Discover the 2026 Agenda | Money20/20 Middle East

11:55 AM

The Capital

Tuesday 15 September, 11:55 AM—12:00 PM (5 min)

Opening Remarks : MC Welcome

Speaker

Natalie Lindo

Founder | NLM

12:00 PM

The Bridge

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

Opening Remarks : MC Welcome

Speaker

Yousef Gamal El-Din

Managing Partner | Stagespring LLC

Boardroom

Tuesday 15 September, 12:00 PM—01:30 PM (1 h 30 min)

Roundtable : The New Growth Playbook: How Financial Institutions Are Winning Trust, Customers and Market Share

As customer expectations evolve and competition intensifies across banks, fintechs and financial institutions, traditional growth models are no longer enough. Growth is increasingly driven by the convergence of marketing, product, data, customer experience, AI and strategic partnerships. This invitation-only executive roundtable brings together senior leaders from across financial services to explore how leading institutions are redefining growth, building customer trust and creating sustainable competitive advantage. Through candid peer discussion, participants will share the strategies, operating models and lessons shaping the next generation of financial services leaders.

Speaker

Abdul-Rahim Osman

Head of Parthership | Financial Marketing Insights

Next-Gen Money

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

Opening Remarks : MC Welcome

The New Experience

Speaker

Eliott Gotkine

Master of Ceremonies

The Capital

Capital Journey

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.

Speaker

Sarthak Ahuja

Director | Niamh Ventures Pvt Ltd

Off The Record

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

Opening Remarks : Virtual MC Welcome

12:05 PM

Next-Gen Money

Tuesday 15 September, 12:05 PM—12:20 PM (15 min)

Live Demo : Trust in the Age of Agentic Commerce

AI agents are transforming how consumers discover, compare and buy, but agent-led transactions remain in their early stages. Godfrey Sullivan explores how identity, authentication, tokenization and user-defined controls can enable secure agentic checkout at scale. Discover what banks, merchants and technology platforms should prepare for as commerce moves from human intent to trusted machine action.

Speaker

Godfrey Sullivan

SVP Products & Solutions, CEMEA | VISA

Off The Record

Tuesday 15 September, 12:05 PM—01:00 PM (55 min)

Workshop : CLOSED DOOR WORKSHOP

Speaker

Dr Arif Ahmed

Professor and Director | South Asian Management Technologies Foundation

12:10 PM

The Bridge

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

Fireside Chat : From Pilot to Production: Making Digital Assets Work Inside Global Banking Infrastructure

Digital asset innovation is moving beyond experimentation into operational reality. In this fireside conversation, leaders share what it takes to transition from pilot programs to production-grade infrastructure inside regulated banks.

The Bridge

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

Fireside Chat : From Pilot to Production: Making Digital Assets Work Inside Global Banking Infrastructure

Digital asset innovation is moving beyond experimentation into operational reality. In this fireside conversation, leaders share what it takes to transition from pilot programs to production-grade infrastructure inside regulated banks.

Speakers

Joy Adams

COO, Digital Assets | Deutsche Bank

Mareme Dieng

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

Nader Souri

Managing Director, Head of Digital and Corporate Banking | BNY

The Bridge

Banking Journey

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

Fireside Chat : The Trust Layer: Building Financial Systems People Choose to Use

As financial services become more digital and seamless, trust is built through the experience customers have at every interaction. Technology enables that experience, while expertise, genuine care and consistent service turn it into a lasting relationship.

Speakers

Fahad Al Guthami

CEO | American Express Saudi Arabia

Folajimi Daudo

Founder | StageOS

12:20 PM

Next-Gen Money

Tuesday 15 September, 12:20 PM—12:40 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.

