:50 PM—02:30 PM (40 min)

Panel Discussion : No Credit History? No problem. Fintech’s Bet on the Excluded

Explore how fintechs are aggressively dismantling traditional credit gatekeepers using alternative data, AI, and mobile-first models. From smartphone behaviour and cash-flow signals to embedded lending and BNPL, these innovations are extending credit to millions previously locked out

Speakers

Tewfik Cassis

Chief Product Officer (CPO) | Lean Technologies

Omar Ramadan

CEO of GCC | MNT Halan

2:00 PM

The Bridge

Tuesday 15 September, 02:00 PM—02:30 PM (30 min)

Panel Discussion : Trust Handoff: Every payment is a chain of people vouching for each other

A single transaction passes through banks, aggregators, networks, apps and regulators, each one trusting the last. When it works, nobody sees it. When it breaks, everyone argues about whose fault it was. This session pulls apart that chain: who actually carries liability at each step, how those handoffs are being renegotiated as payments get faster and more embedded, and what happens to accountability when a transaction crosses five parties in under a second.

Next-Gen Money

Tuesday 15 September, 02:00 PM—02:40 PM (40 min)

Panel Discussion : The Checkout Is the New Bank Branch: How Commerce Became Banking

The moment of purchase is becoming the new front door to financial services. What was once a simple payment now opens access to credit, wallets, loyalty, insurance, instalments and personalised offers embedded directly into shopping, travel and everyday commerce.This panel examines how checkout is becoming a primary distribution channel for finance, giving retailers, marketplaces, super apps and digital platforms greater influence over the customer relationship. It explores how embedded finance, AI-driven personalisation and contextual products are creating new revenue models and reshaping the role of banks. As finance disappears into everyday experiences, who owns the customer at the moment that matters most?

Speakers

Faisal Hatim

Founder & CEO | Rabbah

Rania Lamprou

Co-founder & CEO | Simpler

Darren Taylor

Senior Vice President, SHARE Rewards & Customer Solutions | Majid Al Futtaim

Kostas Xiradakis

Chief Commercial Officer | Snappi Bank

Afua Hagan

Journalist & Broadcaster | News Central

2:10 PM

The Capital

Tuesday 15 September, 02:10 PM—02:50 PM (40 min)

Panel Discussion : Partnerships That Power Capital Formation

No single institution can meet the world’s growing demand for capital alone. From investment banks and corporate investors to development finance institutions, lenders and technology providers, capital formation increasingly depends on partnerships that connect different sources of funding with the businesses that need it most.This session explores how collaboration across the capital ecosystem is expanding access to finance, improving risk assessment, enabling more efficient capital allocation and supporting business growth. Where are the strongest partnership models emerging? How are technology and data reshaping lending and investment decisions? And what will it take to build capital ecosystems that can finance the next generation of businesses at scale?

Speakers

Mareme Dieng

Head of M&A, Strategy & Fintech Future | Axian Group

Benjamin Fernandes

CEO & Founder | NALA

Gabriele Sabato

Co-founder & CEO | Wiserfunding

2:30 PM

The Bridge

Tuesday 15 September, 02:30 PM—03:10 PM (40 min)

Panel Discussion : No Payslip Required: Building Financial Services for Variable Income

Millions of people now earn income through freelancing, platform work, entrepreneurship and flexible employment, yet many financial products are still designed around a traditional monthly salary.This session explores how banks, fintechs, employers and policymakers are redesigning financial infrastructure for a workforce with increasingly diverse income patterns. From open banking and payroll innovation to earned wage access, portable benefits and new approaches to credit assessment, what will it take to build financial services that work beyond the payslip?

Speakers

Omar Ramadan

CEO of GCC | MNT Halan

Abdulrahman AlMubaraky

Country Manager | WISE

Azamat Sultanov

Co-founder & Executive Chairman | GoCab Holding Ltd

Kamal Reggad

Founder & CEO | RemotePass

Off The Record

Tuesday 15 September, 02:30 PM—03:00 PM (30 min)

Networking : Networking Break

Breathe In As Long As It Takes To Read This LineBreathe Out As Long As It Takes To Read This Line

2:50 PM

The Capital

Tuesday 15 September, 02:50 PM—03:10 PM (20 min)

Fireside Chat : Capital Without Borders - Investing Across Emerging Markets

As global capital becomes increasingly interconnected, corridors are emerging and building the world’s most dynamic investment partnerships. Driven by sovereign wealth, institutional investors and rapidly growing innovation ecosystems, founders now have unprecedented opportunities to access capital, expand into new markets and build globally competitive businesses across regions.This session explores how cross-border investment is reshaping fintech growth, which sectors are attracting the strongest investor interest, and what founders need to scale successfully.

