Cedar Podcasts

At Cedar Management Consulting International, we see change management as fundamentally a leadership responsibility — not a technical task. New systems can be implemented efficiently, but real success depends on whether people truly adopt them.

We draw on the ADKAR framework — Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability and Reinforcement — as a practical lens to understand how individuals experience change. If people do not understand why change is necessary, feel motivated to support it, and are equipped to execute it, transformation will stall.

We emphasise visible leadership sponsorship, credible change champions, measurable adoption metrics and continuous reinforcement. In our experience, change management is the bridge between strategy and execution — without it, even the strongest strategy will struggle to deliver lasting impact.

Sanjiv Anand, Chairman, Cedar Management Consulting International

Despite being perceived as over-banked, the Middle East banking market offers significant growth opportunities across segments. Corporate banking remains commoditized in trade and contracting finance, but untapped areas such as manufacturing, treasury, and cross-border structured finance can drive higher income. Commercial banking is a hidden gem, with thousands of mid-sized businesses underserved due to weak segmentation, rigid credit policies, and organizational gaps. Retail banking continues to grow through cards, loans, and mortgages, but future gains lie in spend-led loyalty strategies and disciplined risk management. Priority and private banking present major upside given the region’s growing high-net-worth population, requiring better advisory services and tailored products. Islamic banking is a fast-growing, unavoidable opportunity through full models or Islamic windows. Channel innovation, business-enabling credit, and core banking automation are critical enablers. Banks that segment well, innovate, and execute decisively will win.

Islamic banking’s next growth phase will be driven by differentiation and innovation, not just Shariah compliance. Over the past five years, global Islamic banking assets grew 11% versus 7% for conventional banks, with expansion extending beyond the Middle East to Africa and Asia. Growth has been supported by rising customer demand, regulatory openings, and the success of Islamic “windows” within conventional banks.

As the sector matures, innovation must focus on three areas: customer segmentation, product bundling, and technology. Effective segmentation goes beyond religion or income to include demographics and lifestyle needs. Product innovation increasingly relies on Shariah-compliant bundling such as loyalty, balance-based, demographic, and family bundles—often supported by partnerships with utilities, travel, or telecom providers. Technology is the strongest enabler, particularly omnichannel capabilities that ensure seamless experiences across conventional and Islamic platforms. Ultimately, innovation must enhance customer experience while remaining compliant, reaffirming that sustainable growth in Islamic banking is firmly customer-led.

Omnichannel banking is a cross-channel strategy that delivers a seamless, consistent customer experience across physical and digital touchpoints, improving service quality while reducing costs and boosting profitability. Unlike multichannel models, omnichannel integrates channels and customer data, allowing customers to start and complete journeys such as loan applications—across branches, mobile, online and emerging devices. Adoption accelerated in the 2010s and was fast-tracked by COVID-19, which drove rapid digital uptake and reduced branch usage globally.

Digital and hybrid customers now dominate across regions, pushing banks to rebalance physical and digital channels rather than eliminate branches. Data analytics is central to designing and managing omnichannel journeys. While retail banking leads adoption, corporate banking is catching up, especially in transaction banking, cash management and ERP integration. Open banking and regulations such as PSD2 are creating new opportunities, particularly for corporates willing to pay for analytics-driven, value-added services. Ultimately, omnichannel enables tailored journeys that enhance customer experience and profitability across retail and corporate banking.

Many banks fail to fully realise the potential of their credit card businesses because they overlook fundamentals while chasing best practices or technology upgrades. Experience across mature and developing markets shows that poor execution—such as undifferentiated products, fragmented portfolios, weak risk–reward balance, and lack of coordinated strategy—undermines performance, even after heavy investments. Successful credit card businesses rest on five basics: strong organisational ownership and alignment; effective, incentivised sales across channels; relevant and differentiated products; balanced, analytics-driven risk management; and continuous customer lifecycle communication beyond acquisition. Common failures include weak strategic prioritisation, siloed functions, bland or misaligned offerings, overly conservative or disconnected risk policies, and neglect of post-issuance engagement. Banks that get these basics right create a stable foundation for innovation, profitability, customer retention and sustainable growth; those that don’t risk underperformance and wasted investment.

