The State of Cards in the Middle East

The card may still carry the relationship. But the experience around it is changing fast.

Across the Middle East, cardholders increasingly expect the same immediacy from their bank that they get from wallets, super-apps and digital-first providers. 68% of surveyed cardholders expect instant or same-day card issuance, while 61% expect to activate their card instantly through their banking app or digital wallet.

Expectations extend well beyond issuance. 71% want real-time payment alerts, 44% want to freeze or unfreeze their card instantly, and 37% want to set their own spending limits. These are no longer peripheral features. They are becoming part of the baseline experience cardholders expect from their primary bank.

Produced in partnership with Stitch, the whitepaper draws on research with 100+ consumers across Bahrain, Egypt, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, alongside perspectives from banking executives across the region.

The findings show that many of the most visible customer frustrations start much deeper in the stack. Issuance, card controls, fraud management, rewards and dispute resolution can still depend on fragmented systems and manual hand-offs, making it harder for banks to respond at the speed customers increasingly expect.

That matters because the card relationship is becoming easier to lose. 74% of surveyed cardholders said they would move their everyday spending to a digital-first provider for a better card experience at a similar cost. Winning top-of-wallet status will increasingly depend on how quickly banks can turn transaction data, customer behaviour and real-time signals into better experiences.

The next era of cards will be won not by issuing more cards, but by making every interaction around them faster, smarter and easier to control.

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