Speakers

Margaret O’Connor

Chairman | Launch Africa Ventures

Shwetank Verma

Co Founder & Managing Partner | Leo Captal

3:00 PM

Off The Record

Tuesday 15 September, 03:00 PM—03:30 PM (30 min)

Deep Dive : Candid Confessions: Bridging Perception Gaps Before They Cost You Millions

Emerging markets are often misunderstood, and those narratives shape investment decisions, partnerships, and economic opportunity. In this candid Off The Record conversation, speakers unpack the disconnect between perception and reality, exploring how media, bias, and outdated assumptions influence global engagement, and what must change to unlock trust and collaboration.

Speaker

Brad Maasdorp

FinTech Growth Partner | TMC (The Member Company)

3:10 PM

The Capital

Tuesday 15 September, 03:10 PM—03:40 PM (30 min)

Panel Discussion : The New Architecture of Capital Formation

Capital formation is being reshaped by a new generation of investors, technologies and market infrastructure. From venture capital and private markets to tokenisation, digital custody and next-generation settlement, the institutions and platforms connecting capital with opportunity are rapidly evolving.This session explores how the architecture of capital formation is changing, what infrastructure is needed to unlock institutional capital at scale, and how investors, financial institutions and market infrastructure providers are building the next generation of capital markets.

The Bridge

Tuesday 15 September, 03:10 PM—03:30 PM (20 min)

Fireside Chat : Execution Layer: Scaling Fintech Across Borders

A tactical conversation on what breaks, scales, and evolves when fintech platforms expand across jurisdictions, currencies, and regulatory environments. Speakers reveal the operational systems and partnerships needed to scale globally while maintaining trust and speed.

Speaker

Oliver Hughes

Chairman of the Supervisory Board og TBC Digital | TBC Uzbekistan

Next-Gen Money

Tuesday 15 September, 03:10 PM—03:50 PM (40 min)

Panel Discussion : Working Capital Without the Application

A small business usually needs money at exactly the point a conventional lender is least equipped to say yes. The paperwork takes weeks. The opportunity takes days.Transaction history, platform activity, e-invoicing and live cash-flow data change the sequencing. Demand can be spotted, risk can be priced, and working capital can be offered inside the tools a merchant already has open. For freelancers, microbusinesses and smaller merchants, the credit arrives before the application would have been finished.Three things get argued out here: whether commerce and financial data can genuinely close the SME finance gap, what makes embedded working capital durable rather than seasonal, and how lenders resist turning abundant data into credit nobody can repay.

Speakers

Ashish Gupta

Head Digital, SME & Sales | Bank Dhofar

Gabriele Sabato

Co-founder & CEO | Wiserfunding

Yemi Olulana

CEO | Flex Finance

Ismael Belkhayat

Founder & CEO | Chari

3:30 PM

The Bridge

Tuesday 15 September, 03:30 PM—03:50 PM (20 min)

Fireside Chat : CFOs in the Loop: Governing AI Agents That Touch Your Money

AI agents are increasingly making or supporting financial decisions. Discover how leading institutions are building governance frameworks, controls, and human oversight to stay compliant and in control.

3:40 PM

The Capital

Tuesday 15 September, 03:40 PM—04:05 PM (25 min)

Fireside Chat : Financing the Next Economy: Beyond Traditional Capital

The way businesses access capital is evolving rapidly. Venture capital is no longer the only path to growth, as private credit, revenue-based financing, embedded finance and alternative funding models expand the financing landscape. This session explores how innovation is reshaping capital formation for the next generation of companies.

Speaker

Armineh Baghoomian

Managing Director | Partners For Growth

Off The Record

Tuesday 15 September, 03:40 PM—04:10 PM (30 min)

Deep Dive : Financial Inclusion: Are We Moving the Needle or Just the Numbers?

Financial inclusion is growing rapidly, but are we creating meaningful impact or simply increasing participation? Explore the tension between profit and purpose, questioning whether access alone is enough or if true inclusion requires stronger financial literacy, confidence and long-term resilience.

Speakers

Berna Tüzüner

Senior Banking Expert | Frankfurt School Of Finance & Management

Omair Ansari

Co-Founder & CEO | Abhi FinTech Ltd

Ratul Ahmed

Managing Director - Lending | Commerzbank AG

3:50 PM

Next-Gen Money

Tuesday 15 September, 03:50 PM—04:10 PM (20 min)

Fireside Chat : From AI Pilot to Product: What the 20% Do Differently

Pilots are not the constraint. Banks and fintechs have plenty. The shortage is in AI that customers actually end up using.Moving from demonstration to production means solving a very different set of problems: data access, latency, security, governance, model monitoring and integration with systems never designed for AI. The conversation will examine where promising pilots actually break, what has to change before they ship, and what the organisations successfully getting AI into customers’ hands are doing differently.

