Amit Malhotra, Global Head of Retail Banking at Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB)
Amit Malhotra, Global Head of Retail Banking at Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB), joined the podcast to discuss key innovations transforming global payments and ADIB’s strategic direction. He identified several disruptive trends that are reshaping the payments landscape. These include the evolution of Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) into what he termed Consume Now, Pay Later (CNPL), expanding beyond retail to encompass areas such as rent and remittances. He predicted a future where banks increasingly collaborate with BNPL providers.
Malhotra also highlighted the rise of invisible payments, taking place outside of traditional financial institutions, embedded within broader service ecosystems. He cited real-time payment systems—such as India’s UPI and Australia’s platforms—as a major force driving change, and predicted a similar trajectory in the Middle East. Additionally, he pointed to central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) as a forthcoming game-changer, especially for cross-border transactions and financial inclusion.
On the subject of card acceptance, Malhotra explained that while traditional plastic cards may decline, the concept of stored value in digital wallets or file-based payment methods will persist. He foresees a significant shift towards account-to-account payments, QR codes, and open banking solutions.
He also addressed the adoption of SaaS and low-code/no-code platforms, describing them as a strategic way to innovate while still managing legacy infrastructure. These platforms enable faster market entry and greater cost efficiency through fintech partnerships.
Looking ahead, Malhotra outlined ADIB’s key priorities for the next 12 to 18 months, aligned with the bank’s newly launched Vision 2035.
Radu Topliceanu, Executive Vice President and Head of NEO and Personal Banking at Mashreq
Radu Topliceanu, Executive Vice President and Head of NEO and Personal Banking at Mashreq, discussed the bank’s digital-first approach and future strategy during his interview at Seamless. He described Mashreq as a unique blend of traditional banking discipline and fintech innovation, characterising it as a “digital-first human bank”—one that uses advanced technology to enhance customer interaction, while keeping empathy and human-centred design at the core.
Topliceanu emphasised the bank’s strong focus on Generative AI (GenAI), particularly in improving customer service via AI-powered chatbots and automating internal processes such as email drafting. He also highlighted the use of GenAI in fraud detection and tailoring communications with customers, noting its potential to significantly reduce costs and improve efficiency.
A key theme in his remarks was the shift from reactive to proactive banking. With the aid of GenAI, machine learning, and data analytics, Mashreq can now identify customer needs before they are expressed and deliver hyper-personalised interactions. This creates a continuous feedback loop that allows for real-time refinement of the customer journey.
He underscored that success at NEO hinges on delivering meaningful customer experiences, fostering innovation, and cultivating a strong internal culture driven by purpose.
Mahmoud Hamouda, Head of Strategic Initiatives at Banque Misr
Mahmoud Hamouda, Head of Strategic Initiatives at Banque Misr, spoke about the bank’s transformative journey during an interview at Seamless. Jokingly referred to as the “Chief Astronaut”, Hamouda likens the bank’s innovation-led mission to a journey to Mars, describing how financial institutions must evolve into tech-driven organisations.
He identified Generative AI (GenAI) as a key focus, noting that while early implementations are improving employee productivity, the most exciting developments lie in transforming customer interactions. Moving beyond outdated chatbots, GenAI now powers intelligent, always-on virtual agents that provide seamless support. However, he stressed that successful AI deployment at scale hinges entirely on data—describing it as the critical fuel for innovation.
Hamouda also spoke passionately about platformisation, which he sees as the next frontier in banking. Beyond financial services, banks should integrate lifestyle offerings—everything from food delivery to mobility—to meet customer needs holistically. This ecosystem model relies heavily on partnerships and digital platforms, enabling banks to serve customers more meaningfully and contextually.
He described a future where a bank’s app might function as a virtual personal assistant—capable of scheduling meals, booking transport, and helping with financial planning. For example, a customer considering buying a Ferrari might receive intelligent insights based on their financial data, offering tailored options such as loans or savings plans. These types of hyper-personalised, AI-driven interactions require deep integration with multiple third-party services, from insurance to mobility to retail.
Looking ahead, Hamouda confirmed that while platformisation and GenAI are major areas of focus, Banque Misr is undergoing a broader digital transformation. As one of Egypt’s oldest banks and a leading financial service provider, it is expanding its product offerings and building an in-house full-stack GenAI capability to future-proof its operations.
