Financial

Embedded Finance, AI, and Open Banking

Published

7 months ago

February 28, 2025

Integrator Web-Editor

Luc Hovhannessian, Chief Revenue Officer, Treasury & Capital Markets at Finastra

Finastra is driving growth in Treasury & Capital Markets by enabling financial institutions to modernize through cloud-first, open finance solutions. With innovations in AI, ESG-driven finance, and embedded banking, Finastra is shaping the future of financial services, enhancing efficiency, automation, and decision-making.

In which sectors is Finastra experiencing the most significant growth in its client base, and how are you expanding your outreach efforts?

Finastra is witnessing significant growth across our business, and I am seeing this first hand within our Treasury & Capital Markets business unit. A big driving factor is financial institutions recognize that to thrive in today’s environment filled with macroeconomic volatility, regulatory shifts and demands for operational efficiency, they must prioritize modernization and automation, as well as real-time risk management, liquidity forecasting and decision-making. Cloud-first, open, and scalable technology is helping them stay ahead in an unpredictable financial landscape.

Bank treasurers, for example, understand the need for real-time treasury and advanced trading capabilities to navigate today’s challenges and capture the opportunities. With Finastra Kondor, our leading bank treasury management solution, we are enabling institutions to trade high volumes of treasury, complex derivatives and structured products, providing risk analytics and real-time position management. To further support our customers on this journey, we have evolved our solution through enhanced workspaces and workflows to drive greater efficiencies and streamline the decision-making process for banks. We are also leveraging microservices, AI and partner ecosystems to deliver intuitive and persona-based experiences, as well as Treasury as a Service (TaaS) and cloud capabilities.

Additionally, we have numerous customers that have implemented Opics, our simplified, integrated core treasury solution. The solution ensures institutions can adopt cost-effective treasury operations while increasing their revenue, improving customer service and staying compliant.

The capital markets space is another promising area, as firms seek scalable, efficient platforms. With Summit, backed by over 25 years of industry expertise, we’re helping institutions streamline trading, improve straight-through processing (STP), and reduce time to market, making operations more efficient and cost-effective.

Finally, we are seeing strong growth from the investment management industry, particularly as insurance companies and pension funds expand to the point of needing a robust technology system. Fusion Invest provides real-time portfolio insights, advanced analytics, and automated investment processes through an Investment Book of Records (IBOR). With comprehensive asset class coverage and cloud-enabled deployment, we’re giving institutions the flexibility to manage risk and align with strategic goals.

We are continuing to embrace the growth opportunities in the treasury and capital markets industries by providing ongoing engagement and support for our existing customers, some of whom who have used our solutions for many years. We are using our successes and learnings to engage new customers, and we have some exciting projects on the horizon.

How is Finastra leveraging the potential of open finance, and what does the future of open finance look like from your perspective?

The treasury and capital markets industries are evolving rapidly, with financial institutions seeking greater efficiency, scalability, and sustainability. Finastra has long championed an open financial landscape, supporting some of the world’s largest banks and investment firms with solutions designed for automation, real-time decision-making, and seamless collaboration.

For example, in treasury trading, banks must optimize operations and integrate with market services to create a stable financial ecosystem. This allows them to respond quickly to regulatory changes and promote growth in global and local markets. Our open solutions enable seamless, real-time integration by leveraging REST APIs, allowing interactive, two-way integration with external applications, meaning banks can innovate and adapt to market changes rapidly.

Institutions require solutions that optimize the trading of high-quality liquid assets and enable cost-effective treasury operations from front to back. Our open solutions address these challenges and facilitate collaboration across the financial ecosystem. By offering advanced systems for secure data processing and analysis, they allow banks to utilize their data more effectively for decision-making. Additionally, these platforms address bias through analytics, training, and automated decision-making tools, while ensuring compliance with evolving regulations.

Similarly, robust capital markets platforms that are open by design support investment banks with trade validations, portfolio management, and real-time pricing. Finastra’s front-to-back solutions aid debt raising and risk management for institutions to drive growth and foster societal change.

