Leading digital banking platform Ibanera, spearheaded by CEO Michael Carbonara, announced today its collaboration with Visa, a world leader in digital payments. This opportunity will enable Ibanera to leverage Visa’s card issuing capabilities to support its clientele’s banking and finance needs.

Ibanera’s integration with Visa’s payment network will enhance accessibility to domestic and cross-border payments for businesses and their customers. The collaboration provides Ibanera with the scalability to grow its fintech enablement services to meet growing customer demand.

Michael Carbonara, CEO of Ibanera, emphasized the significance of this collaboration for the growth of the payment ecosystem: “Navigating the complexities of regulation and payments can be challenging. This is why we are excited about our strong collaboration with Visa, which will drive innovation and provide simplified solutions as we focus on the digital and creator economies.”

Ibanera’s collaboration with Visa provides an ecosystem not only for global payments but also leverages Visa’s advanced security and fraud protection systems, such as Visa’s zero liability policy for unauthorized transactions, giving cardholders peace of mind through trust in the cards utilized.

Visa Senior Vice President of Digital Partnerships, James Schinella says, “Our alliance with Ibanera underscores our shared commitment to enhancing the payments ecosystem. Our joint efforts will provide advanced security and fraud protection, ensuring peace of mind for cardholders.”

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Gaia-X, a leading European initiative aimed at establishing a secure, transparent, and interoperable digital infrastructure, has unveiled its Compliance Document. This essential framework defines the standards that data providers, data consumers, data exchanges, and digital infrastructures must follow to participate in the Gaia-X ecosystem. Aligned with the core European values of transparency, data protection, and cybersecurity, the document promotes innovation and competitiveness while ensuring that organisations operate globally under clear, standardised rules.

Why Gaia-X Compliance Matters

The Gaia-X Compliance Document is not just a set of rules but a foundational guide for creating trust in the evolving digital marketplace. It focuses on three key areas:

1. Openness and Transparency: Gaia-X supports global efforts to create interoperable data spaces built on federated cloud infrastructures. By ensuring transparency in operations, data handling, and service processes, Gaia-X fosters trust across the entire ecosystem, ensuring stakeholders have clear insight into the services they use.
2. Security and Data Protection: In compliance with GDPR and other European regulations, such as the Data Act and Data Governance Act, Gaia-X ensures that personal and non-personal data are handled securely. Service providers are required to implement strong privacy protections and technical safeguards, offering businesses and users peace of mind.
3. European Sovereignty: At its core and especially with its Label Level 3, Gaia-X guarantees European control over digital infrastructure, ensuring that services comply with European laws and standards. However, Gaia-X is designed with global interoperability in mind, providing tools and frameworks that can be adapted to meet the regulations of other regions worldwide.

Key Components of Gaia-X Compliance

1. Standards-Based Approach: The Gaia-X compliance framework builds on globally recognised standards, ensuring a high level of security and compliance across industries.

2. Label System for Differentiation: Gaia-X has introduced a clear labelling system to categorise services based on their level of compliance:

• Gaia-X Standard Compliance: A universal set of standards designed to apply to all types of providers worldwide.
• Gaia-X Label Level 1: Entry-level compliance with standard data protection and security following European laws.
• Gaia-X Label Level 2: Higher-level data protection and security standards following European laws and widely based on certifications.
• Gaia-X Label Level 3:  The highest compliance level for services requiring exceptional data handling, security, and legal control for European providers only.

These labels provide clarity for both providers and users, ensuring transparency in service offerings.

3. Trust Anchors and Continuous Validation: Gaia-X ensures ongoing trust and compliance through its Trust Framework, powered by the Gaia-X Digital Clearing House (GXDCH). This system continuously validates verifiable credentials, allowing automated trust assessments across the ecosystem.

Benefits for Ecosystem Participants

The Gaia-X Compliance offers significant advantages to both service providers and users:

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• For Users: Businesses and governments benefit from greater choice, transparency, and control over the digital services they utilise. With Gaia-X’s clear compliance standards, users can confidently select services that meet their specific security, privacy, compliance or sovereignty needs, allowing them to select their preferred Label Level while maintaining flexibility and avoiding vendor lock-in.
• For Providers: Gaia-X offers a clear path to certification and compliance, enabling companies to demonstrate adherence to top-tier security and privacy standards. By aligning with European regulations, providers enhance their credibility, position themselves as digital market leaders, and answer to market demand. The standardised use of the Gaia-X Ontology ensures that cloud providers can achieve true interoperability across ecosystems.

