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AI-Driven Cybersecurity in MENA Banking: Why It’s Time to Rethink Our Defenses

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1 year ago

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CYBERSECURITY BANKING

By Omar Mansur, Managing Director – APAC, Codebase Technologies

In an age where digital transformation is moving faster than ever, banks around the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) are forced to confront a growing and increasingly evolving threat: cybercrime and fraud. It’s not just about an increase in the number of incidents; it’s about smarter threats. Nefarious agents are utilizing more complex methods such as leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) to outsmart traditional IT security systems, using everything from deepfake-powered scams to AI-generated phishing campaigns along with social engineering strategies.

In the UAE alone, about 21% of cybersecurity incidents in recent years targeted banks and financial institutions, second only to government entities (Lemos, 2025). With costly breaches on the rise cybersecurity has become a top board-level concern. However globally, 71% of leaders report that small organizations can no longer adequately secure themselves against the growing complexity of cyber risks (WEF, 2025). It’s a high-stakes game and I have personally seen how AI and cybersecurity has taken the spotlight in board meetings and discussion with clients from across the GCC and Levant regions.

This urgency has forced MENA banks to explore AI-driven security solutions that can match the speed and complexity of modern threats, protecting both their customers and their bottom line. The conversation is no longer “if” we need AI-driven defenses—it’s how quickly we can deploy them, and how can we optimize them to adapt to the ever-changing tactics of nefarious agents

Where We Stand

It wasn’t that long ago that Gen AI in banking was mostly used to train and create chatbots for customer support, but this is changing quickly. In the UAE, over 70% of banks have rolled out or upgraded their AI capabilities, and not just to streamline operations, but to actively combat cybercrime (PwC, 2023). Across multiple projects I have seen an overarching focus on AI being incorporated into all manner of digital solutions, particularly in the MENA region where cyber fraud has become a prevalent issue affecting credibility and customer confidence.

The push is being led by both necessity and ambition. Saudi Arabia and the GCC states are investing heavily in national digital strategies, and banks are stepping up with AI systems to detect fraud, verify identities, and stay ahead of financial crime. As many countries in the Middle East position themselves as financial and fintech hubs, ensuring security for customers and institutions is a prime concern in garnering not only customer confidence but regional credibility. That’s pushed regional cybersecurity budgets to grow by double digits, with MENA’s total spend expected to exceed $3.3 billion in 2025, driven by Gen-AI, cloud adoption, talent gaps, and evolving threats (Gartner, 2024).

A True Strategic Advantage or Just a Security Upgrade?

Artificial intelligence isn’t just helping plug holes in defenses, it’s defining the rules for how security is built into every layer of operations. Integrating AI into banking operations gives banks a real edge in regions where speed really matters. Having worked with several banks across the region, I’ve seen firsthand how traditional security models are starting to break under the weight of elaborate AI based threats.

For banks in the MENA region, where rapid digitalization coincides with heightened cyber threats, adopting AI-driven systems enhances operational resilience, reduces financial losses due to fraud, and boosts customer trust. AI not only fortifies security frameworks, it also fosters innovation, empowering banks to confidently pursue new digital business models and expansion opportunities.

AI defenses monitor account activity 24/7 and can react in seconds to anomalies, reducing the window of time attackers can exploit. AI-based user behavior analytics can spot an account takeover attempt at the moment it diverges from normal patterns and automatically disable the account, preventing fraud before it escalates. Early-adopting banks in the UAE report that AI systems have sharply reduced successful fraud incidents and enabled rapid intervention in potential cyber attacks​.

AI isn’t just a nice to have security upgrade, it’s a question of survival.