Capital markets face challenges like slow trade validations, complex risk management for development banks, adapting to new technologies, and supporting diverse financial products. We’re solving these challenges by offering agile solutions that speed up trade validations and provide robust risk management solutions. Open architecture allows for easy integration and promotes innovation, while real-time tools and specialized solutions can improve portfolio management and the handling of various financial products.

The future of Open Finance lies in greater data-sharing, stronger partnerships, and scalable innovation. As financial institutions embrace cloud-driven ecosystems, the ability to integrate, collaborate, and innovate will define long-term success.

Can you elaborate on your software solutions and how they contribute to supporting green finance? Is the shift toward sustainable finance becoming a tangible reality?

Sustainable, inclusive and responsible finance is moving from ambition to reality as institutions embed ESG principles into their operations. Demand for green bonds, sustainability-linked loans, and ESG-driven investments is rising, and technology is at the heart of this transition. Finastra offers a variety of solutions to support this, including Finastra ESG Service offered within our Lending business unit. The cloud-native, open and scalable solution facilitates the integration of ESG performance criteria into risk and pricing to deliver a better experience for sustainability-linked loans and bonds.

In the treasury and capital markets space, as institutions integrate ESG factors into decision-making, investors can achieve financial returns while contributing to positive societal and environmental outcomes. The demand for ESG-focused investments is growing, with institutional investors like pension funds and insurance companies incorporating ESG criteria to meet stakeholder expectations. Investors use ESG criteria to identify risks affecting long-term performance, such as regulatory fines for poor environmental practices or the reduced likelihood of scandals due to strong governance.

With real-time treasury and trading solutions, banks can access more accurate forecasting and risk management capabilities, while enabling faster decision-making and greater agility to navigate any complexities. Additionally, our Fusion Invest solution is integrated with ESG data to help asset managers make more informed decisions about their portfolios in line with specific values.

Cloud-enabled ecosystems, such as Finastra’s, further support the adoption of sustainable finance. Powered by Open Finance, these ecosystems foster seamless collaboration and partnerships to drive innovation and positive societal change. By integrating third party applications that provide, for example, sustainable datasets or seamless compliance with disclosure requirements, banks can embrace the opportunities of ESG while mitigating potential risks.

Finally, as Generative AI (Gen AI) brings new opportunities for green finance. By analysing vast amounts of historical and real-time data, Gen AI can help firms assess market sentiment, track policy changes, and identify ESG-aligned opportunities. At Finastra, we are investing heavily in Gen AI across our operations and within our products and are excited about what the future has in store.

Embedded finance is a buzzword across the financial landscape—can you explain its significance and the role generative AI plays in shaping its evolution?

Embedded finance gained popularity because of the way it seeks to transform the end user experience. By integrating banking capabilities directly into non-financial platforms, payments, lending, investment and banking services can become more intuitive and accessible. It’s about putting the end user’s needs first, and building products and services around that, to be consumed how and when they want them. Our Treasury & Capital Markets solutions can be easily connected with an end user’s platform, enabling businesses to offer investment opportunities directly to end clients.

In a similar vein, Gen AI is making a significant impact due to its transformative potential in enriching user experiences. By enhancing employee productivity, it can free up time to focus on more value-added, customer-facing tasks. With large language models and AI assistants, information can be accessed at our fingertips to support faster and potentially more informed decisions. For example, a trader could request a summary of all FX spot trades issued that day and run APIs to automate tasks such as booking trades and calculating risk measures.

Market volatility is accelerating this demand. Institutions must react quickly to economic shifts, regulatory changes, and shifting demands. Gen AI can ingest large volumes of historical and real-time data—from central bank policies to social sentiment—to generate precise risk assessments and liquidity insights. These capabilities are particularly valuable for instant investment decisions, automated trading, and dynamic pricing models.

However, Gen AI’s adoption also comes with challenges. Data quality, governance, and regulatory compliance are critical to ensuring AI models remain transparent and reliable. Financial institutions must continuously refine robust measures and processes to maintain trust and accountability.

