In this episode of The Future of Financial Services brought to you by HolyWally, Omar Halabieh, Head of Technology at Amazon Payment Services, joins us to explain how technology can solve the issue of financial inclusion when it comes to unbanked and underbanked individuals.

In this episode of The Future of Financial Services brought to you by HolyWally, we brought in Tristan Brandt, Director of Design and Innovation at RAKBANK, to dispel a few myths that have been propagated by the hype of the cashless and cardless movement.

In this episode of The Future of Financial Services brought to you by HolyWally, we spoke to Imad Gharazeddine, the Co-Founder and CEO of Mamo. Before starting the fintech, Imad spent 8 years with Google. Vuk and Imad dived into the factors contributing to the MENA region still having a largely cash-based economy, as well as the hidden costs of operating this way. They also explored how Mamo is empowering individuals and businesses to effortlessly access their money, and Imad's take on where the greatest opportunities lie in the financial services industry.

We're joined today on The Future of Financial Services series by Mirna Sleiman, Founder & CEO of Fintech Galaxy, the MENA region's open finance and innovation platform. Mirna specialises in advising governments and financial institutions on digital transformation programs, making her the ideal subject matter expert to speak to about open banking and open finance. In this episode she dives into how traditional banking leads to large numbers of people being underbanked and further excluded from access to crucial financial services, and the impact open banking will have on the future of the financial services industry.

Today we are speaking to Hiren Raghuvanshi, the Head of Cards, Payments and Direct Banking at the Commercial Bank of Dubai. Hiren has more than 15 years of retail banking experience in the fields of product development and digital and retail growth strategy among many others. Hiren joined us in the studio to discuss how we can expect the contactless payments space to evolve and the next critical steps for banks to embrace a cashless economy.

In this episode, we are tackling the issue of financial inclusion with Devid Jegerson, the Executive VP, and Head of Customer Experience and Platform Development at the National Bank of Fujairah. Devid dived into the factors that contribute to so many individuals being unbanked, how emerging technologies like blockchain and cryptocurrency can help, and what traditional financial institutions like banks can do to facilitate greater financial inclusion.

One of the financial services spaces that fintech is most effectively disrupting is payments. Fintech innovation is making it easier than ever to make payments and get paid, eliminating the need for the clumsy and outdated systems involving IBANs and SWIFT codes that have dominated these processes for far too long. In this episode, we are unpacking the need for this revolution with Andrew Gold. Andrew previously worked for heavy-hitters such as Apple and Coinbase and he is now the Co-Founder and Head of Engineering at Ziina, the UAE’s first peer-to-peer payment app.

What do you think is the most pressing pain point for SMEs in the MENA region? Pluto Card Co-Founder and CEO Mo Aziz believes it is the inefficiency of B2B payments and how they limit small businesses' ability to pay and get paid safely and seamlessly. Mo stepped up to the mic on The Future of Financial Services Podcast to share how he identified this need in the SME sector and how fintechs can provide a game-changing solution. He shared his insider perspective on some of the greatest challenges in tackling this problem, and why running a business is likely to become "dramatically" easier in the near future.