Sameh Khairy, Head of Cash Management Digital Solutions at Credit Agricole Egypt
Sameh Khairy, Head of Cash Management Digital Solutions at Credit Agricole Egypt, discussed the evolving role of real-time payments in Egypt during his interview at Seamless. He described real-time transactions as not only a rising trend but now a core expectation among both consumers and businesses. For individuals, instant money transfers—such as salary payments or family remittances—are now considered standard. For corporates, real-time payments significantly streamline supplier transactions and enhance cash flow management, contributing to a wider effort to reduce reliance on cash within the economy.
From a technological standpoint, Khairy highlighted the importance of security, including the use of biometric authentication and OTPs for retail users, and more advanced security layers for corporate clients. Ensuring secure yet seamless payment channels is critical to maintaining trust and efficiency in real-time financial services.
He also touched on how these developments are enabling greater personalisation in financial services, particularly as the ecosystem shifts to accommodate both retail and corporate demands. The expansion of fintechs in Egypt—particularly those focusing on e-commerce and payment processing—has further accelerated this transformation.
Khairy concluded that real-time payments have now become a lifestyle feature, with both individuals and businesses expecting seamless, instant financial transactions as a matter of course.
Ramy Refaat, IT Digital Transformation Manager at the National Bank of Egypt (NBE)
Ramy Refaat, IT Digital Transformation Manager at the National Bank of Egypt (NBE), shared insights into the bank’s evolving digital strategy and its focus on customer-centric innovation during an interview at Seamless. Refaat described how SMEs, which lie somewhere between retail and corporate banking in terms of service needs, benefit greatly from digitalisation. NBE is working to offer paperless services such as account opening, loan management, and cash flow tools, alongside open banking integrations with fintechs to facilitate smoother product sales and operations for SMEs.
A standout innovation highlighted by Refaat was the bank’s AI-powered digital employee, launched in partnership with Mastercard. First unveiled at Cairo ICT, this virtual assistant interacts with customers in a conversational manner, offering a significant leap from traditional IVR systems. It answers inquiries, guides customers to services, and continually improves through upgrades. The robot’s localised name also resonates well with customers, contributing to highly positive feedback.
Refaat emphasised the importance of AI, machine learning, cloud computing, and biometric security in shaping the future of banking, especially for always-on, mobile-first customers like Gen Z. He noted that improving UI/UX design is central to attracting and retaining this digitally native audience.
On the regulatory side, Refaat explained how regtech is enabling the bank to shift from manual monitoring to AI-assisted risk detection. Rather than having compliance teams review all transactions, AI filters out the most high-risk cases for human review, allowing better focus and fewer errors. Complex and exceptional cases, he noted, will always remain under human oversight.
He concluded by reiterating that customer experience remains the core driver behind all digital transformation efforts at the bank, addressing a key challenge for financial institutions across the Middle East.
Joseph Cleetus, Vice President of Business Transformation at Lulu Financial Holdings
Joseph Cleetus, Vice President of Business Transformation at Lulu Financial Holdings, discussed the company’s journey and its innovations in the cross-border payments space. Founded in 2009 in Abu Dhabi, Lulu Financial Holdings has expanded to ten countries across the GCC, Asia-Pacific, and India, offering services in cross-border payments, foreign exchange, and lending. It is the largest provider of cross-border payments in the GCC and also facilitates wage protection, salary processing, and multi-currency cards.
Joseph highlighted the challenges that came with scaling, particularly when partnering with fintechs such as Careem, Tabby, and Pace. As demand increased, the traditional approach of integrating individually with multiple partners became inefficient and time-consuming, taking up to 18 months to onboard just six partners. Liquidity management and fragmented payment rails further compounded the complexity, with the company having to maintain $35 million in daily pre-funding across geographies.
In response, Digit 9 was launched as a solution—first as a platform, now evolved into a cross-border payment orchestration ecosystem. It streamlines the process of integrating with multiple money transfer operators, allowing fintechs and financial institutions to access a global network through a single API called World API. This orchestration layer also enables smart routing, liquidity provisioning, and other custom algorithms.
Cleetus explained how blockchain is being used pragmatically to address visibility and trust in liquidity flows, while tokenisation and stablecoins help reduce the cost and complexity of fund transfers. Digit 9 also facilitates a network effect by allowing liquidity providers, compliance systems, and validation services to plug in and interact, turning the platform into a full-scale ecosystem.
Looking ahead, the priority for Lulu Financial Holdings and Digit 9 over the next 12 to 18 months includes expanding the ecosystem further through its newly incorporated entity in Delaware, enhancing the orchestration capabilities, and onboarding more partners to create a seamless, global cross-border payment infrastructure.