Speaker

Zahra Al-Kaf

Sr. Solution Architect - FSI | NVIDIA

4:00 PM

The Bridge

Tuesday 15 September, 04:00 PM—04:40 PM (40 min)

Panel Discussion : Built to Move: The Next Generation of Global Payment Corridors

Cross-border remittances are entering a new era. Digital transformation is reshaping how money moves between markets, making corridors faster, smarter and more interoperable.This session brings together banks, fintechs, payment providers and policymakers on the partnerships and infrastructure behind it and what it takes to build corridors that are quicker, more resilient and more inclusive at global scale.

Speakers

Erwan Gelebart

CEO | AXIAN Digibank & Fintech

Ramana Kumar

President | ADI Foundation

Omar Hamade

CEO | Hawala

4:10 PM

The Capital

Tuesday 15 September, 04:10 PM—05:50 PM (1 h 40 min)

Startup Competition : DAY 2: MoneySurge Pitch Competition

Next-Gen Money

Tuesday 15 September, 04:10 PM—04:50 PM (40 min)

Panel Discussion : Growth Without a Branch: Building Financial Brands in an Embedded World

When finance disappears into a checkout, an app or a marketplace, a customer can use a financial product for years without ever having chosen the institution behind it.Brand building does not survive that intact. Acquisition shifts towards partnerships, platforms, creators and product-led growth, and the company controlling the interface starts to matter more than the company providing the financial service.The people who own growth targets answer the questions their boards ask them: what acquisition genuinely costs, which distribution partnerships actually convert, how a challenger builds loyalty with no branch network to fall back on, and how an incumbent stays distinctive when its product reaches customers through somebody else's platform.

Speakers

Karan Chawla

Director, Global Head of Financial Services | Uber Technologies Inc.

Yury Misnik

Chief Technology Officer | InDrive

4:20 PM

Off The Record

Tuesday 15 September, 04:20 PM—04:40 PM (20 min)

Fireside Chat : Are VC’s The New Loan Sharks?

Speaker

Armineh Baghoomian

Managing Director | Partners For Growth

4:40 PM

The Bridge

Tuesday 15 September, 04:40 PM—05:00 PM (20 min)

Fireside Chat : Compliance as a Feature, Not Friction

KYC, AML and reporting are too often experienced as friction that slows every product down. This session shows how leading institutions are rebuilding compliance as an invisible, automated layer embedded in the flow. The takeaway is a model where controls strengthen the system instead of fighting it.

4:50 PM

Off The Record

Tuesday 15 September, 04:50 PM—05:30 PM (40 min)

Panel Discussion : Women Aren’t Bad Investors. Maybe Investing Is Bad at Women

Women control more wealth than ever, yet many stay on the sidelines - not for lack of ambition, but because the industry was built on assumptions about how they “should” engage with money.We confront whether trust, community and belonging - not products and performance - are what actually turn savers into investors.

Speaker

Afua Hagan

Journalist & Broadcaster | News Central

Next-Gen Money

Tuesday 15 September, 04:50 PM—05:30 PM (40 min)

Fireside Chat : Credit at the Moment of Need: What Comes After BNPL?

Embedded credit is entering a second phase. The first competed on speed, convenience and how fast it could scale. The next will be judged on affordability, profitability, regulatory tolerance and whether the underwriting holds. That is a different business behind the same interface.What follows is the harder conversation: what contextual credit becomes once BNPL stops being the reference point, how a lender tells a useful financial tool from borrowing nobody needed, and which models are still standing when growth is no longer the only number that counts.

Speakers

Yanan Wu

CEO & Chairman | Surfin Meta Digital Technology Pte. Ltd.

Lizzie Champan

Co-Founder and Chief Business Officer | Baystreet Advisors Private Limited

5:00 PM

The Bridge

Tuesday 15 September, 05:00 PM—05:40 PM (40 min)

Panel Discussion : Merchant Multiplier: Who is enabling the next billion businesses to sell digitally?

Digital commerce depends on more than consumer demand. It requires robust acceptance infrastructure, trusted payment networks, and seamless merchant experiences. This session explores how payment providers are enabling businesses to participate in increasingly digital economies.

