16 September 2026
The 17th Middle East Banking Innovation Summit (MEBIS) opened on Wednesday 16 September 2026 at Jumeirah Emirates Towers in Dubai and runs to 17 September. The two day summit gathers more than 400 banking leaders, over 60 speakers and more than 30 technology providers, with over 100 banks expected to be represented from the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Egypt and Jordan. The UAE Banks Federation joins as Official Supporting Partner and IBM is the title sponsor. More than 75 per cent of those attending are C-suite executives and decision makers. The agenda is built around generative and agentic AI in banking, real time and cross border payments, cybersecurity, data strategy and cloud.
The summit in numbers
| Indicator | Reported figure |
|---|---|
| Edition | 17th |
| Dates | 16 to 17 September 2026 |
| Venue | Jumeirah Emirates Towers, Dubai |
| Banking leaders expected | More than 400 |
| Speakers | More than 60 |
| Technology providers | More than 30 |
| Banks represented | More than 100 |
| Countries represented | Eight: UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan |
| Official Supporting Partner | UAE Banks Federation |
| Title sponsor | IBM |
| Share of C-suite attendees | More than 75 per cent |
| Organiser | Expotrade Middle East |
| Day one registration opens | 07:45 |
| Official opening | 08:45 on Wednesday 16 September |
A regional room, not a national one
The composition of the audience is the point of the event. Senior banking executives and speakers come from eight countries, and the functions in the room are the ones that sign off technology budgets: technology, digital transformation, innovation, artificial intelligence, data, customer experience, payments, cybersecurity, operations and business strategy. More than 100 banks are expected to be represented, which makes MEBIS one of the few places in the region where the same procurement and transformation questions are discussed by peers from Gulf, Levant and North African institutions in one hall.
The presence of the UAE Banks Federation as Official Supporting Partner puts the national banking association behind a private sector technology summit. The Federation is the body that coordinates the UAE banking industry on shared standards and market practice, so its participation signals that the topics on stage are being treated as sector level questions rather than as the internal projects of individual banks.
AI moves from pilot to production
Artificial intelligence is the defining theme of the 2026 edition, and the framing has shifted. The programme is not about whether banks should experiment with generative AI. It is about how they deploy intelligent and increasingly autonomous systems safely, responsibly and at scale across customer experience, operations, risk, data and decision making.
Sessions cover generative AI, agentic AI and intelligent automation, including the step from AI assistants to more autonomous AI agents while keeping governance, accountability and trust intact. Alongside that, the agenda works through the data foundations required for trusted AI, the application of intelligent technologies to customer journeys and decisioning, and what happens to traditional operating models once AI is embedded across the organisation rather than bolted onto one department.
For a regulated financial institution this is the hard part. An autonomous agent that opens accounts, approves limits or flags transactions has to be auditable, and the summit programme puts governance and accountability in the same sessions as capability rather than in a separate compliance track.
Payments and customer experience
Payments form the second major block. Banks across the region are responding to the growth of real time transfers, digital wallets and cross border payment networks, and to customer expectations about how quickly money should move. The programme covers real time payment infrastructure, instant settlement, cross border payments, digital wallets, interoperability and the consumer behaviour driving the next generation of payment services.
Customer experience runs next to it. The discussion is about what excellence means once AI, data and automation make personalisation and predictive service possible, and about reducing friction across onboarding, service and fulfilment without losing the trust, transparency and reliability that customers expect from a bank. Onboarding friction is the part that businesses feel directly: the speed of opening and maintaining a corporate account is, in practice, a technology and process question inside the bank.
Cybersecurity, data and digital trust
As institutions become more digital, interconnected and AI enabled, the security and governance side of transformation grows with them. MEBIS 2026 addresses cybersecurity, fraud, data governance and digital trust in the same programme as the technology opportunities, with sessions on how banks innovate at speed without weakening the controls, resilience and accountability required of regulated institutions.
The organisers make a broader point about structure. AI, customer experience, payments, cybersecurity and data can no longer be run as separate transformation programmes with separate owners and budgets. They are increasingly parts of a single technology and business strategy, and the summit programme is arranged to reflect that.
