In this episode, we explore how geopolitical tensions in West Asia are reshaping the operating environment for banks across the region. Energy shocks, trade disruptions, and rising logistics costs are already affecting liquidity, funding, and credit flows, while sectors such as shipping, aviation, retail, and real estate face immediate pressure - creating ripple effects across bank balance sheets.

We unpack how stress is emerging on both sides of banking operations: asset quality is impacted by disrupted supply chains and corporate cash-flow strain, while liabilities face volatility due to mobile deposits and shifting investor sentiment. The episode concludes with a strategic playbook for banks - focusing on liquidity readiness, digital resilience, proactive risk monitoring, and stronger client engagement to help navigate uncertainty and prepare for recovery.

Sanjiv Anand, Chairman, Cedar Management Consulting International

Despite being perceived as over-banked, the Middle East banking market offers significant growth opportunities across segments. Corporate banking remains commoditized in trade and contracting finance, but untapped areas such as manufacturing, treasury, and cross-border structured finance can drive higher income. Commercial banking is a hidden gem, with thousands of mid-sized businesses underserved due to weak segmentation, rigid credit policies, and organizational gaps. Retail banking continues to grow through cards, loans, and mortgages, but future gains lie in spend-led loyalty strategies and disciplined risk management. Priority and private banking present major upside given the region’s growing high-net-worth population, requiring better advisory services and tailored products. Islamic banking is a fast-growing, unavoidable opportunity through full models or Islamic windows. Channel innovation, business-enabling credit, and core banking automation are critical enablers. Banks that segment well, innovate, and execute decisively will win.

V. Ramkumar, Senior Partner, Cedar Management Consulting International

Omnichannel banking is a cross-channel strategy that delivers a seamless, consistent customer experience across physical and digital touchpoints, improving service quality while reducing costs and boosting profitability. Unlike multichannel models, omnichannel integrates channels and customer data, allowing customers to start and complete journeys such as loan applications—across branches, mobile, online and emerging devices. Adoption accelerated in the 2010s and was fast-tracked by COVID-19, which drove rapid digital uptake and reduced branch usage globally.

Digital and hybrid customers now dominate across regions, pushing banks to rebalance physical and digital channels rather than eliminate branches. Data analytics is central to designing and managing omnichannel journeys. While retail banking leads adoption, corporate banking is catching up, especially in transaction banking, cash management and ERP integration. Open banking and regulations such as PSD2 are creating new opportunities, particularly for corporates willing to pay for analytics-driven, value-added services. Ultimately, omnichannel enables tailored journeys that enhance customer experience and profitability across retail and corporate banking.

Many banks fail to fully realise the potential of their credit card businesses because they overlook fundamentals while chasing best practices or technology upgrades. Experience across mature and developing markets shows that poor execution—such as undifferentiated products, fragmented portfolios, weak risk–reward balance, and lack of coordinated strategy—undermines performance, even after heavy investments. Successful credit card businesses rest on five basics: strong organisational ownership and alignment; effective, incentivised sales across channels; relevant and differentiated products; balanced, analytics-driven risk management; and continuous customer lifecycle communication beyond acquisition. Common failures include weak strategic prioritisation, siloed functions, bland or misaligned offerings, overly conservative or disconnected risk policies, and neglect of post-issuance engagement. Banks that get these basics right create a stable foundation for innovation, profitability, customer retention and sustainable growth; those that don’t risk underperformance and wasted investment.

Treasury has evolved from a back-office role into a strategic, value-adding function as banks face complex investment products, tighter regulations and changing business models. Beyond managing liquidity and returns, treasury is now expected to strengthen risk management, transparency and decision-making—expectations heightened after the financial crisis. Reliance on spreadsheets and homegrown tools has proven inadequate, driving demand for robust Treasury Management Systems (TMS) that enable real-time integration with banks, vendors and customers.

Key drivers of treasury technology transformation include automation and integration with core banking and ERP systems, globalization requiring SWIFT connectivity, increased outsourcing and SaaS adoption, stricter regulations such as FATCA and FBAR, and growing needs for analytics and data management. However, selecting the right TMS alone is insufficient. Successful transformation requires strong program execution through integrated planning with other initiatives, a well-defined scope, effective governance involving finance and risk teams, and structured change management. Alignment with the bank’s operating model, clear prioritization and disciplined program management are critical enablers of success.

Post-2008 regulations, evolving markets, and new technologies have fundamentally reshaped treasury functions. Heightened focus on liquidity, capital, and risk driven by Basel norms has made liquidity costlier and elevated the treasurer’s role from cash management to a strategic driver of balance-sheet growth, risk control, and regulatory compliance.

Treasury processes now emphasise integrated platforms that enable real-time risk assessment, automated reconciliation, straight-through processing, and advanced ALM, with many banks running ALM as a profit centre.

People capabilities have evolved accordingly: treasury is no longer a cost center but a central, strategic function working across business lines and geographies, often operating from centralized hubs to optimize costs and collateral.

Technology underpins this shift, replacing fragmented legacy systems with data-driven, automated treasury platforms. AI, analytics, RPA, blockchain, APIs, and cloud are increasingly used for forecasting, settlement, compliance, and efficiency. Ultimately, treasury’s success lies in delivering value by optimizing liquidity, managing risk, and strengthening profitability.

Core banking transformation is often compared to changing an aircraft engine mid-flight, as banks must replace their core systems without disrupting live operations or customer experience. Successful implementation depends on disciplined execution across multiple critical phases. The journey begins with rigorous programme planning, defining activities, dependencies, milestones, ownership, timelines, and communication to ensure a single, aligned plan. Customisation must be tightly controlled, limited only to regulatory, regional, or high-impact needs, as excessive tailoring increases risk. Data migration is a long, complex track requiring multiple mock runs to ensure accuracy and a smooth final cutover. Parameterization captures each bank’s unique products, processes, and accounting nuances within the system. Testing is the defining phase, encompassing system integration, user acceptance, performance, and security testing. Training is equally critical, focusing on both learning the new system and unlearning old practices through hands-on simulations. Finally, go-live readiness must be objectively assessed, as long-term success depends on post-implementation user experience, not just a smooth cutover.