Speakers

Zahra Al-Kaf

Sr. Solution Architect - FSI | NVIDIA

Douglas Arner

Professor - Strategic advisor - Research leader | Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance & Hong Kong University

Baraa Koshak

Co-founder & CEO | Abwab.ai

12:30 PM

Executive Summit

Tuesday 15 September, 12:30 PM—12:35 PM (5 min)

Opening Remarks : MC Welcome

Speaker

Taghrid Alhowish

Master of Ceremonies

The Capital

Tuesday 15 September, 12:30 PM—12:55 PM (25 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

Amira Singh

CEO | s60 Ventures Capital

Hussain Almarhoon

Founding Managing Partner | HALA Capital

12:35 PM

Executive Summit

Tuesday 15 September, 12:35 PM—12:50 PM (15 min)

Opening Keynote

Speaker

Mr. Abdulaziz S. Abanmi

Deputy Governor for Payments | Saudi Central Bank

12:40 PM

Next-Gen Money

Banking Journey

Tuesday 15 September, 12:40 PM—01:15 PM (35 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 Bank

Glauber Mota

CEO - Brazil | Revolut

Ronit Ghose

Industry Fellow | University of Cambridge Business School Centre for Finance and Technology

Jeff Parker

CEO | Paymentology

12:50 PM

Executive Summit

Tuesday 15 September, 12:50 PM—01:00 PM (10 min)

Announcement

12:55 PM

The Capital

Financial Inclusion Journey

Tuesday 15 September, 12:55 PM—01:15 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.

1:00 PM

Executive Summit

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

Keynote : AI at the Inflection Point: Turning Experimentation into Advantage

AI is now the key cutting-edge infrastructure underpinning how businesses operate. It is improving decisions, accelerating execution, and changing how value moves. Drawing on Checkout's own experience applying AI to payment performance and company-wide operating velocity, this session explores the strategic choices leaders must make to turn AI into a durable advantage at scale.

Speaker

Rory ONeill

Chief Marketing Officer | Checkout.com

The Bridge

Tuesday 15 September, 01:00 PM—01:40 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

Amandine Lobelle

Chief Operating Officer | Paystack

Davis Parakal

CEO UAE & GM GCC | Remitly

Helen Ghebreluul

UAE Country Manager | Verto

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 / Behavioural Science & Leadership Expert / Content Creator | OVD Lab

Bruno Loiola

Chief Growth Officer & Co-founder | Pluggy

Melike Kara Tanrikulu

CEO | e&Money

1:15 PM

The Capital

Tuesday 15 September, 01:15 PM—01:35 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?

Speakers

Mosbah Kahaleh

Director | Al Rajhi Partners

Anmol Goel

CEO & Managing Partner | Gacs Multi-Family Office Ltd

Ahmed Al Darwish

Founder and Managing Partner | Noa Capital

Next-Gen Money

Payments and commerce Journey

Tuesday 15 September, 01:15 PM—01:45 PM (30 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

Kostas Xiradakis

Chief Commercial Officer | Snappi Bank

Afua Hagan

Journalist & Broadcaster | News Central

1:20 PM

Executive Summit

Tuesday 15 September, 01:20 PM—01:50 PM (30 min)

Deep Dive : Unlocking Growth: The Strategic Role of Supply Chain Finance for SMEs

This session explores how Supply Chain Finance (SCF) is enabling SMEs to improve cash flow, reduce financing costs and strengthen supplier-buyer relationships. Drawing on Saudi market case studies and regulatory perspectives, the discussion examines how scalable SCF solutions can enhance business resilience, drive inclusive growth and support the ambitions of Saudi Vision 2030.

Speakers

Anshul Johri

Group CTO | Validus Investment Holdings

Adeeb Ahamed

Managing Director | LuLu Financial Holdings

Sanjiv Purushotham

CEO & Founder | Bridge Solutions

Gaurang Shah

Executive Vice President, Global Acceptance & Merchant Solutions | Mastercard

1:35 PM

The Capital

Tuesday 15 September, 01:35 PM—02:05 PM (30 min)

Fireside Chat : 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.

