Sends chief executive Alona Shevtsova spoke at the 2026 Middle East Banking Innovation Summit. A line-up of senior banking and payments bosses sat with her. Their subject was the shift towards instant payments, digital wallets and cross-border infrastructure.
Middle East Banking Innovation Summit (MEBIS 2026) returned for a 17th edition on 17 September. Leaders in banking, fintech and technology gathered in Dubai at Jumeirah Emirates Towers. Alona Shevtsova, CEO of Sends, was among the specialists on the agenda. Her session was titled “Payment Innovation in Banking: Real Time, Cross Border and Wallet Driven Evolution”. The panel considered what will drive the region’s payments over the coming years.
Her fellow panellists were Hasan Jaber, Deputy CEO at Al Fardan Exchange and CEO of AlfaNow; Ananth Srivatsa, Executive Vice President at RAKBANK; Mohamed Hussein, Head of Banking Solutions Center of Excellence at BANK NXT; Kamran Khan, Executive Director, Product Innovation & Implementation (EMEA) at First Abu Dhabi Bank; Ashish Gupta, Head of Digital, Retail SME and Sales at BankDhofar; and Naveed Minhas, EMEA IPC Payments Leader at IBM.
Speakers set out where lenders already see hard value from instant settlement. They weighed how wallets and ever more joined-up digital finance ecosystems are rewriting what customers want. They also asked what remains outstanding before payments between countries become quicker and more efficient.
Interoperability mattered most of all. Money now crosses platforms, currencies and jurisdictions in seconds. That leaves banks and fintech firms to hook legacy banking systems up to newer payment rails. Security, compliance and operational resilience must hold throughout.
“The future of payments will not be defined by a single technology or payment method. The real opportunity is in connecting the ecosystem around the customer. Real-time payments, wallets and cross-border infrastructure need to work together so that moving money becomes simpler for the user, while the technology, compliance and risk infrastructure behind that experience continues to evolve,” said Sends CEO Alona Shevtsova.
Dubai extends a busy year of international appearances for Alona Shevtsova. She sat on panels of experts at PAY360 in London earlier in 2026. One dealt with agentic AI for AML and KYC. Another tracked how embedded finance is maturing. She then joined Riyadh talks on digital finance, blockchain, risk and AI.
Her MEBIS slot signals something broader. Sends is engaging ever more closely with the Middle East financial ecosystem. Regional investment keeps flowing into instant payment rails, digital banking and fresh approaches to cross-border financial services.
MEBIS pulls in C-level bankers, technology leaders and innovators from around the Middle East. Its 2026 agenda ranges over intelligent automation and AI, payments innovation and digital banking. Data strategy, cybersecurity, open banking, embedded finance and tomorrow’s financial infrastructure also feature.
About Sends
Sends is a financial technology company based in the UK. It supplies payment services for firms and individuals trading at home and abroad. Smartflow Payments Limited trades as Sends. The Financial Conduct Authority authorises it as an Electronic Money Institution.