Speakers

Dalal Alrayes

Co-founder & CEO | Spare

Ahmet Kayhan

Chief Payments and Digital Assets Officer | VEON Group Holding Company Ltd

Eduardo Abreu

CPO & CEO of EBANX Singapore | Ebanx

5:30 PM

Off The Record

Tuesday 15 September, 05:30 PM—05:50 PM (20 min)

Networking : Networking

Next-Gen Money

Tuesday 15 September, 05:30 PM—06:00 PM (30 min)

Panel Discussion : The Safest Experience Is the One You Never Notice

Security is becoming part of product design rather than a separate interruption.Biometrics, behavioural authentication, passkeys and AI-powered fraud detection can protect consumers without forcing them through additional steps. But invisible protection raises its own questions: what data is being monitored, why legitimate customers are blocked and whether a seamless experience can still provide a meaningful explanation.

Speakers

Luke Naudé-Lorentz

Head of Growth | Orca Fraud

Vittorio Furlan

Independent Non-Executive Director | Malayan Banking Berhad (Maybank)

Prof.Dr. Ahmed Ebada

Professor, AI Strategist & CEO | HOPn

5:40 PM

The Bridge

Tuesday 15 September, 05:40 PM—06:20 PM (40 min)

Panel Discussion : Digital Public Infrastructure: The Operating System of Modern Economies

Digital identity, trusted data exchange, interoperable government platforms, and citizen-centric digital services are rapidly becoming the foundation of modern economies. This session explores how governments are building the digital infrastructure required to support innovation, financial inclusion, public service delivery, and economic competitiveness in an increasingly connected world.

Speakers

Mario Nobile

Director General | Agency of Digital Italy, Government of Italy

Raafat Sindi

CRO | CNTXT

Neo Mooki

Chairwoman | Botswana Stock Exchange

Nasser Saleh

Chairman & Founder | MadfoatCom for ePayments

5:50 PM

Off The Record

Tuesday 15 September, 05:50 PM—05:50 PM ()

Closing Remarks

The Capital

Tuesday 15 September, 05:50 PM—05:50 PM ()

Closing Remarks

6:00 PM

Next-Gen Money

Tuesday 15 September, 06:00 PM—06:40 PM (40 min)

Panel Discussion : Designing Financial Products for the Real World

The best financial products solve real customer problems. A closing session on human-centred innovation, behavioural finance and product strategy.The best financial products don’t win because they have the most features. They win because they solve real customer problems in ways that feel effortless, intuitive and valuable.This conversation brings together product leaders to explore how behavioural insight, AI, customer experience and product strategy are shaping the next generation of financial products. What separates products people simply try from products they genuinely adopt?

Speakers

Farhan Hassan

CDO | Easypaisa

Reema Jain

Expert Associate Partner | McKinsey & Company

Abdullah Assal

CEO | Sahl

6:20 PM

The Bridge

Tuesday 15 September, 06:20 PM—06:40 PM (20 min)

Fireside Chat : Cover at Checkout

Insurance that shows up exactly when you need it.What changes when protection becomes infrastructure?Embedded insurance is quietly becoming the most scalable way to put protection in people's hands. But cover that appears in a single tap raises real questions of disclosure, fairness and trust. Unlock here on its design layer!

The Bridge

Tuesday 15 September, 06:20 PM—06:25 PM (5 min)

Closing Remarks

6:40 PM

Next-Gen Money

Tuesday 15 September, 06:40 PM—06:50 PM (10 min)

Closing Remarks : Closing Remarks

Day 3

11:55 AM

The Bridge

Wednesday 16 September, 11:55 AM—12:00 PM (5 min)

Opening Remarks : MC Welcome

12:00 PM

The Bridge

Wednesday 16 September, 12:00 PM—12:40 PM (40 min)

Panel Discussion : What Comes After Payments?

Payments are no longer the end goal, they are becoming the foundation for a new generation of real-time, intelligent, and interconnected financial services. As digital assets, instant payment networks, and programmable financial infrastructure converge, the industry is redefining how value moves, settles, and creates new economic opportunities.

Speakers

Farid Huseynov

CEO | Bir Ecosystem

David Birch

Global Ambassador | Consult Hyperion

Tony Ashraf

Managing Director | BlackRock

Off The Record

Wednesday 16 September, 12:00 PM—12:00 PM ()

Opening Remarks : Virtual MC Welcome

The Capital

Wednesday 16 September, 12:00 PM—12:10 PM (10 min)

Opening Remarks : MC Welcome

Next-Gen Money

Wednesday 16 September, 12:00 PM—12:10 PM (10 min)

Opening Remarks : MC Welcome

The New Financial System

12:10 PM

The Capital

Wednesday 16 September, 12:10 PM—12:30 PM (20 min)

Fireside Chat : Built in Riyadh. Scaled Everywhere.

