Standard Chartered today announced the appointment of Michelle Swanepoel as Head of Financing and Securities Services (FSS), Middle East and Africa. Based in Dubai, she will lead the business across the region  effective 1 July 2026. Michelle succeeds Scott Dickinson, who will be retiring from the bank on 30 June after more than 40 years in financial services.

Michelle Swanepoel joined Standard Chartered in September 2017 as the Regional Head of Business Account Management for the Middle East and Africa and was appointed the Regional Head of Securities Services for Africa in May 2019. In September 2024, her role expanded to include Head of Markets for South Africa.

“Michelle has played a strong leadership role in the evolution of post‑trade servicing across Sub‑Saharan Africa, supporting capital market development, regulatory reform, enhanced investor access and market infrastructure, and is a recognised industry subject‑matter expert,” said Margaret Harwood-Jones, Global Head of FSS. “I have every confidence that Michelle will drive further momentum in the region, building on the solid foundation established by Scott.”

Scott Dickinson joined Standard Chartered in 2017 and he has led the Bank’s FSS franchise in MEA since 2019. During his tenure, he oversaw strong growth across the Middle East and Africa franchise, supported expansion into markets including Saudi Arabia and Egypt, and helped deliver the Bank’s first Digital Asset Custody capability in the Dubai International Financial Centre.

Yango Tech, B2B technology solutions provider by Yango Group, launches a new business practice focused on developing and deploying autonomous industrial AI agents. These AI agents are designed to execute real operational tasks across customer service, analytics, compliance, and decision-making, serving industries such as fintech, medtech, e-commerce, logistics, smart cities, and the public sector. Yango Tech offers both ready-to-deploy solutions and a customizable platform for building AI agents tailored to the specific needs of each business. This new business direction addresses the rapidly growing demand across the Middle East for scalable AI systems that deliver measurable business impact, as the region accelerates toward a projected $320 billion AI economy by 2030.

AI Agents connect directly to enterprise applications and data sources, including CRM, HR and finance systems, allowing AI to act like digital employees with memory, execution capabilities and built-in security. For governments and enterprises building digital workforces and smart cities, Yango Tech deploys AI employees across customer support, sales, recruitment and debt recovery, delivering 95% first-contact resolution, faster hiring and up to $100K in monthly operational savings. Its Smart City stack enables digital twins, emergency navigation, mobility optimization and real-time urban analytics, helping municipalities accelerate decision-making, improve traffic flow, and reduce energy and operational costs through AI-powered city modelling and dispatch optimization.

In the medical world, Yango Tech reduces physician admin workloads through appointment transcription, smart search across electronic medical records, imaging analysis and AI and BI command centres. The solutions automate documentation, surface unified patient data in seconds, improve diagnostic accuracy and enable clinicians to treat more patients. In financial services, AI functions support front-, middle- and back-office transformation through AI-powered chatbots, smart search, credit scoring, anti-fraud analytics and workflow automation.

Commenting on the launch, Vladimir Razuvaev, Chief Executive at Yango Tech, said: “Enterprises today are under pressure to turn AI into practical outcomes. Our AI Agents were built to help organizations deploy autonomous digital employees that integrate securely into existing systems and deliver measurable productivity gains. With around 84% of GCC organisations adopting AI, the opportunity now lies in execution. Our vision is to help healthcare providers, banks, private firms and cities scale AI responsibly while strengthening performance, transparency and service quality.”

The launch reinforces Yango Tech’s alignment with the UAE’s national innovation agenda and broader regional ambitions for AI-led economic growth, smart infrastructure and digital government. By enabling sovereign deployments, local data control and enterprise-grade security, the platform supports the UAE’s vision for future-ready public services and knowledge-driven economies while helping organizations move faster from strategy to implementation.