How are Banks Using AI for Cyber Security

A simple example of successful AI usage in a cybersecurity context is during a next-gen digital onboarding process. With many regulators now strong encouraging or mandating digital onboarding, banks have been able to benefit from using AI-powered systems to prevent fraud before it has a chance to run rampant. Next gen AI-powered onboarding and eKYC minimizes friction for customers looking to open accounts, while providing a secure backend environment to recude the risks for attacks. Such solutions utilize a variety of AI enabled features such as next-gen biometrics, deep ID document validation, Arabic language detection, glare reduction in ID photos, all ensuring a secure authentication and verification of a new customer. An example of this application can be the digital onboarding process implemented by UAE-based Ajman Bank, which has registered a significant reduction in fraud attempts after implementing an AI-based digital onboarding system as part of its digital transformation.

Another strategy for catching instances of fraud is by using AI for anomaly detection. A machine learning model can study what “normal” looks like, in terms of user behavior, transaction patterns, system activity; and flag anything that stands out. This allows banks to see unusual patterns – e.g. a late-night login or peculiar fund transfers, which would evade static rule-based systems. Unsupervised algorithms (like isolation forests or one-class SVMs) and neural network autoencoders sift through vast streams of events to pinpoint such outliers​. Such strategies, can be deployed to facilitate analysis over large numbers of accounts, which can then be flagged to a human for additional intervention and review.

This tactic can work hand in hand with automating routine security tasks with AI, making cybersecurity operations more efficient. This not only addresses the talent shortage by doing more with less, but also lowers costs associated with manual monitoring and investigation. AI-based security solutions have been shown to improve incident response times and cut costs by reducing trivial alerts and speeding up analysis​. Banks in MENA benefit by reallocating human experts to higher-value activities like threat hunting and fortifying security architecture, while letting AI handle the heavy lifting of round-the-clock surveillance.

Neural networks can analyze huge volumes of transactional data, cross-referencing dozens of variables to catch fraud in ways that traditional systems simply can’t. Banks train neural networks on historical transactions to recognize subtle indicators of fraud that humans might miss. An ensemble of decision trees (random forests) or a deep neural network can analyze dozens of features (transaction size, timing, location, device, user profile) to instantly assess whether a transaction is suspicious​. These models adapt as fraud tactics evolve, improving over time. Similarly, neural networks in intrusion detection systems learn to spot network traffic behaviors that resemble known cyberattacks. This leads to faster, more accurate threat detection and frees up human analysts for higher-level decision-making.

Phishing remains a prime concern for many banks as targeting customers can be a much simpler way to compromise a system than to go after the bank itself. In fact, in 2024 there was a sharp increase in phishing and social engineering attacks, with 42% of organizations reporting incidents (WEF, 2025). To mitigate such threats, many cyber security experts are turning to Natural Language Processing or NLP, which has become a dynamic way in recent years that helps banks detect malicious intent in emails, texts, and even chat messages. NLP enables AI to “read” and analyze text for signs of fraud or attack. An NLP-driven system can scan incoming emails to employees and flag phishing attempts based on language patterns and malicious links. Banks use NLP to monitor chat messages and transaction memos for red flags, like someone soliciting account details. By understanding context in language, AI adds an extra layer of defense to catch social engineering and scam attempts that purely numeric data monitoring might overlook.

By deploying these AI-powered strategies in tandem, banks can create a multi-pronged defense system, akin to a digital immune system, ready to tackle a multitude of afflictions. An anomaly detection system might catch unusual account behavior, while an NLP filter flags a related phishing email – together giving a fuller picture of an attack in progress. This intelligent automation amplifies human analysts’ effectiveness, allowing them to focus on verified threats and complex investigations rather than sifting through noise.

 

Looking Towards a Future of Cyber Resilience

We’re entering a new era in banking security. One where artificial intelligence and generative-AI doesn’t just assist, but actively drives how banks detect, prevent, and respond to threats. The emerging champions won’t be those with the biggest budgets, but those with the clearest strategy, and those who understand that AI is both a weapon and a shield in the modern cybersecurity landscape. One that must be deployed correctly to protect institutions and customers.