Speakers

Walter Gontarek

CEO | Channel Capital

Sean Hanafin

CEO / Vice-Chairman | Silver Birch Finance / Green Finance Institute

Khaled Albasias

CEO & Founder | Credx

1:45 PM

Next-Gen Money

Tuesday 15 September, 01:45 PM—02:20 PM (35 min)

Panel Discussion : 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

Omar Abdelhady

Chief Product & Growth Officer | ValU

Danny Levy

EVP & MD, APAC & Middle East | Money20/20

Adel Omar Alrajhi

General Manager, Retail Banking Assets | Alinma Bank

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

Harshvardhan Lunia

Founder & CEO | Birbal, Lendingkart

Shahbaz Mirza

Senior Director - AI Consulting | Ankura

Muath Almudayfir

Director of Strategy & PMO | Tamam

Executive Summit

Banking Journey

Tuesday 15 September, 01:50 PM—02:10 PM (20 min)

Presentation : Inside the AI-Powered Bank

AI is reshaping how banks operate, make decisions and serve customers. This session explores where AI is delivering real value today and how it could redefine the banking experience of tomorrow.

Speakers

Michael Chan

Chief Executive Officer | Zand Bank PJSC

Sriranga Sampathkumar

VP & General Manager | Infosys Ltd.

2:00 PM

The Bridge

Capital Journey

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

Deep Dive : 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?

Speakers

Jean-Marie Kananura

Chief investments Officer | Kigali International Financial Centre

Eden Harris

Washington Correspondent / Chief Special Correspondent | The Banker (Financial Times) / Connecting Africa News

Mohammed Alomayyyer

Founder & CEO | Tameed

2:05 PM

The Capital

Tuesday 15 September, 02:05 PM—02:45 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

Fahad Alnaeem

CEO | SIDF INVESTMENT COMPANY (SIC)

Amanda Estiverne

Vice President, Global Strategic Partnerships | Money20/20

2:10 PM

Executive Summit

Tuesday 15 September, 02:10 PM—02:30 PM (20 min)

Fireside Chat : A New Era of Possibility

As technology continues to reshape industries and customer expectations, new opportunities are emerging to create more connected, seamless and innovative experiences. This session explores how collaboration and innovation can unlock new possibilities and shape what comes next.

2:15 PM

Boardroom

Tuesday 15 September, 02:15 PM—03:45 PM (1 h 30 min)

Roundtable : Sovereign Control vs. Big Tech: Regulating Agentic AI in Global Finance

The rise of generative and agentic AI is transforming decision-making across the financial services value chain, shifting it away from traditional, highly regulated interfaces towards autonomous, conversational platforms. As AI platforms become the gateways to and enablers of financial services, they raise unprecedented questions for global leaders: Who controls the customer relationship? Who manages the risks? Who is accountable when things go wrong and customers are harmed? Regulators around the world are taking different approaches to these challenges. This closed-door roundtable convenes policymakers, global banking C-suite executives, and AI experts. Moving beyond technological speculation, the discussion will focus on balancing the opportunities created by AI with the need to manage the risks it poses to customers, financial institutions, and market stability.

Speaker

Justin Malta

Global Leader, Risk and Regulatory Advisory | KPMG

2:20 PM

Next-Gen Money

Tuesday 15 September, 02:20 PM—02:50 PM (30 min)

Deep Dive : Selling Experiences: How Payments Are Disappearing into Saudi’s Experience Economy

Saudi Arabia’s entertainment, tourism, retail and hospitality sectors are creating a new generation of digital experiences, and increasingly, the best payment experience is the one customers barely notice. From ticketing and in-venue purchases to hospitality, loyalty and digital commerce, payments are becoming embedded directly into the customer journey, removing friction between discovery, purchase and experience. This fireside explores how Saudi businesses are redesigning the payment experience around speed, convenience and seamless interaction, the partnerships making that possible, and what consumers will come to expect as payments increasingly disappear into the moments they are paying for.

