Money20/20 Middle East 2026: SiFi's Rami Panayoti on Spend Automation

Quick Summary

Corporate financial management is undergoing a significant shift as organisations look beyond basic payment digitisation. Speaking at Money20/20 Middle East 2026, Rami Panayoti of SiFi explains how business demands have matured from simple corporate card issuance to deep, automated spend workflows and intelligent accounts.

How have business spending demands evolved?

A few years ago, commercial clients approached fintech providers with relatively basic queries. Companies asked whether they could digitise payments or issue standard corporate cards to employees. Over recent years, customer sophistication has accelerated rapidly, replacing introductory questions with complex operational challenges.

Modern enterprises now ask how to establish deep, automated workflows across their entire spending lifecycle. They want individual staff members to carry tailored cards with dedicated controls while ensuring that senior finance teams retain centralized visibility. This balance delivers operational power directly to employees in a decentralised manner without compromising financial oversight or compliance.

What role is artificial intelligence playing in expense management?

As technological capabilities expand, businesses are no longer satisfied with marginal efficiency gains. Organizations increasingly focus on tangible cost reduction alongside speed, asking how emerging technologies can actively protect their bottom line.

With the advent of artificial intelligence, companies want tools that cut operational costs directly rather than merely refining manual tasks. SiFi addresses this demand by introducing automated features that help businesses save both time and money across day-to-day administrative and financial processes.

How has SiFi expanded beyond corporate cards?

Corporate cards and expense management software served as the original foundation for SiFi, acting as the entry point into commercial client relationships. While effective, corporate cards typically resolve only a fraction of a business's broader disbursements:

• Initial use cases often tackled around 5% to 10% of total spend, addressing petty cash needs and online recurring subscriptions.
• Clients quickly began seeking expanded coverage, requesting integrated tools for both domestic and international payment processing.
• The platform responded by widening its functionality to support comprehensive outgoing business transactions.

What is the future vision for SiFi's corporate platform?

Looking ahead, SiFi aims to serve as a core, intelligent corporate account for businesses. Rather than operating purely as a card provider, the roadmap encompasses complete transactional control for commercial operations.

This long-term journey includes managing both outgoing and incoming payments across multiple channels. In future phases, SiFi plans to introduce dedicated financing options and advanced treasury solutions, empowering businesses to manage liquid assets effectively and generate greater overall value from their working capital.

FF NEWS TAKE:

The journey from niche corporate card provider to an all-in-one corporate account reflects a wider reality in B2B fintech. Businesses are weary of managing fragmented tools for cards, payroll, and wire transfers. By combining centralised controls with decentralised spending access, intelligent platforms like SiFi are positioning themselves at the very centre of commercial financial infrastructure.