When implemented wisely, AI can dramatically boost a bank’s ability to prevent breaches, detect fraud in real time, and operate securely at scale – all essential for maintaining customer trust. At the same time, banks must remain vigilant: as attackers innovate with AI, defensive strategies must keep adapting, and governance must ensure ethical, compliant use of artificial intelligence.

So, here’s a question worth asking at the next board meeting is, are we using AI to its full potential, not just to defend our systems, but to build customer trust, support innovation, and lead the market in resilience?

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Henry Dannell Expands into the Middle East with Launch of DIFC Representative Office

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4 hours ago

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October 19, 2026

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Henry Dannell, a specialist cross-border credit adviser, has announced its expansion into the Middle East with the opening of a representative office in Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), marking a significant milestone in the firm’s international growth strategy.

The move reflects rising demand for specialist advice among internationally mobile individuals whose financial interests increasingly span multiple jurisdictions, asset classes, and lending structures. As Dubai continues to strengthen its position as a global wealth and investment hub, attracting entrepreneurs, family offices, investors, and high-net-worth individuals from around the world, the complexity of managing wealth across borders has increased significantly. Many of these individuals now live, work, invest, and hold assets internationally, creating borrowing requirements that often extend beyond conventional lending frameworks.

Henry Dannell’s expansion into Dubai is designed to bring the firm’s specialist expertise closer to the region’s growing network of wealth advisers, family offices, tax specialists, legal professionals, and internationally connected clients.

Founded in 2019, Henry Dannell has built a reputation for delivering bespoke credit and lending solutions for clients with highly sophisticated financial circumstances. The firm’s advisers support a broad spectrum of clients, from business owners and entrepreneurs to ultra-high-net-worth individuals, helping them navigate complex borrowing scenarios that frequently involve multiple jurisdictions, unconventional income structures, and international assets. Unlike traditional mortgage providers, Henry Dannell operates as a specialist advisory business focused on structuring tailored credit solutions and working alongside trusted professional advisers to address complex financing requirements.

The establishment of the DIFC representative office represents the first phase of the company’s broader regional growth ambitions and will serve as a hub for relationship-building, market engagement, and collaboration with professional advisory communities across the Middle East.

Kem Kemal, CEO and Co-Founder of Henry Dannell, said: “Over the last decade, we have seen a fundamental shift in how wealth is created, managed, and deployed. Successful individuals are increasingly global in their outlook. They may operate businesses in one country, hold investments in another, and seek opportunities across several markets simultaneously. Yet lending has not always evolved at the same pace.”

He explained that too often, highly accomplished individuals with substantial assets and strong financial positions encounter challenges because their circumstances fall outside conventional frameworks. “Our role is to understand the complete picture and design bespoke solutions that reflect the realities of modern international wealth.”

“Dubai has become one of the most important centers for global capital, entrepreneurship and wealth advisory services,” he added. “Establishing a presence within DIFC allows us to be closer to the professional advisers and internationally connected clients we serve, while strengthening relationships across a region that continues to play an increasingly influential role in global finance.”

With over 165 years of combined industry experience across its advisory team, Henry Dannell has developed specialist expertise across residential, commercial, and specialist lending transactions. Through its Dubai presence, Henry Dannell aims to deepen engagement with the region’s professional advisory ecosystem while contributing to discussions around international wealth, investment, and cross-border financial planning.

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The UAE’s Net Wealth Reaches $3.6 Trillion in 2025 and is Expected to Approach $6 Trillion by 2030, BCG Report Finds

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1 week ago

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October 12, 2026

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The UAE’s net wealth grew by 12.7% between 2024 and 2025, rising from $3.2 trillion to $3.6 trillion, according to Boston Consulting Group’s (BCG) Global Wealth Report 2026: The Great Reordering. Total Net wealth is forecast to reach $6 trillion by 2030, with a CAGR of 10.6%. This represents an increase of more than $2.3 trillion over the next five years. The projected growth points to the UAE’s long-term wealth creation potential. 