Speakers

Nadeem Baksh

CEO | Webook.com

Ahmad S. Alrasheed

Director, Payment Business Planning | Saudi Central Bank

Arthur Bedel

Founder, CEO | Monyz

Wassim Skaff

VP, Head of Visa Consulting & Analytics, GCC | VISA

2:30 PM

Executive Summit

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

Panel Discussion : The Human Edge: Winning When Everyone Has AI

As senior executives around the world grapple with how to build enduring advantages in the age of AI, a new reality is emerging: technology alone is no longer enough. From boardrooms to front-line teams, the world's leading companies are redefining leadership and reshaping their organisational priorities for an era when intelligence is abundant but human judgment becomes more scarce. This discussion will focus on the winning mix of tech innovation, automation, and uniquely human capabilities that will determine the companies that pull ahead.

Speakers

Yuri Misnik

Chief Technology Officer | InDrive

Dongjun Choi

Group Chief Customer Officer | RAKBANK

David Birch

Global Ambassador | Consult Hyperion

Amna Usman Chaudhry

Financial Economist and AI Governance Expert | Autonomous Finance

Adam Jones

Division President for West Arabia | Mastercard

Off The Record

Tuesday 15 September, 02:30 PM—02:50 PM (20 min)

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

Speakers

Armineh Baghoomian

Managing Director | Partners For Growth

Sarthak Ahuja

Director | Niamh Ventures Pvt Ltd

Amr Shady

Co-founder & CEO | Accord Partners

The Bridge

Payments and commerce Journey

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

FIRESIDE : 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.

Speakers

Ronit Ghose

Industry Fellow | University of Cambridge Business School Centre for Finance and Technology

Tino Waked

CEO - Middle East | TapTap Send

Oliver Hughes

Head of International | TBC Bank Group

2:45 PM

The Capital

Tuesday 15 September, 02:45 PM—03:25 PM (40 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

Karan Mohla

General Partner | B Capital

Naiel Ikram

Managing Partner | Gobi Partners

2:50 PM

Next-Gen Money

Tuesday 15 September, 02:50 PM—03:25 PM (35 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

Mohammad Al Zaben

CEO | Clear Arabia

Nikhil Joy

Head of Fintech | NOON

Off The Record

Tuesday 15 September, 02:50 PM—03:20 PM (30 min)

Networking : Networking Break

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

3:00 PM

The Bridge

Financial Inclusion Journey

Tuesday 15 September, 03:00 PM—04:00 PM (1 h)

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

Haifa AlMuhanna

CEO | Khazna

3:10 PM

Executive Summit

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

Deep Dive : Embedded Finance, The New Growth Engine

Embedded finance is no longer a product strategy, it;s a growth strategy. As financial services become increasingly contextual, the organisations creating the greatest value won’t simply embed payments or lending; they will redesign customer relationships, unlock new revenue streams and build partnerships that redefine competitive advantage. What separates tomorrow’s winners from everyone else?

Speakers

Sandeep Indurkar

CEO | Bharat Pe- Payments

Lizzie Champan

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

Manuel Costescu

Managing Director | JPMorgan

Abdullah Alibrahim

CEO | Geidea

3:20 PM

Off The Record

Tuesday 15 September, 03:20 PM—03:50 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.

Speakers

Brad Maasdorp

FinTech Growth Partner | TMC (The Member Company)

Amandine Lobelle

Chief Operating Officer | Paystack

Laura Estefania

Founder & CEO | Conquista PR

3:25 PM

The Capital

Tuesday 15 September, 03:25 PM—03:55 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.

Next-Gen Money

Tuesday 15 September, 03:25 PM—03:45 PM (20 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.

Speakers

Dima Stiran

Head of Partnership, Middle East and Africa, Google Pay | Google

Amanda Estiverne

Vice President, Global Strategic Partnerships | Money20/20

Nader Abdelrazik

Co-founder & CEO | MoneyHash

Rami Panayoti

Co-founder & CBO | SiFi

Stephen Bowe

CPO | Paymentology

3:30 PM

The Bridge

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

Panel Discussion : 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.

