Industry Leaders convene at the 2026 BIAN Africa Meeting
Standard Bank will host the 2026 BIAN Africa Meeting on 5 and 6 March in Cape Town, an industry wide gathering aimed at addressing the persistent lack of interoperability across the financial services value chain. The event will bring together banks, insurers, fintech firms and technology partners to accelerate progress toward harmonised financial infrastructure across Africa.
The BIAN Africa Meeting will explore how a standard based, composable approach to banking architecture, amplified by artificial intelligence, can unlock interoperability and measurable value for all stakeholders.
Speaking ahead of the conference, Paul van der Merwe, Standard Bank Group Head of Enterprise Architecture, underscored that seamless interconnection between financial institutions is critical to Africa’s economic future, yet remains constrained by fragmented systems, misaligned standards, and duplicated technology investments.
Across the continent, regional payment corridors such as TCIB, PAPSS, the East African Payments System and SADC RTGS are aiming to enable faster and more cost-effective cross border transactions. However, the absence of full interoperability diminishes their potential value by increasing friction and limiting the efficiency of both domestic and intra African trade.
Van der Merwe says: “Standard Bank’s research highlights that Africa’s payment ecosystem is undergoing significant transformation, yet true frictionless operation remains hindered by inconsistent infrastructure and non-standardised integrations, which reduce the speed, reliability, and convenience that businesses and consumers require. Efforts to improve interoperability have therefore become central to the future of payments and intra Africa commerce, with experts emphasising that coordinated action across regulators, banks, mobile operators, and technology providers is now essential.”
The cost of fragmentation extends far beyond customer experience. Many African financial institutions continue to operate with disparate legacy systems, country specific layers and complex integration structures that require extensive investment to maintain.
“While not always visible externally, these inefficiencies contribute to a technology spending environment in which institutions are compelled to devote large portions of their budgets to keeping fragmented systems connected. This dynamic diverts investment away from innovation, reducing the continent’s ability to deploy modern, scalable digital services that support economic growth and customer needs. These structural inefficiencies are not in the best interest of customers, financial institutions, or Africa’s ambition to build a more integrated economic future,” says Van der Merwe.
Artificial intelligence represents one of the most promising accelerators in resolving longstanding interoperability issues. BIAN has highlighted how AI enabled architectures can amplify standardisation efforts, improve data harmonisation, and increase the speed and accuracy of system-to-system interactions. In parallel, global financial services research underscores that AI is beginning to reshape every aspect of how institutions operate by automating routine processes, enhancing data consistency, and enabling financial systems to communicate more fluidly across organisational boundaries. Executives convened at BIAN’s Global AI in Financial Services Summit have emphasised that AI is not merely a cost efficiency tool, but a catalyst for rethinking entire value chains, ultimately allowing financial institutions to function as orchestrators within connected digital ecosystems rather than siloed entities.
Standard Bank’s own digital platforms already incorporate AI, machine learning, and API driven integration to deliver frictionless payment and working capital solutions across multiple African countries, demonstrating how emerging technologies can bridge legacy environments and form the backbone of a unified customer experience. This evolution signals a transformative opportunity for Africa to leapfrog traditional infrastructure constraints through the combination of AI driven intelligence and widely adopted architectural standards.
Standard Bank’s decision to host the BIAN Africa Meeting reflects its commitment to industry collaboration and the advancement of global standards that improve interoperability. The two day conference will include case studies demonstrating how banks and insurers across Africa and beyond are adopting BIAN aligned operating models to simplify integration, accelerate change, and strengthen operational resilience. It will also feature sessions on preparing banking environments to be “AI ready,” regional adoption showcases, including insights from Stanbic Uganda, and demonstrations of multivendor collaboration models that promote alignment across the value chain.
The event offers a practical environment where participants can engage with composable architecture frameworks designed to address precisely the challenges posed by complex, disjointed system landscapes.