MENA Fintech Association Expands SHIFT Payments Working Group with New Industry-Led Subcommittees

WHY THIS MATTERS

The launch of three specialized payment subcommittees by the MENA Fintech Association (MFTA) under its SHIFT: Payments Working Group on June 8, 2026, marks the transition of the Middle East and North Africa from a consumer-centric digital sandbox into a heavily codified, institutionalized transaction market. For the past five years, the “MENA fintech boom” has been defined almost entirely by retail customer acquisition—specifically the rapid, mass-market penetration of contactless tap-to-pay rails, digital lifestyle wallets, and Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) credit apps.

However, this explosive retail front-end has outpaced the region’s backend financial plumbing. Cross-border business-to-business (B2B) trade across the GCC and broader MENA remains trapped in archaic correspondent banking tracks, plagued by non-transparent FX markups, heavy administrative documentation loops, and settlement cycles that take days to clear.

The MENA Fintech Association (MFTA), under its SHIFT: Payments Working Group, has announced the launch of a new series of specialized subcommittees aimed at fostering deeper industry collaboration, advancing innovation, and supporting the development of policy and market frameworks across the rapidly evolving payments landscape.

The initiative marks the next phase of SHIFT’s evolution as a leading industry forum, bringing together global payment leaders, financial institutions, fintech innovators, and ecosystem stakeholders to address the opportunities and challenges shaping the future of payments.

The first three subcommittees to be launched will focus on:

• B2B & Commercial Payments
• Gateways & Merchant Acceptance
• Stablecoin Payments

Additional subcommittees covering other critical areas of the payments ecosystem will be announced in the coming weeks.

To lead these inaugural workstreams, MFTA has appointed three distinguished industry leaders with extensive global experience across payments, financial services, and digital assets.

Swapna Rege, VP, Commercial Product Head EEMEA at Mastercard, has been appointed Chair of the B2B & Commercial Payments Subcommittee, where discussions will focus on the modernization of commercial payment infrastructure, embedded finance opportunities, cross-border payment efficiencies, and the digitization of enterprise payment flows.

Diego Falanga, Director, MENA at Checkout.com, will serve as Chair of the Gateways & Merchant Acceptance Subcommittee, leading industry engagement around merchant acquiring, payment acceptance, orchestration, checkout innovation, and the infrastructure powering digital commerce across the region.

Evgeny Koval, Head of Fiat CIS/CEE/MENA at Binance, has been appointed Chair of the Stablecoin Payments Subcommittee, reflecting the growing significance of digital asset-enabled payment rails and the increasing convergence of traditional finance and blockchain-based settlement infrastructure.

The broader SHIFT: Payments Working Group will continue to be led by Akshay Chopra and Clyde Rosanowski, whose leadership has helped establish the group as a trusted platform for industry dialogue, knowledge sharing, and collaborative problem-solving across the payments ecosystem.

“The payments ecosystem is undergoing a fundamental transformation, driven by new technologies, evolving business models, and changing customer expectations. As the industry continues to mature, structured collaboration between market participants becomes increasingly important.

The launch of these specialized SHIFT subcommittees reflects MFTA’s commitment to convening the right expertise around the most important developments shaping the future of payments. By bringing together leading practitioners from across the ecosystem, we aim to foster meaningful dialogue, advance industry best practices, and contribute to the continued growth and competitiveness of the MENA fintech landscape.”

– Nameer Khan, Chairman, MENA FinTech Association

Swapna Rege stated: “For years, the big payments story in MENA has been consumers; tap to pay, digital wallets, instant transfers. But the next big story is businesses. How a company pays its suppliers, settles invoices, moves money across borders. That’s still slow, manual, and expensive for too many businesses in this region. The good news is we have everything we need to change that: great infrastructure, supportive regulators, and some of the best talent anywhere in the world. I’m excited to be part of the group working to make that happen”

Diego Falanga, on his appointment as the chair of Gateways & Merchant Acceptance Subcommittee stated,”I am incredibly excited to take on this role and, with the SHIFT working group, truly empower performance through payments in the MENA region. My main goal is to drive innovation and streamline merchant acceptance across the board”

Evgeny Koval, Head of Fiat CIS/CEE/MENA at Binance added “Stablecoin payments are becoming core infrastructure faster than any other global initiative right now, and MENA, already a leader in many areas of fintech, is positioned to lead here too. My goal as Chair is to make this Sub-Committee the room where the best experts shape that agenda, convening crypto exchanges, issuers, banks, infrastructure providers, and regulators around real use cases and turning them into concrete deals and regulatory progress”

The launch reflects MFTA’s continued commitment to convening industry leaders to drive meaningful conversations around the technologies, business models, and regulatory developments shaping the future of financial services across the Middle East, Africa, and beyond.

FF NEWS TAKE

The MENA Fintech Association, anchored by Chairman Nameer Khan, is pulling off a major strategic coup by converting fierce corporate competitors into collaborative architects of the region’s financial architecture. In a fragmented multi-jurisdictional landscape stretching from Riyadh to Cairo, payment standards cannot be dictated by a single vendor or sovereign entity. They require a coordinated enterprise approach that balances international network scale with hyper-localized digital connectivity.