This article was originally published in the Brand Finance Banking 500 Journal 2026.
Interview with Muna Al Ghurair, Group Head of Marketing & Corporate Communications, Mashreq
Group Head of Marketing & Corporate Communications
Mashreq
Mashreq has strengthened its position in this year’s Banking ranking, now standing among the world’s top 140 most valuable banking brands and ranking as the 4th most valuable bank in the UAE, reaching a brand value of USD2.4 billion. What were the key strategic initiatives that contributed to this strong performance?
Our multi-year strategy is built on consistency, execution, and longterm value creation, anchoring the bank’s growth around five core pillars: customer experience, digital transformation, operational resilience, sustainability, and people. Each strategic initiative reinforces at least one of these pillars in a tangible way.
A key driver has been our choice to position digital as the bank’s core operating model, rather than merely a delivery channel. Platforms such as Mashreq NEO, NEO BIZ, and NEO CORP have allowed us to scale high-quality digital experiences across segments and markets.
Sustainability has become a defining pillar of our brand identity. Through Climb2Change, which unifies all ESG initiatives under a single framework, Mashreq has embedded purpose at the core of its narrative.
The platform has strengthened differentiation in a competitive market, enhanced public perception, and deepened stakeholder trust by clearly articulating how the bank creates longterm value for communities and clients alike. It has allowed Mashreq to move beyond traditional financial messaging and position itself as a forward-looking institution with a clear social and environmental commitment.
Our long-term brand strategy has centred on consistent investment, disciplined storytelling, and impactful campaigns that translate performance into meaning. Increased marketing spend and stronger advertising awareness have driven measurable gains in visibility, familiarity, and usage - reflecting more effective and focused brand building in recent years.
Overall, Mashreq has made significant progress in brand visibility, awareness, and customer consideration. By aligning marketing intensity with a clear purpose-led narrative and a digitally progressive positioning, we have reinforced Mashreq as a modern, customer-centric brand where ambition, innovation, and impact are reflected consistently across every engagement and experience.
Finally, this would not have been possible without sustained investment in our people, skills, and leadership capability.
Mashreq has successfully expanded into high-growth markets in recent years, including Pakistan. How does Mashreq ensure its brand positioning and market presence remain consistent, relevant, and resilient across both established and emerging markets?
We ensure consistency by anchoring the brand to a set of non-negotiable principles that travel across markets: a digital-first experience, strong governance, resilience, and a clear customer-centric mindset. What changes from market to market is execution, not the standards. Pakistan is a good example. We entered the market through a phased, regulator-aligned approach, beginning with a restricted digital banking license and progressing to a full commercial launch once operational readiness and controls were proven. By the end of 2025, Mashreq’s brand presence in Pakistan had grown substantially.
While the proposition was tailored to local needs, experience standards, technology platforms, risk management, and brand values mirrored those in the UAE. A 360 media campaign across digital and out-of-home channels in key cities drove strong market response, accelerated customer acquisition, and increased new Mashreq NEO account openings. Phase Two of the campaign is building on this momentum, strengthening engagement and growth.
Resilience is maintained by deploying the same core systems, cybersecurity standards, and recovery capabilities across markets, ensuring that growth does not dilute trust.
We also invest in disciplined brand-building at launch, combining product readiness with strong market engagement so that awareness converts into usage and loyalty.
With AI and embedded finance reshaping the global financial services landscape, what priorities is Mashreq focusing on to ensure it remains at the forefront of digital banking innovation and transformation?
Our first priority is scaling AI from productivity gains into strategic differentiation.
We are embedding AI across credit decisioning, financial crime prevention, operations, and customer engagement, supported by strong governance, explainability, and human oversight.
Mashreq’s Eagle Eye platform is a clear example. It applies advanced analytics and behavioural data to strengthen financial crime detection while improving investigator efficiency and consistency, allowing us to protect customers and the financial system without adding friction to legitimate activity.
Our second priority is digital banking innovation that delivers immediate, practical value. Our recent launch of fully digital mortgage pre-approval in the UAE shows how we use technology to simplify complex decisions and provide customers with speed, certainty, and convenience at key life moments.
Embedded finance and ecosystem participation also remain central. Through Banking-as-a-Service models and API led integration, we bring Mashreq services into customer journeys.
This is particularly important for SMEs, where platforms like Mashreq Biz enable businesses to manage payments, approvals, and cash flow through a single digital environment. Across all of these priorities, trust is the foundation. Cybersecurity, operational resilience, and disciplined risk management underpin every innovation we scale, ensuring Mashreq remains a future-ready bank that customers and partners trust across markets.