Speakers

Oliver Hughes

Head of International | TBC Bank Group

Ronit Ghose

Industry Fellow | University of Cambridge Business School Centre for Finance and Technology

Ali Abulhasan

Co-Founder & CEO | Tap Payments

3:40 PM

Executive Summit

Tuesday 15 September, 03:40 PM—04:20 PM (40 min)

Panel Discussion : From Breakthroughs to Business Transformation: Building the Intelligent Financial Institution

Financial institutions are entering a new era where competitive advantage will depend not simply on adopting new technologies, but on integrating them into resilient, trusted and scalable operating models. From AI and autonomous agents to quantum computing and next-generation infrastructure, today’s breakthrough technologies are reshaping how financial services are designed, delivered and governed. This discussion explores how industry leaders are turning technological innovation into organisational transformation, and what it takes to build customer trust for financial institutions of the future.

Speakers

Joy Adams

COO, Digital Assets | Deutsche Bank

Farid Huseynov

CEO | Bir Ecosystem

Abdullah Jarwan

CEO | CNTXT

Douglas Arner

Professor - Strategic advisor - Research leader | Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance & Hong Kong University

Abdul Rahman Al Thehaiban

Managing Director, Middle East, North Africa & Turkey, Google Cloud | Google

3:45 PM

Next-Gen Money

Tuesday 15 September, 03:45 PM—04:20 PM (35 min)

Deep Dive : 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.

Yuri Misnik

Chief Technology Officer | InDrive

Abdul-Rahim Osman

Head of Parthership | Financial Marketing Insights

Mohammed Alabsi

Chief Product and Technology Officer | FLIP

3:50 PM

Off The Record

Tuesday 15 September, 03:50 PM—04:30 PM (40 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

Ahmed S. Alobaidallah

Director, Financial Literacy & Inclusion | Saudi Central Bank

Eden Harris

Washington Correspondent / Chief Special Correspondent | The Banker (Financial Times) / Connecting Africa News

3:55 PM

The Capital

Tuesday 15 September, 03:55 PM—04:20 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.

Speakers

Armineh Baghoomian

Managing Director | Partners For Growth

Fidaa Haddad

Managing Director & Head of Private Credit | Jadwa Investment

4:00 PM

The Bridge

Tuesday 15 September, 04:00 PM—04:30 PM (30 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

Dr. Saeeda Jaffar

Managing Director, International | Circle

Nadia Costanzo

Director Banker & Expansion Manager | WISE

4:20 PM

The Capital

Tuesday 15 September, 04:20 PM—05:50 PM (1 h 30 min)

Startup Competition : DAY 2: MoneySurge Pitch Competition

Speakers

Mareme Dieng

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

Mazin Alshanbari

General Partner | Sukna Ventures

Executive Summit

Payments and commerce Journey

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

Fireside Chat : The New Geography of Payments: Where Growth Happens Next

As emerging markets become engines of digital commerce, payment providers are expanding beyond traditional markets to support new consumer behaviours, business models, and financial ecosystems. This session explores where the next wave of growth will come from and how industry leaders are preparing for it.

Speakers

Sophie Guibaud

Fintech Growth Advisor & Nominee Director | International Finance Corporation (IFC)

Murat Cagri Suzer

Group CEO | Network International

Douglas Feagin

President | Ant International

Next-Gen Money

Cyber & Trust Journey

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

Prof.Dr. Ahmed Ebada

Professor, AI Strategist & CEO | HOPn

Luke Naudé-Lorentz

Head of Growth | Orca Fraud

Vittorio Furlan

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

Osman Nuri Katib

Chief Executive Officer | Onftech

Rini Laskar

Former Head of Transformation and Governance | Formerly RAKBANK

4:30 PM

Off The Record

Tuesday 15 September, 04:30 PM—05:00 PM (30 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.

Speakers

Afua Hagan

Journalist & Broadcaster | News Central

Wafa AlObaidat

CEO and Founder | Playbook

Jessica Liu

Co-Founder & CEO | Planto

4:50 PM

Executive Summit

Tuesday 15 September, 04:50 PM—05:20 PM (30 min)

Panel Discussion : The Deal Room: Where Fintech Capital is Moving Next

Capital allocation offers one of the clearest signals of where the industry is heading. Investors with active mandates must continually decide which technologies, business models and markets deserve long-term conviction, and which no longer do.This conversation brings together leading investors to discuss where they are deploying capital today, the opportunities attracting the greatest attention, how investment priorities are evolving, and what current capital flows reveal about the next phase of financial services growth.

