Registration

Opening Remarks

From Human-Speed Banking to Machine-Speed Finance: Where Saudi Banking Goes Next

• Cashless penetration has cleared 79%. What does the bank's next strategic horizon actually look like once digitisation stops being the agenda?
• Fully digital banks are now operating under SAMA licence. What does that change about every incumbent's competitive posture?
• Embedded finance, open banking licensing, and BaaS authorisation are all live this year. Where does the bank's value-add actually sit in that stack?
• SAMA has positioned AI and real-time infrastructure as the next operational layer. What does intelligent banking in Saudi Arabia actually look like in practice?

How We Solved...

Can the Core Keep Up? Infrastructure for the Agentic Era

• Modernisation programmes run longer than planned. What does the bank actually do when the new stack ships but the legacy can't be retired?
• Real-time operations need a data layer, not just a core. Where does the bank's data architecture sit in the modernisation sequence?
• SAMA expectations on data residency and cloud sovereignty are specific. What does the bank's modernisation architecture have to deliver without sacrificing capability?
• Modernisation accountability spans CIO, COO, and CDO. What does the operating model need to look like for the programme to actually ship?

The Room Speaks: Morning Pulse

Networking Break

The Payments Stack: When Open Rails Reshape Revenue

• Transaction fee income is structurally compressing across the sector. What does the bank's next revenue layer actually need to look like?
• Customer-facing payment journeys now sit with third parties. What does the bank do when it carries the risk but doesn't see the customer?
• Hajj and Umrah payments hit a scale no other market matches. What does the bank's payments and fraud infrastructure need to deliver?
• Cross-border GCC payments are accelerating ahead of full harmonisation. What does the bank's correspondent and FX architecture need to enable now?

How We Solved...

The Invisible Bank: When Your Product Lives on Someone Else's Platform

• A retailer offers lending at checkout on the bank's balance sheet. Who actually owns the customer relationship — the platform or the bank?
• Super-apps are embedding payments, credit, and insurance into daily transactions. What revenue does the bank still own when the journey starts elsewhere?
• SAMA's BaaS framework gives non-banks structural access. What does a viable Tier-1 BaaS strategy look like inside the Saudi regulatory perimeter?
• If the bank becomes invisible, the brand goes with it. How does the bank build customer loyalty when the customer never sees it?

How We Solved...

When the Customer Has the AI: Agentic Banking and the End of Inertia

• The inertia premium in deposits and renewals is starting to erode. What does the bank's funding model actually look like when switching friction collapses?
• If customer AI selects on price and speed, what levers does the bank actually have left to defend the relationship?
• Banks are building their own automated agents while customers deploy competing ones. What does the bank's authentication architecture need to do?
• Regulation has not caught up with autonomous financial decisions. Where is the bank's liability when an AI agent moves money the customer did not expect?

How We Solved...

When the Attacker Has AI Too: Fraud, Deepfakes and the New Arms Race

• Detection at machine speed is achievable. What does the bank do when investigation and remediation still run on human cycles?
• Synthetic identity now defeats most onboarding checks. Where is the bank's authentication stack genuinely ready for adversarial AI?
• Fraud, cyber, and AML have historically been separate teams. What does the bank's operating model need when the threat ignores those boundaries?
• Threat intelligence sharing moves slower than the attack cycle. What does the bank's collaboration model with peers and regulators actually need to enable?

The Room Speaks: Closing Pulse

Closing Remarks and End of Summit

VIP Networking Lunch