How is Finastra supporting financial organizations with cloud services, and what innovations can we expect in this space?

Cloud technology is at the heart of modernization strategies, enabling institutions to reduce costs, increase agility, and accelerate time to market. We are helping banks and investment firms adopt our scalable, cloud-based solutions to improve operations, strengthen risk management, and adapt to shifting market conditions. Additionally, as regulations continue to evolve and become more stringent, cloud-based solutions provided the necessary agility for institutions to quickly comply.

Modernization is about more than just migrating to the cloud. By offering managed services in collaboration with our partners, such as DXC Luxoft and RightClick Solutions, banks gain additional benefits in terms of operational efficiency and maintenance support. We are also helping our customers adopt microservices-based architecture, enabling them to select and integrate the specific functionalities they need, while minimizing the risks of large-scale legacy migrations.

As our solutions are API-enabled, this further enhances adaptability by enabling seamless connections of banking systems with fintech innovations and external data sources. With cloud-enabled, Open Finance ecosystems combined with technological innovations such as Gen AI, we can expect a lot more collaboration and innovation to come, which ultimately can provide better end-user outcomes.

Financial

Reimagining Banking: Unlocking Endless Potential and Unlimited Growth in the Middle East

Published

4 days ago

October 7, 2025

Integrator Web-Editor

By Keith Redding, Chief Revenue Officer, Universal Banking at Finastra

Reimagining banking in the Middle East is redefining how financial institutions grow, engage, and innovate. As digital transformation accelerates, banks must evolve to deliver seamless, secure, and personalized experiences that meet rising customer expectations.

Across the UAE and Saudi Arabia, adoption of digital banking continues to surge. According to Capco’s “Bank of the Future” survey, 89% of UAE customers have become more confident using mobile banking services, while 83% now access them primarily via mobile apps. Similarly, Saudi Arabia expects online banking penetration to grow by over 16 percentage points between 2024 and 2029, underscoring the region’s momentum toward smarter, connected financial ecosystems.

Reimagining Banking Middle East with Data and Analytics

Data has become the new cornerstone of success. Through AI, analytics, and machine learning, banks can decode customer behaviour and anticipate needs more precisely than ever. As a result, they can personalize offerings, boost retention, and reduce friction across the customer journey.

A clear example of this transformation is Riyad Bank’s Centre of Intelligence (COI) — Saudi Arabia’s first AI-focused banking hub — which enhances operational efficiency while driving innovation in customer engagement.

By reimagining banking in the Middle East with data-driven strategies, institutions can align financial products with real-time insights and deliver experiences that feel intuitive, predictive, and human.

Hyper-Personalization and Omnichannel Growth

Customers today interact through multiple touchpoints — mobile apps, websites, and physical branches — expecting consistent, personalized service. Therefore, delivering a seamless omnichannel experience has become the foundation of loyalty.

In the UAE, 70% of consumers are willing to share personal data for tailored experiences, while in Saudi Arabia, the number climbs to 71%. This readiness empowers banks to use analytics ethically and transparently, transforming everyday banking into relationship-driven engagement.

Digital Sales Outreach and New Engagement Models

Digital outreach is not an option — it’s essential. Mobile-first strategies, social media engagement, and AI-driven marketing are now central to how banks connect with customers.

Take D360 Bank, one of Saudi Arabia’s first digital-only institutions. It attracted over 600,000 customers within two months of launch, proving that mobile-first banking can scale fast when powered by user-centric design.

Ecosystem Collaboration: Powering Innovation in the Middle East

Another major force reimagining banking in the Middle East is ecosystem collaboration. By partnering with fintechs, big tech firms, and infrastructure providers, banks can expand capabilities faster than ever before.

Globally, fintech startups have surged from 12,000 in 2020 to nearly 30,000 in 2024. The Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) now hosts over 1,000 fintech firms, while Saudi Arabia’s fintech ecosystem has more than doubled within a year. This growth underscores the importance of collaboration as a driver of agility and innovation.