Treasury has evolved from a back-office role into a strategic, value-adding function as banks face complex investment products, tighter regulations and changing business models. Beyond managing liquidity and returns, treasury is now expected to strengthen risk management, transparency and decision-making—expectations heightened after the financial crisis. Reliance on spreadsheets and homegrown tools has proven inadequate, driving demand for robust Treasury Management Systems (TMS) that enable real-time integration with banks, vendors and customers.

Key drivers of treasury technology transformation include automation and integration with core banking and ERP systems, globalization requiring SWIFT connectivity, increased outsourcing and SaaS adoption, stricter regulations such as FATCA and FBAR, and growing needs for analytics and data management. However, selecting the right TMS alone is insufficient. Successful transformation requires strong program execution through integrated planning with other initiatives, a well-defined scope, effective governance involving finance and risk teams, and structured change management. Alignment with the bank’s operating model, clear prioritization and disciplined program management are critical enablers of success.

Payment hubs represent a major shift in banking, transforming payments from a utility-driven cost center into an innovation-led profit engine. They enable a coordinated, standardized operating model across retail, corporate, treasury and cross-border payments, driven by globalization, rapid technology advances and rising regulatory demands. By consolidating fragmented systems into an integrated framework spanning front, mid and back offices, payment hubs improve straight-through processing, reduce errors and costs, strengthen risk, compliance and fraud controls, and enhance customer visibility.

Modern payment hubs support four key principles: Integration across channels and systems, Immediacy through real-time payments and liquidity views, Innovation in services and pricing, and seamless Interface between customer channels, processing platforms and governance layers. Built on flexible, service-oriented architectures, they allow banks to innovate without disruptive “big-bang” replacements. As payments revenues grow rapidly—especially in emerging markets—payment hubs are becoming essential for differentiation, faster time-to-market and sustainable profitability.

As personal and corporate lives increasingly move online, cyber risk has overtaken physical risk as a major threat. Cyber attacks can damage identities, operations and reputations at unprecedented speed and scale. While security patches address known vulnerabilities, attackers often stay ahead, making it impossible to eliminate all risks. As a result, cyber security insurance is emerging as a critical financial safeguard.

Organizations face threats such as phishing, malware, DDoS, social engineering and data breaches, which can lead to productivity losses, remediation costs, regulatory fines, lawsuits, revenue loss and long-term reputational damage. High-profile banking incidents highlight the scale of exposure, driving rapid growth in cyber insurance, with the global market expected to exceed $20 billion by 2025.

Selecting cyber insurance requires board-level collaboration among the CIO, CRO and CFO, careful assessment of coverage, and alignment with the organization's risk profile. Insurers also evaluate IT maturity, governance, controls and employee awareness before underwriting coverage.

Corporate payments are rapidly evolving as modern technology platforms enable near–real-time processing, greater transparency, and stronger compliance. As payment services become a major revenue and retention driver, banks must invest heavily in corporate payment capabilities to stay relevant and counter fintech competition. While retail payments have advanced faster, corporate payments are catching up through improved integration, security and efficiency.

Seven key trends are reshaping the space: adoption of payment hubs to replace siloed legacy systems; deep ERP integration to automate reconciliation and improve efficiency; supply chain financing to optimize working capital in global value chains; demand for local payment methods to support cross-border ecommerce; blockchain to enhance speed, transparency and risk management; open banking APIs enabling third-party innovation; and rising regulatory compliance needs around KYC and AML, increasingly addressed through data-driven solutions.

As corporate payment needs become more complex, banks that deliver seamless, integrated and compliant payment experiences will gain a strong competitive edge, prompting significant industry-wide investment and new market entrants.

The concept of “Success Transfer,” pioneered by Citi, goes beyond knowledge sharing to include full implementation of proven business models across geographies. Originating in Citi’s global credit card operations, it involves replicating successful products, platforms, brands, personnel or operating models from mature markets to growth markets, adapting them to local needs rather than reinventing them. Enabled by the internet and global connectivity, Success Transfer has become an aggressive growth strategy.

In credit cards, this opportunity is especially large. Consolidation in the US card industry has created a deep pool of experienced talent, while global acceptance of credit and cards is accelerating rapidly, often outpacing US growth. By transferring US best practices—acquisition models, credit scoring and operations—financial institutions can quickly scale card businesses worldwide. Cultural shifts, outsourcing and rising consumer spending have further fueled this global adoption of credit.