Our cover story explores the digital transformation journey of RAKBANK in the UAE. Head of Digital Transformation, Antony Burrows, reveals the agile practices, enterprise-wide enablement and people-first culture delivering digital banking with a human touch.
“Culture is the cornerstone,” Antony stresses. RAKBANK codifies this into its Four Cs Framework – Connect, Communicate, Collaborate and Celebrate. “Here in the UAE, banks are pivoting from a model of ‘we know everything’ to recognising that one of the best ways to deliver continuous change and value to customers is through partnerships with startups and FinTechs. It’s no longer banks versus startups – it’s banks and startups, working together for the customer. This shift is especially meaningful as banks expand beyond traditional services to focus on customers’ broader financial lives.”
MTN MoMo: Empowering Africa Through FinTech
Hermann Tischendorf, Chief Information & Technology Officer at MTN MoMo (the telco’s mobile money division) reveals a bold roadmap for leveraging FinTech to drive financial inclusion across the African continent.
“MoMo is comparable in monthly active users to some of the top ten FinTechs globally. We’re playing in the same league as Revolut or Nubank – but in much more complex markets,” notes Hermann. “Access to financial services is fundamental. Without it, people are excluded from the global economy. Our services are the equaliser allowing individuals in frontier markets to participate in trade, store value, and ultimately improve their quality of life.”
Republic Bank: Building a Digital Bank
Republic Bank has been serving customers via its branches for over 185 yearsand now serves 16 different countries across the Caribbean and beyond. It’s “a regional bank with a growing global reach,” explains Group Chief Information & Digital Transformation Officer, Houston Ross.
His team is building a digital bank during a Year of Delivery and Accountability (YODA). “When we talk about digitalisation it’s a journey that never ends. And product is the vehicle to make sure we’re continuously improving.This is our digital pathway and we have to change minds in terms of going beyond the challenges to achieve what’s possible with the right frameworks, tools and processes for our people to serve our customers.”
Building on a long-term partnership, Klarna will leverage Marqeta’s platform and the Visa Flexible Credential to expand payment options for Klarna’s new debit card
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Marqeta, the global modern card issuing platform enabling embedded finance solutions, has announced it is working with Klarna. It will enable the global digital bank and flexible payments provider’s new debit card. The debit card is powered by Visa Flexible Credential (VFC) that allows access to built-in flexible payment options.
Klarna powered by Visa Flexible Credential and Marqeta
In July 2024, Marqeta became the first issuer processor in the US certified for Visa Flexible Credential. With VFC, Marqeta will enable Klarna customers to pay immediately or pay later when needed, all on the same card. This milestone builds on years of collaboration between Marqeta and Klarna. Including powering Klarna’s virtual cards in the US since 2018. The card is currently in a trial phase in the US, with a broader rollout expected later this year.
“The future of payments is flexible. We’re proud to enable this new offering together with Visa,” said Rahul Shah, Chief Product and Engineering Officer at Marqeta. “Our ongoing partnership with Klarna is a true testament to what’s possible with Marqeta’s platform. And how we enable our customers to grow and innovate at global scale.”
With its flexible card issuing platform, Marqeta makes it possible for global leaders like Klarna to expand to new markets. And offer innovative payment options tailored to evolving customer needs. Marqeta currently supports Klarna in six countries, helping to drive global growth and deliver seamless, consumer-first experiences.
“Through our continued partnership with Marqeta and Visa, we’re evolving the Klarna Card into a truly dynamic and versatile payment experience,” said David Sandström, Chief Marketing Officer, Klarna. “We’re excited to continue innovating alongside Marqeta as we scale the Klarna Card to provide smart, seamless payments that empower smarter, more informed shoppers everywhere.”
About Marqeta
Marqeta makes it possible for companies to build and embed financial services into their branded experience. And unlock new ways to grow their business and delight users. The Marqeta platform puts businesses in control of building financial solutions, enabling them to turn real-time data into personalized, optimized solutions for everything from consumer loyalty to capital efficiency. With compliance and security built-in, Marqeta’s platform has been proven at scale, processing nearly $300 billion in annual payments volume in 2024. Marqeta is certified to operate in more than 40 countries worldwide. Visit www.marqeta.com to learn more.
About Klarna
Klarna is a global digital bank and flexible payments provider. With over 100 million global active Klarna users and 2.9 million transactions per day, Klarna’s AI-powered payments and commerce network is empowering people to pay smarter with a mission to be available everywhere for everything. Consumers can pay with Klarna online, in-store and through Apple Pay in the U.S., UK and Canada. More than 724,000 retailers trust Klarna’s innovative solutions to drive growth and loyalty, including Uber, H&M, Saks, Sephora, Macy’s, Ikea, Expedia Group, Nike and Airbnb. For more information, visit Klarna.com.
About Visa
Visa (NYSE: V) is a world leader in digital payments, facilitating transactions between consumers, merchants, financial institutions and government entities across more than 200 countries and territories. Our mission is to connect the world through the most innovative, convenient, reliable and secure payments network, enabling individuals, businesses and economies to thrive. We believe that economies that include everyone everywhere, uplift everyone everywhere and see access as foundational to the future of money movement. Learn more at Visa.com.
