Mashreq’s strength in corporate banking comes from its ability to combine traditional relationship banking with one of the region’s most advanced digital ecosystems for businesses of all sizes.
Serving large corporates, institutions and SMEs through a network spanning key global markets, Mashreq has invested in platforms that help clients operate faster, access finance more efficiently and manage increasingly complex treasury needs.
“Our corporate banking franchise reflects years of deliberate investment in capabilities that matter most to clients – financing, advisory, transaction banking, digital innovation and strong regional connectivity,” says Joel Van Dusen, group head of corporate and investment banking at Mashreq.
For large corporate clients, the centrepiece of this transformation is NEO CORP, Mashreq’s next-generation corporate banking platform. Built across web, mobile and host-to-host channels, it brings together cash management, payments, trade and collections in a single digital ecosystem.
Today, corporate banking is inherently technology led and we have built a platform that integrates deep-sector expertise with advanced digital capabilities
Joel Van Dusen
The impact has been substantial. In 2025, 76% of corporate clients were active on online banking, up 165% year-on-year, while 83% used mobile channels. Mashreq’s API Gateway and Marketplace, which includes more than 20 APIs and sandbox capabilities, has supported integration with clients’ enterprise resource planning and treasury management systems. Around 14% of large corporates now use Mashreq APIs, a threefold increase year-on-year.
“Today, corporate banking is inherently technology led and we have built a platform that integrates deep-sector expertise with advanced digital capabilities,” says Van Dusen.
The bank’s Digital Innovation Studio, launched in 2020, has become an important engine of that progress. Expanding from five founding employees to more than 200 specialists, the studio supports advanced analytics, digital journeys and fintech partnerships. In 2025, advanced analytics and generative AI initiatives developed by the studio delivered more than 30% incremental revenue growth, while tools such as the PULSE relationship management platform gave bankers real-time portfolio and client insights.
A strengthened ecosystem
Mashreq has also used technology to simplify traditionally complex corporate processes. Its digital onboarding platform, Convergence, provides paperless onboarding, while mobile functionality allows relationship managers to open corporate accounts in under two minutes. Meanwhile, the digitisation of trade asset sell-down workflows supported more than $2 billion of activity, increasing transparency and facilitating higher volumes without additional headcount.
For SMEs, Mashreq has extended the same digital-first approach through NEO BIZ, its all-digital SME banking proposition, and Mashreq Biz, its online and mobile platform for day-to-day business banking. NEO BIZ provides end-to-end digital onboarding, reducing account opening times from as much as 60 days historically to within two days. The platform has onboarded more than 85,000 customers, helping Mashreq achieve a more than 20% share of SME customers in the UAE.
The bank continued to enhance SME services in 2025, reducing average onboarding turnaround time from 6.3 days in 2024 to 3.2 days, integrating with licensing authorities, deploying electronic facial recognition and introducing AI-powered compliance screening. Digital merchant financing reduced turnaround times by up to 60%, while around 40% of trade finance transactions are now processed digitally.
Partnerships have strengthened the ecosystem further. Through a partnership with Nuclei, a leading provider of digital banking solutions, Mashreq offers SME clients access to more than 40 value-added business services, while its PerfiOS integration uses analytics to improve understanding of customer financial behaviour.
Security and resilience have remained central to the strategy. NEO CORP includes multi-level access controls, audit trails and enterprise-grade security, while regulatory reporting automation has reduced manual effort by 60%, automated 85% of reports and achieved around 99% data accuracy.
Viewed together, these investments have clearly positioned Mashreq as a regional leader in digitally enabled corporate banking, supporting businesses from emerging SMEs to multinational institutions.
