Payments & Fintech Advisory — Doha · London · Istanbul

Shaping the Future of Payments

Independent advisory for financial institutions, acquirers, issuers, fintechs and governments shaping the next generation of payments.

$462bn MENA Payments Market by 2031
18 Advisory Disciplines
17 Regulatory Frameworks
3 Continents Covered

An Independent Consultancy at the Heart of Payments

MENA Advisory was established in Doha in January 2020. Within weeks of opening, the global pandemic closed borders and disrupted the model that payments businesses across the GCC had relied on, senior expertise flying in from Dubai, London, New York and Singapore as needed. With that model suspended indefinitely, the demand for a payments consultancy with permanent, senior capability on the ground in Qatar became immediate and concrete. What began as a small founding team has grown steadily over six years to a practice of more than twenty professionals and subject matter specialists.

We are an independent international consultancy focused entirely on the payments and fintech sector. We operate from Doha, London and Istanbul, advising financial institutions, major retailers, travel management companies, acquirers, fintechs and government entities across the GCC, MENA and Europe. Our principals have held senior roles at card schemes, acquiring banks, issuing institutions and fintech businesses across three continents. We bring practitioner knowledge, not theoretical frameworks, to every engagement, covering the full payments value chain from strategy and product design through to licensing, regulatory compliance and technology selection.

We work with clients at critical points of decision: entering a new market, responding to a regulatory change, evaluating a technology investment, or building a new payments capability from the ground up. Our independence is deliberate, we carry no vendor relationships and no technology partnerships that would compromise the objectivity of our advice. Every recommendation we make is grounded in what is right for the client's specific business model, regulatory environment and commercial objectives.

Work With Us
Doha, Qatar
London, UK
Istanbul, Türkiye

Principals & Advisory Network

Advisory services are delivered by practitioners who have held senior roles in payments, regulation, and financial services, not by analysts working from secondary research.

Abdullah Al Mohannadi

Founder & Managing Director

Abdullah holds a degree in Computer Science from a leading US university and built his early career in payments technology across North America before moving into senior commercial and strategic roles in Belgium and Turkey with global fintech and payment network operators. Over two decades he has led business development, product strategy, and regulatory engagement functions at organisations spanning card scheme operations, payment gateway infrastructure, and digital financial services. He returned to Qatar to establish MENA Advisory, bringing direct experience of how payments markets are structured, regulated, and competed in across three continents. He leads the firm's engagements across the GCC and advises clients on market entry, payment licensing, digital infrastructure strategy, and regulatory compliance.

Payments Strategy Card Scheme Operations Regulatory Licensing GCC & MENA Markets

Senior Advisory Team

Practitioners & Subject Matter Specialists

Client engagements are supported by a team of senior practitioners, each with deep domain experience in specific areas of payments, regulation, and financial technology. The team includes a former head of compliance at a Tier 1 European acquirer with twenty years of AML and financial crime programme experience across the EU and GCC; a payments technology architect who has led core banking and payment switching implementations across the Middle East and Africa; a regulatory specialist with direct experience of licensing processes at the FCA, CBUAE, and SAMA; and a card scheme veteran with operational roles spanning Visa and Mastercard across CEMEA. Engagements are staffed to the specific subject matter, no generalists, no analysts briefed for the occasion.

AML & Compliance Payment Technology Regulatory Licensing Card Scheme Expertise

How We Work

Structured engagements delivered by specialists, not generalists. Each mandate begins with a clear scope and ends with actionable outputs your team can implement.

01

Discovery & Scoping

We start with a structured intake session to understand your business model, regulatory environment, and the specific problem you are trying to solve. No generic frameworks applied to situations they were not designed for. The output is a defined scope, timeline, and set of deliverables agreed before any work begins.

02

Analysis & Assessment

We examine the relevant regulatory requirements, market data, and operational context in detail. For compliance mandates, this means a gap assessment against the applicable framework. For commercial engagements, it means market sizing, competitive positioning, and commercial model analysis. We work from primary sources, regulatory text, scheme rules, and first-hand market intelligence.

03

Recommendations & Deliverables

Outputs are calibrated to the audience and purpose: board papers, regulatory submissions, technical specifications, vendor evaluation matrices, compliance programme documentation, or strategic roadmaps. Every deliverable is written to be used, not filed. We do not produce 80-page reports when a 12-page board paper is what is needed.

04

Implementation Support

Where needed, we remain engaged through implementation, reviewing vendor responses, supporting regulatory dialogue, advising on programme execution, or embedding with the client team on a fractional basis. Engagements run on project, retainer, or embedded-advisor models depending on the mandate and client preference.

We work with:

Banks & Issuers Acquirers & PSPs Fintech Businesses Central Banks Investors & PE Funds Merchants & Platforms

Trusted Across Industries & Borders

We work with a range of organisations at significant points of commercial and strategic change, from financial institutions entering new payments markets to corporates reviewing their payment costs and risk exposure.

Financial Institutions
Automotive Manufacturers
Healthcare Providers
Insurance Companies
Government Entities
Charities
Travel Agents
Major Retailers
Partnering with MENA Advisory provided us with the clarity and direction we needed to scale our operations efficiently. Their practitioner knowledge of the payments sector, and their proactive approach in identifying risks before they became problems, made them an invaluable partner in our growth journey.
Chief Business Officer
Multinational Manufacturing Business, Doha
Working with MENA Advisory on our B2B payments project was an outstanding experience. Their team brought deep understanding of the complexities involved, and delivered tailored solutions that directly addressed our needs, leading to significant operational efficiencies and measurably better outcomes for our clients.
Chief Operating Officer
Major B2B Service Provider, London

Eight Domains of Deep Specialisation

Card Issuing & Acquiring

End-to-end advisory on card programme design, processor selection, scheme membership, interchange optimisation and portfolio management for both consumer and commercial card programmes.

Digital Payment Solutions

Architecture and deployment advisory for digital payment platforms, mobile wallets, super-app payment integration and next-generation checkout experiences across web and in-app environments.

Online & Mobile Payments

Omnichannel payment orchestration covering gateway selection, payment method mix, 3DS2 implementation, checkout conversion optimisation and cross-border payment acceptance.

B2B Payments & eInvoicing

Commercial payment advisory covering virtual card programmes, eInvoicing under the EU mandate, supply chain finance integration, AP/AR automation and business payment platform strategy.

Remittances

Cross-border payment strategy for remittance operators and digital money transfer services, covering corridor economics, banking access, FX management, compliance and licence requirements.

Travel Payments

Virtual card solutions for travel management companies, airline and hotel payment programmes, lodging card integration, TMC rebate structures and travel wallet product design.

AI & Blockchain Applications

Practical advisory on AI deployment in payments, fraud, underwriting, customer service, and distributed ledger applications including tokenised assets, smart contracts and cross-border settlement.

Security & Compliance

PCI-DSS programme management, AML/CFT framework design, KYC/PEP process optimisation, fraud strategy, chargeback management and regulatory compliance across multiple jurisdictions.