Saudi Arabia has rapidly emerged as one of the region's most dynamic fintech ecosystems, supported by progressive regulation, increasing access to capital, and a growing innovation economy. Yet building a successful company at home is only the first step. The next challenge is creating globally competitive businesses that can scale across markets, attract international investment, and become category leaders.Explore what separates regional success from global scale, the role of capital in accelerating international expansion, and how Saudi-founded companies can build enduring enterprise value on the world stage.

Speaker

Rakan Al Rashed

Managing Partner | BECO Capital

Next-Gen Money

Wednesday 16 September, 12:10 PM—12:30 PM (20 min)

Fireside Chat : Can I Trust You With My Money? The Psychology of Financial AI

AI can already recommend how people save, spend, borrow and invest. The next step is more consequential: allowing it to act.Consumers will not delegate financial decisions because a system is intelligent. They will do it when they understand what it is allowed to do, when it will ask for approval and whether a decision can be challenged or reversed.Opening the day, this conversation examines which financial decisions people are prepared to hand over, where they will insist on remaining in control and what banks and fintechs must build around consent, explanation and human intervention before autonomous finance becomes mainstream.

Speakers

Ilya Kravtsov

Founder & CEO | PILLAR

Yasar Ahmad

Founder | OVO Lab

12:30 PM

The Capital

Wednesday 16 September, 12:30 PM—01:00 PM (30 min)

Fireside Chat : Insurtech: Protecting the Future of Capital

As climate risks, cyber threats and rising healthcare costs reshape the global economy, insurance is evolving from a financial safety net into a strategic investment opportunity. From AI-powered underwriting and embedded insurance to digital health and climate resilience, Insurtech is redefining how capital is protected, deployed and grown across MENA.

Next-Gen Money

Wednesday 16 September, 12:30 PM—01:00 PM (30 min)

Panel Discussion : Who Sells Financial Products When AI Makes the Decisions?

A consumer asks an AI assistant to find the best current account, the right insurance product or a sensible place to put savings. The assistant compares providers, filters products and recommends. The customer never reaches a website or an app, and the provider never knows the comparison happened.Distribution built on brand, search and branch presence does not survive that intact.The panel gets to the practical version of the problem: what a financial company has to do to remain visible to a machine choosing on someone's behalf, and whether the next generation of institutions will be competing for people or for the algorithms representing them.

Speakers

Christophe Makni

Head of Data, Automation and AI | Migros Bank

Frank Amankwah

CTO | Sabile Studio

12:40 PM

The Bridge

Wednesday 16 September, 12:40 PM—01:20 PM (40 min)

Panel Discussion : Building the Trade Rails of Tomorrow

As trade corridors evolve, so must the systems that support them. Explore how digital payments, instant settlement, and cross-border interoperability are reshaping the foundations of regional and global commerce.

Speakers

Laurent Marochini

Chief Executive Officer | Standard Chartered Luxembourg

Ahmad Yaacoub

VP MENA & Country Head | Thunes

Tianwei Liu

CEO and Co-Founder | StraitsX

1:00 PM

The Capital

Wednesday 16 September, 01:00 PM—01:40 PM (40 min)

Panel Discussion : AI-Native Companies: The New Rules of Enterprise Value

AI is fundamentally changing how companies are built, scaled and valued. AI-native businesses are redefining traditional assumptions around productivity, capital efficiency, operating models and competitive advantage, enabling smaller teams to create outsized enterprise value. As investors reassess the characteristics of tomorrow's market leaders, the focus is shifting from scale alone to defensibility, proprietary data, distribution and long-term value creation. This session explores how AI is reshaping enterprise value, what distinguishes the next generation of category leaders, and where investors see the greatest opportunities for long-term returns.

Next-Gen Money

Wednesday 16 September, 01:00 PM—01:40 PM (40 min)

Panel Discussion : When AI Fails: Who Pays?

An autonomous system makes a financial decision. Someone loses money. The argument starts immediately and has no obvious winner.Liability could sit with the institution that deployed the model, the vendor that built it, the team that trained it, or the customer who agreed to delegate the decision in the first place. Most arrangements currently leave the answer implied.This panel refuses the abstract version. Where liability actually lands when financial AI causes harm. What governance looks like when an autonomous system has to survive a real audit rather than a policy review. And which of these responsibilities must be settled before agentic finance operates at scale, not after.