Such partnerships empower banks to deploy advanced solutions like AI-powered risk scoring, embedded finance, and real-time payments — all while ensuring compliance with regional and global standards.

Looking Ahead: Building a Future-Ready Financial Ecosystem

The future of reimagining banking in the Middle East lies in intelligent, insight-led operations. Automated recommendations, predictive support, and AI-driven decision-making will soon define how banks engage customers.

Forward-thinking institutions in the UAE are already adopting AI-assisted frameworks that streamline service and elevate the customer experience. In Saudi Arabia, agile innovation models like Alinma Bank’s digital factory accelerate product launches and improve customer alignment.

As the region continues to evolve, banks that combine innovation, collaboration, and customer-centric transformation will achieve sustainable growth and long-term market leadership.

Check this out UAE Crypto Regulation Sets Global Blueprint

Financial

UAE Crypto Regulation Sets Global Blueprint

Published

4 days ago

October 7, 2025

Integrator Web-Editor

By Karl Naïm, Group Chief Commercial Officer, XBTO

The UAE has evolved from a crypto sandbox to a global model for digital asset regulation, demonstrating how policy clarity, investor protection, and innovation can coexist. Once a regional testing ground, the nation now leads in tokenization, blockchain adoption, and institutional-grade compliance — setting a framework others are eager to emulate.

Institutions Move from Observation to Adoption

Over the last two years, institutional investors — from sovereign funds to global asset managers — have shifted from cautious exploration to structured allocations in digital assets. Yet, these investors only engage when they see robust regulatory infrastructure.
Here, UAE crypto regulation stands apart. While the U.S. remains divided over jurisdictional control and Europe’s MiCA awaits full rollout, the UAE offers a complete ecosystem where policy meets execution. This maturity has transformed the country into a trusted base for large-scale blockchain initiatives.

Two Regulatory Paths, One Unified Objective

The UAE’s approach balances innovation and oversight through two distinct yet aligned regulatory arms.

Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM): Through the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA), it licenses custody, tokenization, and brokerage activities under strict governance criteria.
Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA): Instead of classifying asset types, VARA regulates activities, giving firms flexibility to innovate without restarting their licensing process.

This dual model ensures both stability and adaptability — a rare equilibrium that reinforces confidence among enterprises and investors.

Tokenization Moves from Pilot to Production

In 2023, Neovision and Realize launched one of the first tokenized U.S. Treasury funds under ADGM’s oversight, now part of a market valued at over $2.4 billion. Soon after, HSBC piloted tokenized gold settlement in the Emirates, leveraging the UAE’s mature legal and technical infrastructure.
Unlike most markets, where tokenization remains conceptual, the UAE has operationalized it across corporate bonds, commodities, and private equity. This tangible progress makes UAE crypto regulation a benchmark for turning blockchain theory into enterprise-scale reality.

Proven Resilience Through Market Turbulence

The UAE’s frameworks were tested during the 2022 digital asset downturn. While some regions froze licensing or enforcement, VARA introduced stricter custodial and marketing rules while continuing to issue licenses transparently.
In 2024, both VARA and ADGM demonstrated accountability by penalizing unlicensed operators and enforcing compliance — signaling a regulatory environment that values both innovation and discipline.

Blockchain Beyond Finance

Beyond crypto trading and tokenization, the UAE is using blockchain to drive cross-sector innovation.

Ras Al Khaimah has built a dedicated Web3 zone for decentralized applications.
Sharjah is piloting blockchain in public services, from identity to supply chain tracking.
This diversification proves the national model’s flexibility and depth, blending economic and civic value under a unified UAE crypto regulation framework.

Geography Meets Governance

Situated between Asia and Europe, the UAE benefits from time-zone overlap, U.S. dollar settlement, and investor-friendly tax structures. Yet its real advantage lies in policy precision. Since 2023, VARA has issued frequent updates and consultative papers, responding dynamically to industry input.
Following its removal from the FATF grey list in 2024, the UAE has accelerated compliance reforms faster than most peers, turning global scrutiny into strategic progress.