Speakers

Abdulmalik Alothman

Co-Founder and Chief Financial & Credit Officer | Safqah Capital

Hanna Raftell

Founding Partner | Stratum 3

Karan Mohla

General Partner | B Capital

Naif AbuSaida

CEO | Hakbah

5:00 PM

Off The Record

Tuesday 15 September, 05:00 PM—05:50 PM (50 min)

Networking : Networking

Next-Gen Money

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

Deep Dive : 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.

Speakers

Faisal Alrajhi

Co-Founder & CEO | Almatar Company

Eliott Gotkine

Master of Ceremonies

Masoud Alhelou

CEO | Yasmina

Dr. Arwa JamJoom

Co-Founder & CEO | Ananas Insurance

The Bridge

Payments and commerce Journey

Tuesday 15 September, 05:00 PM—05:30 PM (30 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

Abdulaziz Aldahmash

Regional MD | Network International

Danny Levy

EVP & MD, APAC & Middle East | Money20/20

5:20 PM

Executive Summit

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

Deep Dive : The Integration Imperative: Building Capital Markets That Cross Borders

This intimate conversation will delve into the unvarnished reality of building financial architecture across sovereign jurisdictions: the political friction, the technical complexity, the breakthroughs and the blueprint. This session draws the lines of connection between regions rewriting their own financial geography.

Speakers

Lukas Bonko

CEO | Bratislava Stock Exchange

Neo Mooki

Chairperson | Botswana Stock Exchange

Ekrem Arikan

CEO & Board Member | MERKEZİ KAYIT KURULUŞU A.Ş.

Scarlett Sieber

Chief Strategy & Growth Officer | Money20/20 Global

5:30 PM

Next-Gen Money

Tuesday 15 September, 05:30 PM—06:05 PM (35 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

Gabriele Sabato

Co-founder & CEO | Wiserfunding

Yemi Olulana

CEO | Flex Finance

Ismael Belkhayat

Founder & CEO | Chari

Hilda Louca

Partner & Managing Director | Converted

The Bridge

Banking Journey

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

Nasser Saleh

Chairman & Founder | MadfoatCom for ePayments

The Bridge

Cyber & Trust Journey

Tuesday 15 September, 05:30 PM—05:50 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.

5:50 PM

Executive Summit

Tuesday 15 September, 05:50 PM—06:20 PM (30 min)

Deep Dive : The New Era of Credit: AI, Risk and Lending in Real-Time

AI is changing not only how credit decisions are made, but how financial institutions think about risk, growth and capital allocation. Leaders must now decide how to balance faster decision-making, broader financial inclusion and responsible risk management in an era where intelligence systems increasingly support every stage of the lending lifecycle.

Speakers

Susana Ponce Froment

Board Advisor | Gifftid

Gaurav Kumar

Founder & CEO | YUBI

Yanan Wu

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

Mark Walker

CEO | The Fintech Times

Off The Record

Tuesday 15 September, 05:50 PM—05:55 PM (5 min)

Closing Remarks

The Capital

Tuesday 15 September, 05:50 PM—05:55 PM (5 min)

Closing Remarks

6:05 PM

Next-Gen Money

Tuesday 15 September, 06:05 PM—06:10 PM (5 min)

Closing Remarks

Speaker

Eliott Gotkine

Master of Ceremonies

6:20 PM

Executive Summit

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

Closing Remarks

Speaker

Taghrid Alhowish

Master of Ceremonies

7:10 PM

The Bridge

Tuesday 15 September, 07:10 PM—07:15 PM (5 min)

Closing Remarks

Speaker

Yousef Gamal El-Din

Managing Partner | Stagespring LLC

THE 2026 AGENDA

What Matters