Speakers

Justin Malta

Global Leader, Risk and Regulatory Advisory | KPMG

Claire Harrop

Partner | Freshfields LLP

Balaji Rajagopalan

CTO | State Bank of India

Ratul Ahmed

Managing Director - Lending | Commerzbank AG

1:20 PM

The Bridge

Wednesday 16 September, 01:20 PM—01:50 PM (30 min)

Fireside Chat : Always-On Wallet: Banking for the digital natives

The financial architecture for a generation that never powers down.Always-on isn't a feature, it's becoming the default state of an economy. This session unpacks the infrastructure, governance and trust models that an always-on economy depends on. It keeps the future-facing energy while staying firmly on the systems beneath it.

Speakers

Karan Chawla

Director, Global Head of Financial Services | Uber Technologies Inc.

Ambareen Musa

Chief Executive Officer - GCC | Revolut

Off The Record

Wednesday 16 September, 01:20 PM—01:40 PM (20 min)

Fireside Chat : Match Made in Heaven: The New Creator & Bank Alliance

The creator economy is now a $250B network of micro-businesses and banks, platforms and fintechs are racing to serve them.Are creators just a new customer segment, or the next frontier of banking entirely? We look at who builds the winning relationship over the next decade.

Speakers

Glauber Mota

CEO - Brazil | Revolut

Aydan Al-Saad

Influencer | What do you do?

Afua Hagan

Journalist & Broadcaster | News Central

1:40 PM

The Capital

Wednesday 16 September, 01:40 PM—02:00 PM (20 min)

Live Demo : Can AI Investment Decisions Be Trusted?

A compliance officer can't take an AI's investment call on faith. This session opens one live recommendation and walks it backward: explanation, portfolio logic, signal, data - exposing exactly where the evidence trail holds and where it quietly comes apart.

Speaker

Ivan Chelebiev

CEO | Chicago Global

Next-Gen Money

Wednesday 16 September, 01:40 PM—02:00 PM (20 min)

Fireside Chat : Life on Autopilot: The Rise of Autonomous Money

Managing money has traditionally meant completing a series of separate tasks: paying bills, moving savings, monitoring spending and choosing when to act.AI agents are beginning to turn those tasks into an always-on financial service. They can anticipate upcoming needs, manage subscriptions, move money and adjust financial plans within limits set by the customer.This conversation explores what everyday financial life looks like when money management shifts from manual action to continuous automation. How will autonomous systems coordinate spending, saving and financial planning across a customer’s life? What happens when circumstances change or the system gets something wrong? And can money become effortless without making the person who owns it invisible?

Speaker

Mohamed Mansour

Regional Director | Wise

Off The Record

Wednesday 16 September, 01:40 PM—02:00 PM (20 min)

Panel Discussion : $650B in Motion: The New Remittance Cost Curve

Remittance costs remain above the 3% global target, and a younger, mobile-first customer base is shifting volume toward instant, low-cost digital channels.We map what the $650B+ market looks like as fee revenue compresses: who survives, who consolidates, and what new risks replace the old ones.

Speaker

Mohamed Mansour

Regional Director | Wise

1:50 PM

The Bridge

Wednesday 16 September, 01:50 PM—02:20 PM (30 min)

Fireside Chat : “The” Inheritors' Blueprint

How the next generation wants the next financial systems built.The people who'll run on tomorrow's rails rarely get to shape them. This session changes that, putting next-gen builders in dialogue about the infrastructure, incentives and governance being designed now. It's a forward look co-authored by the generation it's for.

Speaker

Naif Alajmi

Co-Founder, Board Member, and Head of Arranging | OORI

2:00 PM

Off The Record

Wednesday 16 September, 02:00 PM—02:20 PM (20 min)

Fireside Chat : Who Still Uses Their Bank Cards?

You don’t reach for your wallet anymore, it reaches for you.From social platforms to creator ecosystems and embedded retail experiences, finance is no longer a destination, it’s infrastructure. Invisible, frictionless and woven into the scroll, the click and the checkout.As AI agents start making decisions and completing transactions on our behalf, who actually owns the customer relationship when the customer never opens a banking app again?

Speaker

Panagiotis Kriaris

Director / Strategic Advisor | Unzer / Nordic Fintech

2:20 PM

The Bridge

Wednesday 16 September, 02:20 PM—02:50 PM (30 min)

Panel Discussion : Building the Builders: Who Will Power the Next Generation of Financial Infrastructure?

The greatest challenge facing financial infrastructure may not be technology, it may be talent. As AI, cloud, digital identity and real-time payments reshape financial systems, countries are competing to build the skills, partnerships and innovation ecosystems needed to sustain long-term transformation. How should governments, industry, universities and investors work together to develop the next generation of fintech talent and ensure financial infrastructure continues to evolve?