The Gaia-X Compliance Document highlights Europe’s commitment to digital sovereignty, security, and trust, providing a foundation for a trusted digital marketplace aligned with European values and laws. It serves as a blueprint for global organisations to operate securely, transparently, and interoperably.

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A desire for more insights into personal finances, a willingness to share data to unlock individually tailored services, and a high level of comfort with AI-driven guidance are key themes to emerge from the new survey of UAE retail banking customers conducted by Capco, the global management and technology consultancy.

As the UAE pushes forward with ambitious plans to grow its digital economy, Capco’s Bank of the Future survey of over 1,200 UAE banking service users aged between 18 and 65 found that 89% have become more confident in using mobile and digital banking services over the last two years. Eight in ten (83%) now use mobile apps to access banking, offering a solid foundation for future banking innovation.

In addition, 87% of respondents say they would be attracted to an app that offered personalized insights into their finances, including 41% who say this would be ‘extremely attractive’. The survey also reveals that 72% would ‘definitely’ or ‘probably’ share additional personal data – such as social media profiles or wearables data – to unlock personalized products, services or offers.

In support of its main survey, Capco conducted more focused polling of 500 consumers that looked specifically at the adoption of digital-first banking services. This found that nine in ten UAE respondents (89%) now have digital-first accounts, including both international and UAE-based firms. Three-quarters (76%) have an account with a UAE-based digital-first provider.

Capco’s survey findings highlight opportunities for UAE banks and fintechs to capitalize on positive attitudes to data sharing and innovation to deliver the products and services that consumers say they want. It also offers recommended paths forward for banks as they explore how best to apply the latest approaches to data analytics and AI to address customers’ aspirations.

James Arnett, Managing Partner, APAC & Middle East at Capco, said: “Consumers in the UAE are looking for products and services that provide a more bespoke user experience, including personalized financial insights. Seizing this opportunity will require an ever more nuanced understanding of individual consumer’s aspirations, and banks and other providers will need to prepare by investing in improved data management and advanced analytics.”

Naim Alame, Managing Partner, Middle East at Capco, said: “Consumers want convenient, integrated financial services and seamless digital journeys enabled by improved connectivity, data analytics and AI. Delivering the products and experiences that consumers want will require more agile banking models and significantly greater collaboration with third parties in order to embed value-added financial services ever more deeply into customers’ lives.

“For the bank of the future, collaboration may prove to be as important a priority as disruption. Offering a mobile-first experience that embeds payment aggregations, finance options and other ecosystem services to provide a more seamless and holistic experience will be the key to keeping customers engaged.”

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Other key findings in Capco’s UAE survey report include:

86% of respondents would be attracted by a banking app that integrates financial services with the non-financial services they use in their daily lives, such as ride hailing and e-commerce.

• 37% would find such an app ‘extremely attractive’.

The characteristics that would convince a respondent to use a specific bank or financial institution include ‘a wide range of services’ (51%) and ‘more accessible services’ (45%).*

• ‘Trust in the company’ (39%) and ‘highly personalized products’ (34%) are also seen as important.

Four in ten of respondents (41%) cite cashback options as a value-added feature they consider when selecting a new card or account.*

• Other important features respondents would consider include discounts on travel (33%), monthly offers such as retail discounts (32%) and the ability to use points to make purchases (32%).

As digitalization accelerates, 72% of those using payment services identify online payments as a preferred payment method and 69% mention digital wallets.*

• Cash remains a preferred payment method for 51% of respondents, and cheques continue to be preferred by 28%.
• In Capco’s recent Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) banking survey, online payments (65%) and cards (65%) were the leading preferred methods of payment, while 57% of respondents cited digital wallets, 55% mentioned cash, but only 11% chose cheques.

The UAE played host to the COP28 global climate conference in late 2023, and almost nine in ten respondents (88%) say it is important that their primary bank has a proactive stance on ESG issues.

• In our KSA banking survey, 80% of respondents stated that this is important.

*Multiple responses permitted

Capco’s UAE survey report can be accessed here.

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