A Replicable Blueprint for the World

While the U.S. debates regulatory ownership and Europe await MiCA’s maturity, the UAE has implemented a live, multi-emirate framework. It balances openness with oversight — a model now studied by global policymakers.
For institutional investors, the question has shifted from if to were. Increasingly, the answer is clear: the UAE — where crypto regulation is no longer an experiment, but the emerging global standard.

Read our previous post, UAE Depreciation Rules Boost Real Estate Investment

Financial

UAE Depreciation Rules Boost Real Estate Investment

Published

4 days ago

October 7, 2025

Integrator Web-Editor

By Shabbir Moonim, CFO, The Continental Group

Shabbir Moonim,Chief Financial Officer at The Continental Group. — **Shabbir Moonim**

A Sharper Edge for UAE Property Depreciation Investors

The UAE property depreciation is reshaping how businesses and family offices view property as an investment. Real estate has always anchored wealth and stability, but its treatment within corporate tax frameworks now determines how effectively it performs over time.

The latest guidance allows depreciation deductions on properties valued at fair market value, adding a layer of fiscal precision. Companies choosing the realization basis—deferring tax until sale—can now claim an annual deduction of up to 4 percent on the property’s original cost or written-down tax value. This refinement strengthens property’s role inside long-term, tax-efficient portfolios.

How Depreciation Boosts UAE Property Cash Flow

Investment success depends not only on appreciation but also on liquidity and reinvestment power. Depreciation lowers taxable income, improving post-tax returns for assets that are typically illiquid.

For structured property holders, claiming depreciation under fair-value accounting boosts internal yield and aligns property with other income-producing assets. Even at a modest 4 percent, the deduction releases capital that can be reallocated or retained, enhancing overall portfolio efficiency.

Moreover, this recurring offset stabilizes cash flows, giving investors predictable returns that complement the long-term nature of property ownership.

Aligning UAE Property Depreciation with Tax Efficiency

Previously, owners had to choose between fair-value accounting and depreciation benefits. Businesses valuing properties at market rates lost tax deductions, while those using historical cost models retained them. The new UAE depreciation rules remove this compromise.

Now, companies can maintain up-to-date valuations and still claim depreciation, ensuring transparency and consistency. This alignment allows property to compete directly with other investment classes, from private equity to listed securities, on a balanced tax basis.

Consequently, financial planners can make clearer, data-driven decisions about capital allocation and portfolio composition.

Small Rule, Big Impact on UAE Property Investment

While no single regulation redefines real-estate logic, subtle fiscal changes can transform investment behavior. This policy turns property from a passive holding into an active component of strategic capital management.

It also reflects the UAE’s commitment to predictable, rules-based governance that supports investment without distorting markets. For business owners and families planning across generations, this stability builds confidence and encourages long-term commitment to the country’s economy.

Ultimately, the UAE depreciation rules help transform real estate from a static asset into a dynamic tool for tax optimization and sustainable growth.

A Foundation for Smarter Real Estate Portfolios

These reforms make it easier to incorporate real estate within diversified investment portfolios. They support businesses in balancing cash flow needs, compliance requirements, and performance targets.

For investors, the message is clear: property can now compete with other asset classes not only on returns but also on efficiency and resilience. The UAE continues to build a financial landscape where predictability and innovation work hand in hand.

About the Author

Shabbir Moonim is the Chief Financial Officer at The Continental Group, with over 25 years of experience in finance, strategy, and governance. He aligns financial operations with enterprise growth, oversees risk management and treasury, and drives regulatory readiness and data-driven decision-making across the organization.

About The Continental Group

Founded in 1994 by Ashok Sardana, The Continental Group is a leading insurance and financial services provider licensed by the UAE Insurance Authority, SCA, and DFSA. With over 250 professionals operating across Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, the Group offers customized solutions in investments, wealth management, succession planning, and insurance. Its core values — integrity, insight, and innovation — continue to drive client trust and long-term financial well-being.

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