Who is exhibiting
More than 30 technology providers show their platforms alongside the conference programme. Participating sponsors and technology partners include IBM as title sponsor, together with Infosys Finacle, Temenos, Snowflake, Check Point, EPAM, Synechron, Camunda, Alteryx, Sitecore, ManageEngine, Guardsquare, Gulf Business Machines, Crowe, Nagarro, additiv, Wultra, Finshape, Finbox, Aurionpro, Osfin, VuNet Systems, PayNways Worldwide, Monstro, BUSINESSNEXT, Sutherland Global, Archer, Abacus Technologies and others.
The exhibition covers artificial intelligence, digital banking, payments, data and analytics, cybersecurity, cloud infrastructure, automation and customer experience. The format combines executive discussions, presentations, banking case studies, panel sessions, fireside conversations and the MEBIS Innovation Lounge.
Seventeen years of the same conversation, changed
MEBIS has run for 17 editions. Shail Bisht, Regional Director at Expotrade Middle East, described the change: when the summit began 17 years ago the banking technology conversation was very different, and today banks are looking at AI, agentic AI, real time payments, cybersecurity, data and customer experience at the same time, with many of those technologies moving from discussion to real implementation remarkably quickly. He added that the objective remains to create an environment where the people who make technology and transformation decisions inside banks can engage directly with peers and examine technologies that could have a meaningful impact on their institutions.
What it means for companies in the UAE
MEBIS is an industry event. No licence fee, tax rate, filing obligation or account opening requirement changed because of it, and nothing on the agenda creates a new procedure that a company can use this week. What the summit does show is the direction of the corporate banking experience in the region: onboarding, payments and service are being rebuilt around automation and real time infrastructure, and the banks setting those priorities are the same institutions that companies in the UAE deal with day to day.
For a business preparing to open or move a corporate account, the practical work is unchanged. Banks still assess the licensed activity, the shareholding structure, the source of funds and the substance of the business in the UAE, and the quality of that file still decides the outcome. Our guide to opening a bank account in the UAE sets out the documents, the compliance questions and the realistic timeline.
How Atlant Capital can help
- Company setup in the UAE: choosing between mainland and a free zone, selecting activities and licence type, registration and licensing from start to finish.
- Corporate bank account opening: preparing the compliance file, matching the business profile to the right bank and handling the process through to activation.
- Structuring advice for companies whose model depends on payment flows, cross border settlement or fintech partnerships, so the licence, the activity list and the banking relationship match the way the business actually operates.
A summit does not change the rules, but it does say where the region is putting its investment. For businesses in the UAE the useful reading is simple: the banking relationship is becoming more automated and more data driven on the bank side, and a clean, well prepared corporate file is what gets a company through it.
Source: Financial IT.
FAQ
When and where is MEBIS 2026 held?
The 17th Middle East Banking Innovation Summit takes place on 16 and 17 September 2026 at Jumeirah Emirates Towers in Dubai. Day one opens with registration, networking and morning refreshments from 07:45, followed by the official opening at 08:45 on Wednesday 16 September. The programme continues through Thursday 17 September.
How many banks and delegates attend MEBIS 2026?
Organisers expect more than 400 banking leaders, over 60 speakers and more than 30 technology providers, with over 100 banks represented. Delegates come from the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Egypt and Jordan, and more than 75 per cent of attendees are C-suite executives and decision makers. The summit is organised by Expotrade Middle East.
What is on the MEBIS 2026 agenda?
Four blocks: generative AI, agentic AI and intelligent automation with the governance required to run them; real time payment infrastructure, instant settlement, cross border payments, digital wallets and interoperability; customer experience, onboarding and personalisation; and cybersecurity, fraud, data governance and digital trust. Cloud and core modernisation run across all four. The UAE Banks Federation is Official Supporting Partner and IBM is the title sponsor.
Does MEBIS 2026 change anything for companies banking in the UAE?
No. MEBIS is an industry summit, and no licence fee, tax rate, reporting obligation or bank account opening requirement was amended because of it. Corporate account opening still depends on the licensed activity, the ownership structure, the source of funds and the substance of the business in the UAE. What the agenda indicates is where banks are directing technology investment: automation, real time payments and AI driven decisioning.
