For years, banks across the Gulf Cooperation Council competed on products: better rates, better offers, better pricing. Those things still matter, but they are no longer what separates leaders from everyone else.
Today, customers judge banks differently. They judge them by whether a payment goes through instantly, whether a loan is approved in minutes rather than days, and whether fraud is stopped before it becomes their problem. In other words, they judge banks by execution. That means your payments and lending infrastructure has become far more than a technology decision. It has become a brand decision.
Chris Walters is chief executive of Finastra, a financial software provider to banks. The views that follow are his own.
I do not think enough people fully appreciate how significant this shift is. Historically, payments and lending sat behind the scenes. Customers cared about the outcome, not the machinery that made it happen. That has changed. Every payment, every lending decision and every customer interaction now shapes perception in real time. Customers do not separate the experience from the institution delivering it. To them, they are one and the same.
If a payment is delayed, they do not blame the payments system. They blame the bank. If a lending process feels slow or complicated, they do not blame legacy technology. They blame the bank. The technology may be invisible, but its impact is not.
Our latest Financial Services State of the Nation 2026 research reflects this reality. Across the region, 38 per cent of institutions have deployed or enhanced AI in payments, while 36 per cent have done the same in lending. More than a third have strengthened fraud, know your customer and know your business capabilities. These are not experiments. They are strategic investments designed to improve how customers experience financial services.
Customer expectations continue to rise, because everyone has become accustomed to digital experiences that are instant, intuitive and available whenever they need them. Customers do not lower those expectations when they interact with a bank. Often they raise them. A customer can order a ride, stream a film, book travel and manage a business from a mobile phone, and increasingly they expect payments, financing and banking services to feel just as seamless.
The institutions that deliver on those expectations will deepen trust and loyalty. The institutions that do not will find themselves competing on price, which is rarely a winning long-term strategy.
We are seeing the same trend play out in lending. Our research shows that service, personalisation and security now sit side by side among customers’ top priorities. They want banks to understand their needs, make better decisions and protect their data, all at the same time. That is where AI is beginning to make a meaningful difference. Used well, AI does not simply accelerate decisions. It improves them. It can help lenders assess risk more effectively, identify opportunities faster and create more relevant customer experiences, while strengthening controls and improving consistency. For small and medium-sized enterprises in particular, this matters enormously.
A region positioned to lead
The GCC is uniquely positioned to lead this next phase of transformation. Across the region, governments have established ambitious digital agendas that are accelerating innovation and raising expectations. Saudi Vision 2030 and the UAE’s digital economy initiatives are helping create an environment where digital-first experiences increasingly become the norm rather than the exception. The result is a customer base that expects more and a banking sector that must move faster.
The data tells a compelling story. In the UAE, more than a third of institutions are actively modernising core banking platforms, while over half are using AI to improve accuracy and reduce errors. In Saudi Arabia, 41 per cent of institutions view AI as a direct competitive advantage, the highest percentage globally, while 93 per cent plan to increase investment in customer experience and personalisation over the next year.
These numbers point to something bigger than technology adoption. They reflect a shift in mindset. The most forward-looking institutions no longer see payments and lending as operational functions that need to be maintained. They see them as strategic capabilities that drive growth, trust and competitive advantage. That is an important distinction, because the biggest challenge facing banks today is not whether the technology exists. It does. The challenge is deciding how central these capabilities are to your future strategy.
Resilience is part of the brand promise
Consider resilience. As real-time payments become standard, resilience is no longer just an IT metric buried in a dashboard. Customers experience it directly. If systems fail, trust erodes immediately. That is why I often say resilience is not just an operational priority. It is part of your brand promise. If your systems do not work, your brand does not work.
The same is true for lending. Customers may never see the models, workflows or decision engines operating behind the scenes, but they experience the outcomes every day: fast or slow, simple or frustrating, confident or uncertain. Those experiences shape perception far more powerfully than any advertising campaign ever could. That is why customer experience is no longer a front-end conversation. It now lives deep inside the architecture of the bank.
The GCC has many of the ingredients needed to lead globally: ambitious institutions, supportive regulation, strong digital infrastructure and customers who are eager to embrace innovation. The opportunity now is execution. Over the next five years, I do not believe the winners will necessarily be the banks with the most products or the biggest marketing budgets. They will be the institutions customers trust to deliver consistently, securely and seamlessly, every single time. That trust will be built payment by payment, decision by decision, interaction by interaction. Which is why your payments stack is no longer just infrastructure. It is your brand.
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