Speakers

Wasim Hamoud

Founder & CEO | Moola

Sumnesh Joshi

Deputy Director General | Government of India

Off The Record

Wednesday 16 September, 02:20 PM—02:40 PM (20 min)

Fireside Chat : Are Traditional Exchanges Becoming Obsolete?

2:40 PM

The Capital

Wednesday 16 September, 02:40 PM—03:00 PM (20 min)

Fireside Chat : What Makes a Company Worth Owning?

Capital gets you started. But product, customers, distribution and loyalty are what ultimately create enterprise value. A founder and investor unpack what separates businesses that simply raise money from those that build something customers genuinely want to keep using.

Off The Record

Wednesday 16 September, 02:40 PM—03:10 PM (30 min)

Panel Discussion : If AI Manages Your Money, Do You Still Need To Understand It?

AI is rapidly evolving from a financial assistant into a financial decision-maker. As intelligent agents begin recommending investments, choosing credit products, managing budgets and automating everyday financial decisions, the role of financial education is being fundamentally challenged.Will AI democratise better financial outcomes, or will it create a generation of consumers who trust algorithms without understanding the consequences? If technology becomes the expert, what financial knowledge remains essential, and who is ultimately accountable when AI gets it wrong?

Speakers

Tolani Abere

Influencer & Investment Professional | Tolani Talks Money

Christophe Makni

Head of Data, Automation and AI | Migros Bank

Azeem Khan

Co-Founder | Miden

Prof.Dr. Ahmed Ebada

Professor, AI Strategist & CEO | HOPn

2:50 PM

The Bridge

Wednesday 16 September, 02:50 PM—03:30 PM (40 min)

Panel Discussion : Monetizing Openness: The Future of Financial Ecosystems

Open finance was built on access. The next phase is about value. As data, identity, payments, and financial services become increasingly interconnected, where will the biggest commercial opportunities emerge and who will capture them?

Speakers

Bassel Ojjeh

CEO | LigaDATA

Todd Schweitzer

CEO and Founder | Brankas

Amira Abdelaziz

Senior Data, AI & Fintech Innovation Leader | Central Bank of Egypt

3:00 PM

The Capital

Wednesday 16 September, 03:00 PM—03:30 PM (30 min)

Fireside Chat : HOT SEAT: The Founder Playbook That Doesn't Exist

There is no universal blueprint for building a successful fintech company. Every founder faces unique decisions around hiring, fundraising, regulation, expansion and product strategy. This session brings together founders who have taken very different paths to explore what worked, what failed and the lessons they wish they had known earlier.

Speaker

Brad Maasdorp

FinTech Growth Partner | TMC (The Member Company)

3:10 PM

Off The Record

Wednesday 16 September, 03:10 PM—03:20 PM (10 min)

Networking : Networking Break

3:20 PM

Off The Record

Wednesday 16 September, 03:20 PM—03:50 PM (30 min)

Fireside Chat : Keep Your “AI” On The Prize

AI is booming, cybersecurity is essential, and fintech is evolving.Explore what top investors are backing, what sectors are being overlooked and where they see the next billion-dollar opportunities

Next-Gen Money

Wednesday 16 September, 03:20 PM—03:40 PM (20 min)

Fireside Chat : The Post-Quantum Deadline: Is Financial Infrastructure Ready?

AI is already embedded in risk models, fraud engines, liquidity decisions and financial operations. Quantum computing could eventually extend those capabilities through new forms of optimisation, modelling and analysis. It could also undermine cryptography protecting financial data, identity and transactions.That creates a deadline long before a sufficiently powerful quantum computer arrives.This conversation separates practical readiness from speculation. It examines which cryptographic dependencies require attention now, where quantum and AI could create financial value first and what banks, regulators and payment networks should already have underway to prepare financial infrastructure for a post-quantum world.

Speaker

Achille Yomi

CEO & Co-Founder | Scenario X SA

3:30 PM

The Bridge

Wednesday 16 September, 03:30 PM—03:50 PM (20 min)

Fireside Chat : When Agents Pay Agents

The transaction architecture behind autonomous commerce.Soon the buyer and the seller may both be software, settling value without a human in the loop. This session explores what that does to payment infrastructure, authorisation and network design. The focus is the rails being built for machine-to-machine money, not the shopper.

