ARTICLE
Beyond the buzzwords: How Wio Bank PJCS is hardwiring customer-centricity into the core
30 October 2025
At the 2025 Money20/20 Middle East, the conversation shifted from the theoretical "future of banking" to the practical "how-to" of digital transformation. FF News engaged two of the voices that stood out: Jayesh Patel, CEO of Wio Bank PJCS, and Harjit Kang, Mambu’s Commercial Director for MEA.
In a region defined by rapid growth and shifting regulations, their shared conclusion was clear: "customer-centricity" is no longer a marketing slogan—it is a technical requirement.
Wio Bank PJSC leverages Mambu for customer-centric banking
With Jayesh Patel, CEO, Wio Bank PJCS
The UAEs digital banking sector is evolving fast. What do you think sets Wio apart from other players in the region?
For too long, customers have got things that they probably didn't want. And I think if we look at the way Wio is structured, we are super focused on our customer. That's why our tagline is ‘Born to Back You’. Everything we do is to back our customers—our products, our pricing, our partnership.
I think what is different is we are incredibly paranoid about serving our customers. We have this principle in the bank: we want to make money when our customers make money. We don't want to make money when our customers make mistakes. I think the mindset and the focus on making our customers win is what differentiates us.
Wio went to market very quickly and maintained a steady peace of innovation ever since. What were the key enablers that allowed you to move fast?
One, we have fantastic shareholders, so that does help. The second thing is, I think our biggest asset is our team. We have a phenomenal set of people from 47 countries who have come and joined Wio to build something that helps customers, makes them succeed. So that has been a great asset. I think the other big change on the technology side is we are a very OPEC-centric business, so we use a lot of Software-as-a-Service, we’re on the cloud. I think all these capabilities allow you to build better offerings for customers faster, and then change them when customers' needs change.
Many digital banks struggle to scale profitably yet, Wio Bank is three years old and is showing speed in growth that outstrips some global players. How has Wio Bank managed to maintain sustainable growth while continuing to innovate?
We are a business at the end of the day. We want to make sure we are profitable, so we are very focused on the customer segments we want to follow on. One of the best things I heard from one of the CEOs is his hardest is to say “No” to a lot of great ideas and focus on what the business is supposed to do. So at Wio we started off focusing on SMEs. We met a hundred SMEs to understand the pain point and we were very clear about what to build. Then we went to the individuals, and again very focused on building the products they need, getting them the enablement and the help they need to grow their money.
“What helps us stay profitable is we are incredibly focused. We have one mantra: we get customers, we serve them incredibly well and keep them happy. That helps us grow a lot. Our focus on our customers I think is our biggest success.”
What helps us stay profitable is we are incredibly focused. We have great customers — twothirds of our customers join us by referral which is phenomenal. We have one mantra: we get customers, we serve them incredibly well and keep them happy. That helps us grow a lot. Our focus on our customers I think is our biggest success.
How has Wio’s partnership with Mambu helped you build a solid technological foundation, accelerate product development and go to market faster than traditional banks?
When we started, like every bank, we started looking at core banking solutions. I think for us what was critical was the principles with which this company works. When we met the Mambu team, their thoughts, their belief, their ability to think of how we make things more flexible so that customers can get more. They realise technology is changing and we need to enable customers with better, newer products.
I think their principles were very much aligned with us. When we started working with them, they’ve been phenomenal.
They are incredibly smart, they’re super customer-centric, they get the end customer—which is great for a technology provider. So I think the way they build their platform, not only is it flexible but it's incredibly resilient and it’s cloud-native. So they’ve been great. They are one of these SaaS platforms that have helped us launch faster and, I think more importantly, serve our customers better.
In what ways has Mambu’s composable platform allowed Wio to adapt quickly to customer needs and continuously enhance the user experience?
One of the biggest advantages—they’re super flexible. The amount of time for us to change for a segment or a product or a proposition or think of an idea and have it out is relatively short because of the way they’ve built their product. It’s fairly easy Lego bricks that you can rearrange as you want to.
And I think that mindset is critical. Where those bricks don’t exist, it's incredible how quickly they can build them and you plug them in, it fits and it works. It’s been a great enabler for us.
“One of the biggest advantages—they’re [Mambu] super flexible. It’s fairly easy Lego bricks that you can rearrange as you want to. And I think that mindset is critical. Where those bricks don’t exist, it's incredible how quickly they can build them and you plug them in, it fits and it works. It’s been a great enabler for us."
Considering the impact of ever-evolving customer expectations, embedded finance, and AI on the financial sector, how is Wio Bank actively shaping this future into present day reality?
I think AI has finally reached a maturity where it’s no longer a buzzword. It's going to fundamentally change experiences for customers. To us, we see it as a huge empowerment to help our customers. If you look at the app journeys right now and the product journeys, we as banks define what you do as a customer, and that's global. But now if you go to ChatGPT or one of the AIs, you ask whatever you want, you get an aggregation of content that is customised for you. I think that's where the shift happens. As a consumer, I will get information in my app, I will direct the navigation. Most importantly, I will get insights in a level of language that I understand that helps me make better decisions.
So to me, AI is going to make banking simpler, more transparent, and most importantly, more helpful for me to make the right decisions. That is the power of AI. We are experimenting with it on our securities platform.
We have AI Insights which tells you how your portfolio is doing relative to the rest, and it's custom-built just for you. We're seeing great results and feedback on it. We're very excited about this journey.
