8 OCTOBER 2026  

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08:30-09:00

 REGISTRATION AND WELCOME COFFEE

Participants arrive, register, and enjoy welcome coffee

Sponsored by Amaranth Advisory GmbH & Damex

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09:00-09:15

 WELCOME ADDRESS

Opening of the Forum and how the day will run

Lilly Pavlou, Executive Director at QUBE Events

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09:15-09:30

CO-CHAIRS WELCOME ADDRESS

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

Malek Mroueh, International President at Profit Insight

                        Natalya Filatieva, Senior International Banking & Payments Executive

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​ 09:30-10:10

 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

Moderator: Siddharth Ghaisas, Payments Lead at Accenture Middle East

​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

​Shahir Aziz, Head of Payments Platform at Careem Pay​

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10:10-10:35

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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10:35-11:05

KEYNOTE SESSION + Q&A

The Importance of Payment and Banking Strategy

​Viktoria Soltesz, Founder at The Soltesz Institute

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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

Sponsored by ACI

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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

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

Howaida Ahmed, Head of Compliance at Wonnpay

Jay Floyd, Director Payments Intelligence at ACI Worldwide

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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

​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)​​

Tasnim Damati, Compliance Manager at AT Securities

Kaspanov Saungwemw, MLRO at Hubpay

Sina Bahrami, Co-Founder at KYCDD

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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

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

Arushi Goel, Advisor at Chainalysis

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13:05-14:10

NETWORKING LUNCH

• Hosted tables and working lunch conversations

• Opportunity for sponsors and buyers to sit together with purpose

Sponsored by Eastnets

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14:10-14:35

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

Mutaz Qudah, General Manager, Digital Payments & International Markets at CoorB

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14:35-15:05

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 (ETG Group)

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

Christopher Zhu, AI Initiatives Executive at RAKBANK

Maram Habash, Global Head of Operational Risk and Resilience at Mashreq

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15:05-15:35

NETWORKING COFFEE BREAK

• Follow-up discussions on partnerships, pilots and integrations

• Media/interview windows and press moments

Sponsored by KYCDD

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15:35 - 16:05

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: Vishal Mishra, Chief AI Officer at IDC Technologies Dubai

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

Oways Muti, Director of Compliance and Risk at Alawneh Exchange

Fahad Bin Khalid, Associate Partner, Group Chief Compliance Officer & MLRO at Moore JFC Group

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16:05-16:35

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: Siddharth Ghaisas, Payments Lead at Accenture Middle East​

Ratul Roshan, Senior Associate at Norton Rose Fulbright

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

Vishal Mishra, Chief AI Officer at IDC Technologies Dubai

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16:35-16:45

CO-CHAIRS CLOSING COMMENTS 

• Key takeaways for payments, risk, policy and technology

• How to stay engaged after the Forum

Malek Mroueh, International President at Profit Insight

Natalya Filatieva, Senior International Banking & Payments Executive

 

16:45-18:00

NETWORKING DRINKS RECEPTION

Hosted drinks, informal networking, relaxed follow-up conversations

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