Financial wealth, including both investable and non-investable wealth, grew by 12.3% between 2024 and 2025, rising from $1.2 trillion to $1.4 trillion and is set to rise to $2.1 trillion by 2030 at a CAGR of 8.7%. Real assets reached $2.4 trillion in 2025 from $2.2 trillion in 2024, with projected growth to $4.2 trillion by 2030.

The findings show the resilience of the UAE wealth market amid a volatile global environment and heightened geopolitical uncertainty. “The ongoing conflict has introduced short-term volatility across Middle Eastern markets, with investor sentiment shaped by geopolitical uncertainty and oil-price movements,” said Lukasz Rey, Managing Director and Partner at BCG. “However, the region’s wealth development story remains structurally resilient over the five-year projection horizon. While we anticipate slightly lower growth over the next one to two years, a rebound is expected toward the latter part of the decade, supported by sovereign wealth strength, economic diversification agendas, family-business liquidity events, and continued private capital activity. We expect wealth managers to remain cautious in the near term; however, the long-term wealth opportunity in the Middle East remains intact.”

The report identifies a broader reordering underway across the global wealth-management industry, spanning geographic shifts, emerging-market wealth creation, intergenerational succession, and AI-driven operating model transformation.

Shifting Wealth Concentration Across UAE Population Segments

According to the report, the UAE’s financial wealth remains concentrated among high-net-worth individuals, with the composition of wealth expected to evolve by 2030 as more wealth accumulates within the lower high-net-worth segment. There are approximately 500 ultra-high-net-worth (UHNW) individuals, those with more than US$100 million in assets, in 2025, and they are expected to increase to around 800 by 2030, while their share of total financial wealth rises marginally from 26.3% to 26.5%. The upper high-net-worth segment (US$20–100 million) is forecasted to grow from approximately 2.7K to 4.2K individuals, with its share of wealth broadly stable at 7.4% in 2025 to 7.6% in 2030.

In contrast, the lower high-net-worth segment (US$1–20 million), which comprises approximately 200K individuals, is expected to increase its share of financial wealth from 29.3% in 2025 to 31.5% in 2030. The affluent segment (US$0.25–1 million) is expected to expand from approximately 500K to 600K individuals in 2030, while its share of wealth declines from 15.5% to 14.6% as wealth disperses across a larger base. The mass segment (below US$0.25 million) remains the largest by population, growing from roughly 8.6M to 9M individuals, but its share of financial wealth decreases from 21.5% to 19.8%.

The key UAE findings of BCG’s proprietary analysis are:

  • Financial wealth reaches $1.4 trillion in 2025, with strong projected growth to $2.1 trillion by 2030 (CAGR: 8.7%)
  • Real assets rose to $2.4 trillion in 2025 and are expected to hit $4.2 trillion by 2030 (CAGR: 11.5%)
  • Liabilities climbed to $220 billion in 2025 from $210 billion in 2024, with projections indicating $340 billion by 2030 (CAGR: 8.9%)
  • Cross-border financial wealth belonging to UAE residents and booked outside the UAE surged by 9.4% between 2024 and 2025 in the UAE, reaching $468.4 billion. It is forecasted to grow to $678.2 billion by 2030 with a CAGR of 7.7%.
  • Separately, the UAE continues to strengthen its position as a global wealth booking center, with cross-border wealth belonging to international clients and booked in the country reaching $721 billion in 2025, up 11.1% year-on-year.
  • Currency & Deposits, valued at $471.8 billion in 2025, is projected to grow to $778.9 billion by 2030, with a CAGR of 10.5%
  • Bonds are expected to reach $27.8 billion by 2030 from $15.9 billion in 2025, with a CAGR of 11.8%
  • Equities, valued at $419.4 billion in 2025, are expected to reach $591.9 billion by 2030 at a CAGR of 7.1%
  • Life Insurance & Pensions are valued at $26.6 billion in 2025 and projected to grow to $48.4 billion by 2030 (CAGR: 12.7%)

