More than half of retail banking customers in the Middle East and Africa are dissatisfied with the payment services offered by their primary bank, according to a global survey by US-based research firm Celent.

Celent, a GlobalData company, found that 55% of respondents in the region cited payment services, including fast and reliable real-time capability, among the areas they were least satisfied with. This was the highest share of the five regions covered and compared with a global figure of 53%. The findings are published in The Banking Expectation Gap: Global Consumer Edition, a report commissioned by Swiss banking software provider Temenos.

Celent attributes payments dissatisfaction in the region to system outages, delays in supposedly instant payments and a surge in digital payment fraud. It also cites poor digital customer service, including difficulty reaching a human to resolve complaints. Celent says both issues are noted in the 2025 edition of PwC's GCC Banking Sentiment Index.

Security and fraud protection was the second-largest source of dissatisfaction in the region, cited by 39% of respondents, followed by value for money at 36% and digital experience at 31%.

Gulf sentiment

Across the Middle East and Africa, 34% of customers said they were only slightly satisfied or not at all satisfied with their primary bank. This was the highest share of any region. A further 40% were moderately satisfied and 27% very satisfied.

Celent found that customers in Nigeria and South Africa were more satisfied than those in GCC states. It suggests that the rapid expansion of digital-only banks in the Gulf in recent years may be contributing to relatively higher dissatisfaction.

Banks in the region acknowledge the competitive pressure. Celent's separate Dimensions survey of 216 retail banks found that 56% of Middle East banks reported an increase in competitive intensity for 2026, second only to Latin America at 58%. Bank leaders interviewed by Celent said digital-only banks had become widespread in the Middle East very quickly, with high adoption among young professionals and families.

Switching risk

Better rates and fees on credit products was the leading reason customers in the region would switch banks, cited by 51% of respondents as one of their top three factors. Better online and mobile banking features was cited by 43%, compared with 37% in Europe and 39% in Latin America.

Rewards and pricing that reflect the size or length of a customer's relationship with the bank were cited by 40%. Higher savings rates and greater trust in another bank were each cited by 34%.

Payment services ranked lower as a switching factor, at 25%, despite being the leading source of dissatisfaction. Celent attributes this to customer inertia. The exception was customers aged 30 to 39, 34% of whom said they would switch banks for better payment services.

AI concerns

Customers in the Middle East and Africa expressed higher concern about cybersecurity vulnerabilities in bank use of artificial intelligence (AI) than those in any other region, at 37%. Privacy and data security was the leading concern in the region, at 43%.

Bank investment plans do not fully reflect those concerns. Only 8% of Middle East and Africa banks named cybersecurity enhancements among their leading technology investment priorities for the next 18 months, compared with 52% in North America. Process automation using agentic AI and robotic process automation was the region's leading priority, at 36%, followed by AI and advanced data analytics at 32%.

Customer appetite for AI tools is nonetheless high. In the region, 41% of respondents said they already used a conversational AI banking interface and a further 26% said they would definitely use one.

A head of digitisation at an international bank in the region told Celent: "Customers have high expectations that the bank will protect them against fraud, placing this first and above helping forecast expenses or categorise transactions."

Personalisation gap

Some 42% of customers in the Middle East and Africa said their bank tailored its products and services very or extremely well, below the figure for every other region except Latin America.

Customers of large national banks in the region reported the highest level of personalisation, with 90% saying their bank did so at least moderately well. Digital-only banks performed worst, with 41% of their customers saying products were personalised very or extremely well.

Among regional banks, gaining speed and agility and enhancing customer experience were the leading IT strategy priorities, each cited by 44%. Celent found that core platform modernisation was not among the top three priorities for Middle East and Africa banks, in contrast to Europe and Latin America.

Of the banks in the region planning core banking investment, 60% cited developing more innovative products as a driver. Celent found that larger banks placed less emphasis on product innovation, with 50% citing it, compared with more than 75% of banks with assets of up to $100bn.

Celent surveyed 2,515 consumers across five regions in mid-2026. The Middle East and Africa accounted for 11% of respondents, or about 277 people. Banks from Egypt, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and the UAE took part in the Dimensions survey, with the region accounting for 12% of the 216 respondents.