Looking ahead, how is Wio preparing to maintain this pace of innovation and growth, and what role will technology partners, like Mambu, play in supporting that journey?
We always say we need to be at least 200% better than our competitors just to serve our customers well. I think technology is changing rapidly. What we continuously do is look at where we are and ask a question: in two years, as a customer, do I want to use this? And if the answer is no, then we shouldn't have it for our customers. So interestingly enough, we had a workshop a few weeks ago where we said in two years we see the world very differently, so we need to start charting that path from right now. And so right now we have some exciting things going on trying to figure out how money management looks two years from now? And once we start figuring out some of these elements, then we work with our partners to figure out how they can help us get there.
Get the full story behind the UAE’s digital banking trailblazer scaling profitably with Mambu
- 14 months to open first Wio Business account and 11 months more to open first Wio Personal account
- Profitability achieved in its first full year of operations in 2023
- 177% growth year-on-year
- Rapid innovation and iteration
Mambu drives composable banking adoption in Middle East and Africa
With Harjit Kang, Commercial Director at Mambu for the Middle East and Africa
Harjit Kang, Commercial Director at Mambu for the Middle East and Africa, outlines how Mambu is supporting digital banking innovation in the region. By providing a secure, scalable, and composable banking platform, Mambu enables institutions to adopt modern architecture while responding quickly to market needs. Mambu’s cloud-native SaaS model allows clients to launch and scale products rapidly, supporting both vertical and horizontal growth.
Why is Wio Bank the perfect partner to showcase the power of Mambu’s composable banking?
Mambu is a key component of their architecture. If you look at the core banking systems, most functions are integrated or flow through the core as the system of record.
Wio themselves have got great vision, but of course with vision you need a foundation. That's what Mambu provides and provides the security and the ability to scale, and it’s been a proven success.
What were the biggest challenges in supporting a digital-first bank like Wio Bank, and how did your team tackle them?
When we look at partners that are ideal for Mambu, we look at various different things. Understand they have the tech know-how, they’ve got knowledge in general in banking, and maybe have they done this before? With Wio, they had all of that in place. They have a fantastic team that understands composability. And if you understand composability, that gives you rapid time-to-market. You saw how quickly they went to market and with that scale that they’ve adopted, they've really taken composability to the next level.
How does this collaboration reflect broader trends in banking-as-a-service and the shift towards composable banking in the UAE and beyond?
So if we take a step back and actually look at the landscape at the time when Wio became a Mambu customer, they were the first digital bank coming to market out of Abu Dhabi Global Markets. There was a team structure that was continuously evolving. We were understanding the regulations in the market as our first customer. So from that aspect, there were many, many challenges. We had to go through the licensing process, ensure that the system was fit for purpose for the regulator, etc. However, Wio had a fantastic team and with a collaborative approach, we’ve had great success.
Wio Bank has grown fast, how has Mambu kept its platform performing while staying compliant?
That’s the fundamentals of SaaS and the fundamentals of Mambu's principles. We allow our customers to scale vertically and horizontally from the infrastructure perspective. We have customers with multi-millions, so when it comes to that, Mambu is a platform that enables you to do so. So innately, we were set up to support Wio’s growth no matter what. Of course, when you look at it from an innovation perspective, we always have our ears to the ground and have continuous conversations with Wio. When they're thinking of new innovative ideas and to the product set, we always make sure that it's available within the Mambu product so they can go and take that gap in the market like they have successfully had multiple times.
How do partnerships like this shape the future of financial services in the Middle East?
Banking-as-a-Service—where we’ve seen great success of Banking-as-a-Service providers, Mambu has many of those, such as Solaris in Europe. They all adopt that composable banking architecture. With Wio also adopting the same, it’s proven that this architecture can be adopted within the Middle East. And actually, Mambu has just onboarded a Banking-as-a-Service provider in KSA earlier this year that we expect to be going live. So the success of Wio and the proven track record of Wio has opened the doors for Mambu in this market, and also for any other composable banking core that wants to come into the market. People are starting to be a lot more educated around that.
“We always have our ears to the ground and have continuous conversations with Wio. When they're thinking of new innovative ideas and to the product set, we always make sure that it's available within the Mambu product so they can go and take that gap in the market like they have successfully had multiple times.”
What lessons from Wio Bank could help others looking to build a digital-first bank?
I think it's the same for any project. I think the lessons that we’ve learnt that we always share with customers to ensure that it is successful: know your requirements—as much as you can, of course they change and they evolve. Keeping the same business structure of the C-level and the key stakeholders within the business as the project goes. That has to stay in place because once that changes and a new individual comes in, the project either gets delayed or it adds a level of complexity or change of requirements. Other than that, having a great systems integrator is imperative. Make sure that they’re proven and they can definitely give you that time-to-market that you want. They are the three main key lessons that we always speak to new prospects about—ensuring that your team structure stays and you stay to your requirements.
That's how you have rapid time-to-market. Then once you've got your MVP to market, innovate. Then you can change your requirements, but just get to market quickly.
What’s next for Mambu, and how will partnerships like this help achieve those goals?
Mambu’s operating in a market which is continuously evolving, especially here in the Middle East. We're seeing it rapidly across KSA, the UAE, and other markets and regions here. Mambu itself has launched a new Islamic profit-sharing capability. It’s more of an enhancement of the features we already have. We're now automating the distribution and profit calculations across many, many Shari’ah principles. And of course, we operate with continuous development here at Mambu, so there's new features being released no matter what. It’s innate to our philosophy as a business.