The economics of speed: why Gulf consumers reject slow banking

The GCC’s shift toward real-time finance is changing how consumers and businesses evaluate financial institutions. Payments settle in seconds, onboarding is expected to happen remotely, and access to credit is now embedded directly into digital platforms. In this environment, delays are no longer interpreted solely as an inconvenience. They create operational friction.

Banks are increasingly restructuring products around these expectations. Mashreq recently launched instant digital cross-border accounts for Egyptians and Pakistanis living in the UAE, allowing customers to open accounts remotely and transfer funds across markets more efficiently. For expatriate customers, the value is straightforward: fewer branch steps, faster account opening, and easier movement of money across the markets they live and work between.

Embedded finance is also becoming part of how consumers expect to access credit. Through its partnership with Toothpick, Mashreq provides patients with access to fully digital healthcare financing at the point of care for dental and aesthetic treatments. Separately, its collaboration with Cashew integrates near-instant financing into merchant platforms across sectors, including healthcare, education, and home services, reducing delays between purchase decisions and access to financing.

Together, these products point to a wider change in banking. Customers now judge banking by how quickly it turns a need into access. Mashreq's cross-border accounts, embedded healthcare financing, and merchant credit integrations reflect what this shift looks like in practice: banking products designed to reduce the time between need, access, and action.

Ghazal Al Sakaal, Global Head of Ecosystems and Platform Banking