Abu Dhabi, May 20, 2025 — Bain & Company took part in the Economy Middle East Summit 2025, held in partnership with the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), where Bianca Leodari, Partner, Bain & Company Middle East, moderated a panel discussion titled “Evolving in Finance: Exploring Tomorrow’s Financial Services Landscape.” The session brought together leading voices from finance, technology, and regulation to explore the structural shifts redefining financial services across the region and globally.
The panel featured Jayesh Patel, CEO of Wio Bank; Sunidhi Pasan, Founder and Group CEO of Finstreet; and Mary Anne Scicluna, Senior Executive Director at the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) of ADGM. Together, they examined how generative AI, regulation, and modern market infrastructure are reshaping the very foundation of the financial sector.
“What we’re seeing now isn’t just another wave of digitization, technologies like generative AI are accelerating real change and redefining what institutions excel at. It’s pushing firms to rethink their core capabilities, reconfigure their operating models, and collaborate more openly across ecosystems,” said Bianca Leodari, Partner at Bain & Company Middle East.
The panel examined how financial institutions are rethinking their models—shifting from traditional vertical integration to ecosystem strategies that prioritize agility, partnership, and customer-centricity. In parallel, AI is becoming an increasingly powerful force across every layer of the sector: enabling hyper-personalized services, automating compliance, enhancing risk detection, and powering intelligent operations.
“AI is no longer a back-office tool, it’s becoming a core enabler of business strategy as well as regulation” said Leodari. “The institutions that thrive will be those that integrate AI not just as a technology, but as a mindset, embedded into how they serve clients, manage risk, and adapt in real time.”
The conversation also underscored the role of regulators in embracing machine-readable rules, AI-enabled supervision, and outcome-based compliance to match the pace of innovation, while ensuring resilience and consumer protection.
Bain & Company’s participation reflects its ongoing commitment to supporting financial institutions in navigating structural change and building competitive, technology-enabled models that are fit for the future.
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