Fouzi Husaini, Chief Technology & AI Officer at Marqeta, answers our questions about Agentic AI and its applications for businesses
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Agentic AI is emerging as the leading AI trend of 2025. Industry figures are hailing Agentic AI as the broadly transformative next step in GenAI development. The year so far has seen multiple businesses release new tools for a wide array of applications.
The technology combines the next generation of AI tech like large language models (LLMs) with more traditional capabilities like machine learning, automation, and enterprise orchestration. The end result could lead to a more autonomous version of AI: Agents. These agents can set their own goals, analyse data sets, and act with less human oversight than previous tools.
We spoke to Fouzi Husaini, Chief Technology & AI Officer at Marqeta about what sets Agentic AI apart whether the technology really is a leap forward in terms of solving AI’s shortcomings, and how Agentic AI could solve business problems.
1. What makes AI “agentic”? How is the technology different from something like Chat-GPT?
“Agentic refers to the type of Artificial Intelligence that can act as agents and on its own. Agentic AI leverages enhanced reasoning capabilities to solve problems without prompts or constant human supervision. It can carry out complex, multi-step tasks autonomously.
“GenAI and by extension Large Language Models, the most famous example being ChatGPT, require human input to solve tasks. For instance, ChatGPT needs user prompts before it can generate content. Then, sers need to input subsequent commands to edit and refine this. Agentic AI has the capability to react and learn without human intervention as it processes data and solves problems. This enables it to adapt and learn much faster than GenAI.”
2. Chat-GPT and other LLMs frequently produce results filled with factual errors, misrepresentations, and “hallucinations”, making them pretty unsuited to working without human supervision – let alone orchestrating important financial deals. What makes Agentic AI any better or more trustworthy?
“All types of AI have the possibility to ‘hallucinate’ and produce factually incorrect information. That being said, Agentic AI is usually less likely to suffer from significant hallucinations in comparison to GenAI.
“Agentic AI’s focus is specifically engineered to operate within clearly defined parameters and follow explicit workflows, making it particularly well-suited for having guardrails in place to keep it on task and from making errors. Its learning capabilities also allow it to recognise and adapt to its mistakes, ensuring it is unlikely to hallucinate multiple times.”
“On the other hand, GenAI occasionally generates factually incorrect content due to the quality of data provided, and sometimes because of mistakes in pattern recognition.”
“In fintech, Agentic AI technology can make it possible to analyse consumer spending data and learn from it, allowing for highly tailored financial offers and services that are more accurate and help to create a personalised finance experience for consumers.”
3. How could agentic AI deployments affect the relationship between financial services companies and their customers? What about their employees?
“The integration of Agentic AI into financial services benefits multiple parties. First,
integrating Agentic AI into their offerings allows financial service companies to provide their customers with bespoke tools and features. For instance, AI can be used to develop ‘predictive cards’. These cards can anticipate a consumer’s spending requirements based on their past behaviour. This means AI can adjust credit limits and offer tailored rewards automatically, creating a personalised experience for each individual.
“The status quo’s days are numbered as consumers crave tailor-made financial experiences. Agentic AI can allow fintechs to provide personalised financial services that help consumers and businesses make their money work better for them. With Agentic AI technology, fintechs can analyse consumer spending data and learn from it. This allows for more tailored financial offers and services.
“As for employees, Agentic AI gives them the ability to focus on more creative and interesting tasks. Agentic AI can handle more routine roles such as data entry and monitoring for fraud, automating repetitive tasks and autonomous decision making based on data. This helps to reduce human error and enables employees to focus more time and energy on the creative and strategic aspects of their roles while allowing AI to focus on more administrative tasks.”
4. How would agentic AI make financial services safer?
“Agentic AI has the capability to make financial services more secure for financial institutions and consumers alike, by bringing consistency and tireless vigilance to critical financial processes. With its ability to analyse vast strings of information, it can rapidly identify anomalies in spending data that indicate potential instances of fraud and can use its enhanced reasoning and ability to act without human prompts to quickly react to suspicious activity.
“While a human operator will be susceptible to decision fatigue, an AI agent could always be vigilant and maintain the same high level of precision and alertness 24/7. This is vital for fields like fraud detection, where a single missed signal could lead to significant consequences.
“Furthermore, its capability to learn without human interaction means that it can improve its ability to detect fraud over time. This gives it the ability to learn how to identify new types of fraud, helping it to adapt as schemes become more sophisticated over time.”
5. What kind of trajectory do you see the technology having over the next year to eighteen months?
“In fintech, Agentic AI integration will likely begin in the operations space. These areas manage complex, but well-defined, processes and are perfect for intelligent automation. For instance, customer call centres where human agents usually follow set standard operating procedures (SOPs) that can be fed into an AI system, which makes automation easier and faster than before.
“In the more distant future, I believe we will see Agentic AI integrated into automated workflows that span entire value chains, including tasks such as risk assessment, customer onboarding and account management.”
