News

Yabi Introduces AI Financial Coach For Smarter Money Moves

The app provides real-time, personalized financial guidance, helping UAE residents manage money smarter, reduce debt, and build wealth effortlessly.

Published

2 years ago

February 22, 2025

Nour Nasir

Yabi

Imagine having 24/7 access to an expert financial advisor — someone who understands your spending habits, helps you save more effectively, and offers guidance for every financial decision. That’s the vision behind Yabi’s revamped platform, an AI-driven finance app designed to transform personal finance management in the UAE.

Unlike traditional budgeting tools, Yabi acts as an always-available AI advisor, analyzing your unique spending patterns and offering real-time, tailored financial advice. Whether you’re making everyday purchases, planning a big trip, or saving for a major milestone, Yabi keeps you on track and helps you make informed financial choices.

Rakhil Fernando, CEO of Yabi, explains the mission behind the platform: “Financial literacy is not optional — it’s essential. But most financial tools today feel outdated and overly complex. Yabi is here to change that by offering AI-powered financial coaching that’s smart, simple, and accessible to everyone in the UAE”.

Here are some of the updated app’s new features:

AI-Powered Financial Coach: A 24/7 digital advisor providing real-time financial guidance based on your spending habits and available in multiple languages.
Live Insights: Connect your bank accounts for a detailed breakdown of your expenses.
Tailored Budgeting: Yabi creates a budget that fits with your actual spending habits rather than generic financial advice.
Interactive Financial Education: Learn the essentials of saving, investing, and credit management through engaging content integrated into the AI experience.
Automated Expense Tracking: Receive instant alerts on overspending, identify hidden charges, and cut unnecessary subscriptions with ease.
Credit Score & Financial Health Monitoring: Get free credit score checks and AI-driven recommendations to enhance your financial standing.

Also Read: A Guide To Digital Payment Methods In The Middle East

Finally, Yabi is also gearing up to introduce its own debit card and a suite of financial products, making it easier to save, spend, and invest within a single platform.

Want to try Yabi for yourself? You can download the app on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.

Related Topics:Artificial Intelligence FinTech Yabi

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Visa’s Return To Syria Starts With A Test And A Bank In Lebanon

Foreign visitors will be the first users to benefit, but whether Syria’s own banks and cardholders follow is still an open question.

Published

2 days ago

August 27, 2026

Dana Saadeh

visa's return to syria starts with a test and a bank in lebanon

Visa is returning to Syria. Its first live international card transaction in the country was a test rather than a launch, and the milestone event ran through a Lebanese bank.

The acquirer (the bank on the merchant’s side of a card payment) was Fransabank Lebanon, with Paymera as the other named partner. Nadim Moujaes, who heads a Fransabank Group subsidiary, describes the test as both the culmination of “longstanding efforts to link Syria back to international payment networks” and “the first step in a larger path”.

Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa makes the first electronic payment in Syria using a @Visa card at a store in Damascus, following the lifting of US sanctions on Syria. pic.twitter.com/lpAN7nQ6Fc

— Tech Magazine (@TechMGZN) August 27, 2026

“We are excited to have successfully tested live transactions today as we plan to enable international visitors to use their Visa cards while in Syria,” says Leila Serhan, Visa’s senior vice president and group country manager for the North Africa, Levant and Pakistan region. Although a significant first step, that plan doesn’t come with a hard date for when a visitor’s card will work normally.

Mohammed Safwat Raslan, governor of the Central Bank of Syria, says the test paves the way for international card acceptance in Syria and that maintaining strong compliance, risk management and operational controls will remain essential. Serhan likewise stresses that Visa has worked within applicable legal, regulatory and compliance requirements. For a test transaction, it seems there was a great deal of attention paid to the rules, with the entire operation being carefully managed.

Also Read: Lebanon’s 5G Era Begins With 150 Stations And A $1M Budget

The test is the latest step in a sequence that began in December 2025, when Visa announced a strategic roadmap to support Syria’s integration into the global digital economy. In February 2026 it hosted its first industry gathering of banks, ecosystem partners and policymakers in Damascus and, the same month, signed an agreement with Syria’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology in San Francisco.

Michel Kattouah, Paymera’s CEO, called the test “the return of international card acceptance,” but while that’s positive news, there’s no word yet on when a Syrian bank will issue a Visa card to a Syrian customer.