8 OCTOBER 2026  

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08:30-09:00

 REGISTRATION AND WELCOME COFFEE

Participants arrive, register, and enjoy welcome coffee

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09:00-09:10

 WELCOME ADDRESS

Opening of the Forum and how the day will run

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09:10-09:20

CHAIRMEN WELCOME ADDRESS

Key themes for 2026: trust, speed, safety, and scale

Malek Mroueh, International President at Profit Insight

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​ 09:20-09:50

 PANEL DISCUSSION + Q&A

The UAE Payments Landscape 2026:

Instant, Cross‑Border & Embedded 

• Real-time payments, account-to-account, and cross-border money movement: what customers expect as “normal”

• Embedded payments and platform models: where value is created (and how to price it)

• Keeping approvals high while reducing fraud and chargebacks

​Errol Pereira, Head of Credit at Bank of Muscat

Muhammad Rashid, Group Chief Compliance and Risk Officer at Jingle Pay

Tareq Shaheen, PDM Director, Payment Solutions at Eastnets

Hesham Sherif, VP of Remittance at Botim

Nawal Kebouri Ammor, Group Head of Financial Institutions at Al Ansari Financial Services PJSC

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09:50-10:15

KEYNOTE SESSION + Q&A

Topic - TBA​​​​

Fabian Meyer, Founder & Managing Partner at Amaranth Advisory

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10:15-10:40

KEYNOTE SESSION + Q&A

Simplifying Payment Operations:

Building a Unified Payment Hub for the Digital Era​​​

• Modernising legacy payment infrastructure while supporting multiple payment rails and new messaging formats

• Balancing payment speed with compliance and fraud prevention without adding friction and operational cost 

• Managing operational complexity caused by disconnected payment, compliance, and financial crime systems

Tareq Shaheen, PDM Director, Payment Solutions​ at Eastnets

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10:40-11:05

KEYNOTE SESSION + Q&A

Instant, Open & Intelligent:

Building the AI‑Powered Payments Stack

• How payment flows are being automated end-to-end: routing, screening, authorisation, and settlement

• Where AI is already cutting cost, reducing fraud, and protecting margin (without adding friction)

Hassan Ahmed, Head of Enterprise AI Architect at Banque du Caire

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11:05-11:35

NETWORKING COFFEE BREAK  + ONE-TO-ONE MEETINGS

• Curated one-to-one introductions with senior buyers and partners

• Time to follow up on specific use cases and partnership needs

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11:35-12:05

PANEL DISCUSSION + Q&A

Fraud & Scams 2026: Real‑Time Defence Without Killing UX​​

• APP scams, social engineering and mule networks: detection and prevention at speed

• Layered signals (behaviour, device, biometrics, network intelligence) for smarter decisions

• Fraud collaboration models across banks, fintechs, merchants and telcos​

Moderator: Ashish Pradhan, Manager- KYC/CDD & High-Risk Onboarding at Ruya Community Islamic Bank L.L.C

Ahmed Saber, Head of Risk in UAE at Tap Payments

Martin Hyde, SVP Head of Commercial for RTP Global Product at Mastercard

Ali Saqer, Head of Fraud at Tiqmo

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12:05-12:35

PANEL DISCUSSION + Q&A

AML/KYC 2.0 in High‑Velocity Markets:

Risk‑Based, Continuous & Explainable​

• Smarter onboarding and continuous KYC/KYB: keeping bad actors out without slowing growth

• Reducing false positives with better data, analytics, and case management

• Regulator-ready evidence: “Why did you approve this customer/transaction?”​

Moderator: Mendy Ghaleb, AML/CTF Expert - AML& Financial Crimes Department at Securities & Commodities Authority

​Handan Tokdogan Över, Money Laundering Reporting Officer (MLRO) at Paribu
Kripto Varlık Alım Satım Platformu A.Ş. 
Sarfraz Gill, Chief Compliance Officer at Orient Exchange Co. (L.L.C)

Ahmed Adel, Director - Head of Compliance at InvestGB​​

Tasnim Damati, Compliance Manager at AT Securities

Kaspanov Saungwemw, Deputy MLRO at Hubpay

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12:35-13:05

PANEL DISCUSSION + Q&A

Digital Assets in Payments:

Stablecoins, Tokenised Deposits & Regulated On/Off‑Ramps​​

• Where tokenised value can improve settlement speed, transparency, and treasury efficiency

• Controls that matter: sanctions screening, source-of-funds, travel rule considerations, and custody risk

• Building compliant rails across multiple regulatory environments (local, regional, and global)

Moderator: Ilham Tamimi, Founder & Managing Director at FinEthica 
Advisory
Sebastian Heine, Chief Compliance Officer & MLRO at MANTRA Finance
Mohamed Helmy, Compliance Director - EMEA at XTransfer

Amir Tabch, Executive Director & CEO at OFZA

Ruben Bombardi, General Counsel Head of Regulatory Enablement at Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA)

Arushi Goel, Advisor at Chainalysis

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13:05-14:00

NETWORKING LUNCH

• Hosted tables and working lunch conversations

• Opportunity for sponsors and buyers to sit together with purpose

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14:00-14:25

KEYNOTE SESSION + Q&A

Merchant Acceptance & Checkout Optimisation:

Higher Conversion, Lower Cost

• Orchestration and smart routing to lift approvals and reduce payment failure

• SCA/3DS strategy, tokenisation and network tokens: frictionless journeys that stay secure

• Disputes and chargebacks: building prevention into the payment experience

Rakesh Maringanti, Senior Program Manager at Mashreq

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14:55-15:30

NETWORKING COFFEE BREAK

• Follow-up discussions on partnerships, pilots and integrations

• Media/interview windows and press moments

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15:30-16:00

PANEL DISCUSSION + Q&A

Operational Resilience & Third‑Party Risk:

Staying ‘Always‑On’ in Payments​​

• Uptime, incident response, and vendor dependencies: practical resilience playbooks

• Cyber resilience and fraud operations: reducing time-to-detect and time-to-act

• Testing, reporting and governance that boards (and regulators) expect

Moderator: Vinit Mishra, Head of Treasury at Nutrisco

Mohamed AboElMagd, Chief Financial Officer at Misr for Central Cleaning, Depository and Registry MCDR

Francesca D'Souza, Head of Compliance and MLRO at Axis Bank (DIFC Branch)

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16:00-16:30

PANEL DISCUSSION + Q&A

AI Safety & Governance for Financial Institutions​

• Transparency, audit trails and accountability: what ‘responsible AI’ means in practice

• Managing model risk and bias while accelerating innovation

• Building internal guardrails so AI enables growth instead of creating compliance exposure

Moderator: Sherif Abdelghany, Assistant Director- Market Conduct at Central Bank of The UAE

Francesca D'Souza, Head of Compliance and MLRO at Axis Bank (DIFC Branch) 

Oways Muti, Director of Compliance and Risk at Alawneh Exchange

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16:30-17:00

PANEL DISCUSSION + Q&A

Agentic Payments: The Companion to Agentic Commerce​​​

• What ‘agentic’ really means in payments: autonomous initiation, decisioning, and post-payment service

• Guardrails: consent, liability, disputes, audit trails, and model risk

• How banks, PSPs and merchants can prepare for agent-to-agent transactions

Moderator: Mohamed Elsebaay, Head of Acquiring Business and Payment Acceptance Products at First Abu Dhabi Bank Misr (FABMISR)​

Ratul Roshan, Senior Associate at Norton Rose Fulbright

Ziad El Gazzar, Head of Products and Business Analysis at Arab African International Bank

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17:00-17:25

KEYNOTE SESSION + Q&A

The Importance of Payment and Banking Strategy​​​​

Viktoria Soltesz, Founder at The Soltesz Institute

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​​​17:25-17:30

CHAIRMEN CLOSING COMMENTS 

• Key takeaways for payments, risk, policy and technology

• How to stay engaged after the Forum

Malek Mroueh, International President at Profit Insight

 

17:30-19:00

NETWORKING DRINKS RECEPTION

Hosted drinks, informal networking, relaxed follow-up conversations

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