AI Is Reshaping the Economics of Wealth Management 

BCG’s report finds that AI is beginning to reshape wealth-management economics and operating models. AI-powered tools are already drafting financial plans, automating compliance documentation, generating portfolio rationales, and predicting client churn. According to BCG analysis, AI-first wealth managers could unlock 25%–30% capacity gains across key workflows while increasing revenue per advisor by 15%–20%. The report argues that the industry is approaching a structural divide between firms redesigning workflows around AI agents and those layering AI tools onto legacy processes. 

“The UAE’s wealth pool is set to grow by more than $2 trillion over the next five years, and the constraint on capturing that growth is advisor capacity rather than client demand,” said Mohammad Khan, Managing Director and Partner at BCG. “Firms that are redesigning their workflows around AI agents are creating the headroom to serve a larger client base without diluting the quality of advice. Those layering AI onto legacy processes are paying for the technology without changing their economics, and that gap widens the longer it is left.”

Wealth managers face a choice between adapting incrementally and committing to an AI-first future, with the report identifying the latter as the more sustainable approach. Key priorities include:

  • Map value chain exposure: Identify rules-based, templatized processes most vulnerable to automation. Distinguish truly bespoke, relationship-dependent work from structured, repeatable tasks to guide investment decisions.
  • Attack high-cost workflows: Scale AI now in financial planning, portfolio management, and compliance, automated drafting, AI-generated rationales, knowledge assistants.
  • Rebuild the advisor experience around AI: Integrate next-best-action prompts, retention alerts, automated documentation, and personalized outreach into a unified system.
  • Encode institutional knowledge into agents: Pair top practitioners with engineers to build and refine AI agents. Embed advisor judgment into today’s agents, without centralized ownership and outcome-based evaluation, differentiation erodes.
  • Prepare the tech stack for agents. Introduce a decoupled data layer separating operational systems from data consumption, delivering real-time, API-accessible data while maintaining deterministic control through transaction systems and rules engines.
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UAE Ranks First Globally in Citizen Satisfaction with Government Digital Services at 89%, BCG Survey Finds

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2 weeks ago

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October 6, 2026

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The UAE ranks first globally in citizen satisfaction with government digital services, with 89% of respondents rating them highly, according to Boston Consulting Group’s (BCG) sixth annual edition of its 2026 Digital Government Citizen Survey Report, which was launched on the first day of AI Everything Abu Dhabi, titled “After a Decade of Digital Gains, AI Is Reshaping Citizens’ Expectations in the GCC[SM1] [GU2] .”   The finding underscores the strength of the UAE’s digital government experience and provides a strong foundation for the next phase of AI-enabled public services.

The survey, conducted across 44 countries, also highlights the depth of the UAE’s digital engagement, with the country ranking first globally in government digital service usage at 53%. More than three-quarters (76%) of UAE respondents say their latest online government transaction delivered a better experience than their typical private-sector interaction, reinforcing the strength of the country’s digital government ecosystem.

This strong digital foundation is increasingly extending into AI adoption, where 82% of UAE respondents reported using AI weekly. High levels of usage are accompanied by relatively positive attitudes toward AI in government, with 53% of UAE respondents believing its benefits outweigh the risks, compared with 49% across the GCC and 36% globally. At the same time, greater exposure to AI is bringing a broader set of considerations into focus for citizens. While GCC citizens remain more optimistic about AI in government than their global peers, overall optimism has declined by 21% since 2024.

This evolution points toward a more hybrid model of service delivery. GCC citizens increasingly favor AI for simpler services while retaining human involvement for more complex interactions, which assures a shift that reflects greater awareness of both the opportunities and considerations associated with AI. At the same time, only around 4% of GCC respondents prefer human-only services with no AI support, compared with almost one in ten globally.