Speaker

Nicole Sandler

Chief Ecosystem Officer | Ubyx

The Capital

Wednesday 16 September, 03:30 PM—03:30 PM ()

Closing Remarks

3:40 PM

Next-Gen Money

Wednesday 16 September, 03:40 PM—04:25 PM (45 min)

Panel Discussion : Beyond Cards: Will QR Become the Default Way the World Pays?

Cards became dominant because they created a familiar experience across merchants and markets. QR payments are now challenging that model, particularly in economies where wallets, bank accounts and super apps connect directly at checkout.This panel examines whether QR-based payments can move from strong domestic adoption to become a global consumer payment model. It explores why merchants and consumers choose QR, whether cards can retain their position as account-to-account payments expand, and what the next dominant checkout experience will look like.

Speakers

Vimal Kumar

CEO | Omnispay

Waleed Sadek

Founder & CEO | FinTra Holding

Sandra Mianda

Founder & CEO | Paypr.work

Sandeep Indurkar

CEO | Bharat Pe- Payments

Eduardo Abreu

CPO & CEO of EBANX Singapore | Ebanx

3:50 PM

The Bridge

Wednesday 16 September, 03:50 PM—04:10 PM (20 min)

Fireside Chat : Cyber as systemic resilience

Securing What Comes NextAgent-driven, always-on finance opens attack surfaces that didn't exist a year ago. This session looks ahead at how security must evolve to protect autonomous, real-time systems. It frames resilience as the work of staying ahead, not catching up.

Speaker

Ferenc Bole

Head of IT | National Bank of Oman

Off The Record

Wednesday 16 September, 03:50 PM—04:20 PM (30 min)

Panel Discussion : AI vs Crime: Who gets Smarter First?

The next frontier in financial crime isn't detection, it's prediction. As AI enables institutions to anticipate fraud before it happens, criminals are harnessing the same technology to launch faster, smarter, and more sophisticated attacks. In a race where every second matters, who will outsmart whom, and can AI stay one step ahead of the criminals it's designed to stop?

Speakers

Angaj Bhandari

Senior Vice President, EMEA | Fime

Charles Lobo

SVP & Risk & CEMEA | Visa Inc

Petra Janež

Financial Controller | Ministry of Finance, Republic of Slovenia

4:10 PM

The Bridge

Wednesday 16 September, 04:10 PM—04:30 PM (20 min)

Fireside Chat : Everyone's an Investor Now

Wealth-Building Foundations for the Many, Not the FewRobo-advice, fractional access and private-market platforms are opening wealth-building to everyone.

4:20 PM

Off The Record

Wednesday 16 September, 04:20 PM—04:20 PM ()

Closing Remarks : Closing Remarks

4:25 PM

Next-Gen Money

Wednesday 16 September, 04:25 PM—04:55 PM (30 min)

Panel Discussion : From Access to Prosperity: Is the Financial System Delivering Better Outcomes?

Access stopped being a sufficient measure of success some time ago. A person can hold an account, use a wallet, qualify for digital credit and buy a fractional investment while remaining exactly as financially fragile as before.AI, embedded finance, digital identity and new investment products are all reshaping participation. Whether they produce economic mobility or simply more financial activity is a different question, and rarely the one being measured.The panel pushes on measurement itself: what the new financial system has to deliver beyond access, which outcomes are worth reporting, and who answers for the gap when inclusion statistics improve and household prosperity does not move.

Speaker

Bassel Ojjeh

CEO | LigaDATA

4:30 PM

The Bridge

Wednesday 16 September, 04:30 PM—04:50 PM (20 min)

Fireside Chat : From Garage to Tadawul: Building the on-ramp for the next generation of listings

What does it actually take to move a company from founding to public markets? Saudi has quietly built one of the region's most complete on-ramps to public capital, and the Nomu parallel market is its beating heart. This session follows a company's journey from equity crowdfunding and private rounds through a Nomu listing to a main-market graduation. The focus is the system that makes capital formation reachable, not just the IPO at the end.

4:50 PM

The Bridge

Wednesday 16 September, 04:50 PM—05:10 PM (20 min)

Fireside Chat : The End of the Credit Score?

Credit without a credit score is already a reality for millions who never fit the traditional model. This session unpacks how alternative data and AI are rewriting who gets access and how fairly. The lens is system design: the rails, signals and safeguards behind the next generation of lending.

Speakers

Anshul Johri

Group CTO | Validus Investment Holdings

Valerie Kontor

Founder | Black in FinTech

4:55 PM

Next-Gen Money

Wednesday 16 September, 04:55 PM—05:05 PM (10 min)

Closing Remarks : Closing Remarks

5:10 PM

The Bridge

Wednesday 16 September, 05:10 PM—05:15 PM (5 min)

Closing Remarks