“The UAE’s strong digital government experience reflects years of investment in making public services more accessible, seamless, and responsive to citizens’ needs,” said Rami Mourtada, Partner & Director, Digital Transformation, BCG. “As AI becomes more embedded in public services, governments have an opportunity to build on this foundation with more AI-enabled experiences and process re-engineering to continue focusing on quality and convenience. This next phase will be about deploying AI where it creates clear value, while maintaining human expertise for more complex citizen needs.”

GCC Citizens Embrace the Next Generation of AI-Enabled Services

The BCG report also reveals strong appetite among GCC citizens for the next generation of AI-enabled government services. The region is the most AI-receptive globally, with 79% of citizens open to AI-centered government interactions, compared with 66% globally. Notably, three of the four most strongly supported AI applications in government are agentic use cases, signaling a healthy launchpad for governments to explore services that can move beyond providing information to supporting or completing actions on citizens’ behalf.

This openness is already evident across practical applications: 82% are comfortable with AI providing 24/7 access to information and services; 81% with AI supporting government customer-service agents; 79% with AI detecting fraud and automatically following up; and 78% with AI identifying services citizens qualify for and taking action on their behalf. [SM3] [GU4] Yet citizens are not calling for AI alone. Preference for “AI for simple services, people for complex ones” has risen nine percentage points to 50% over the past two years, reinforcing a hybrid model that combines AI-enabled speed and availability with human judgment for more complex or higher-stakes interactions.

This opportunity builds on a strong track record in digital government service quality. In 2026, the GCC remained the only surveyed region where a majority of citizens rated government digital services above those of the private sector, at 72%. However, private-sector experiences are gaining ground: the net share of GCC respondents rating government services above private-sector services declined from 75% in 2024 to 69% in 2026. The shift creates both a learning opportunity and an impetus for governments to continue innovating as citizen expectations evolve.

As governments move toward more advanced AI-enabled services, citizen AI literacy will be equally important. GCC respondents with expert-level AI proficiency are around four times more likely than those without AI experience to believe that the benefits of AI in government outweigh the risks.  At the same time, greater familiarity with AI is sharpening citizens’ expectations around how it is deployed. Job loss (33%) and accuracy (28%) now rank as the leading concerns, underscoring the importance of pairing AI literacy with safeguards that are visible and relevant to citizens.

“The GCC has a strong opportunity to translate its digital leadership into the next generation of AI-enabled government services,” said Dr. Lars Littig, Managing Director & Senior Partner, BCG. “As citizens become more familiar with AI, building literacy and trust will be critical to sustained adoption. The opportunity is to move forward with AI in ways that reflect how citizens want to engage, expanding automation and agentic capabilities where they create value, while retaining human judgment and embedding responsible safeguards where they matter most.”

Six Priorities for the Next Generation of Digital Government

To build on the region’s digital progress and maximize the potential of AI in government services, BCG’s report outlines six priorities for GCC governments:

  1. Rethink core services with AI, redesigning them end to end rather than layering AI onto existing processes.
  2. Learn from private-sector innovation as digital experiences improve and citizen expectations evolve.
  3. Embed responsible AI through governance, testing, and safeguards that strengthen citizen trust.
  4. Build the hybrid model citizens want, using AI for simpler interactions while retaining human expertise for complex or high-stakes needs.
  5. Expand agentic AI services beyond information toward services that can support complete journeys and act on citizens’ behalf.
  6. Advance AI literacy to build citizen understanding, confidence, and informed adoption.

Together, these priorities can help GCC governments build on a decade of digital progress and translate citizens’ openness to AI into the next generation of public services. By combining strong digital foundations with responsible AI adoption and continued access to human expertise, the region is well positioned to deliver services that are more proactive, personalized, and responsive to citizens’ evolving needs — while sustaining the trust that will be critical to long-term adoption

To access the full BCG Digital Government Citizen Survey2026, visit the link here.

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