Viktoria Soltesz

A specialist in payments, banking and financial infrastructure, Viktoria Soltesz advises international companies on how money actually moves, and where it gets stuck. She speaks to Smart Media about banking access in the Gulf, the gap between fintech promise and operational reality, and what regional founders consistently underestimate.

Filmed interview · 22 min

Viktoria Soltesz in conversationThe film will be available here shortly.

You work with companies across multiple jurisdictions. What surprises them most when they set up in the UAE?

How quickly the commercial side moves compared with the banking side. A company can be licensed in days and then spend months on account opening, because the questions being asked are about substance, ownership and flow of funds. Businesses that prepare those answers in advance have a completely different experience from those that treat banking as an afterthought.

Where do you see the most common structural mistake?

Choosing a payment provider before deciding the corporate structure. The structure determines which banks and acquirers will work with you, in which currencies, at what cost. Reversing that order creates expensive rebuilds later, usually at the exact moment the business is scaling.

Is regional fintech closing that gap?

Partly. The interface layer has improved enormously. The underlying infrastructure, correspondent banking, settlement, compliance, moves at its own pace, and that pace is set by risk teams, not by product teams. Founders should plan for both timelines.

What advice would you give a company entering the GCC in the next year?

Be precise about what you do and who pays you, in writing, before the first meeting. Ambiguity reads as risk. The companies that are trusted quickly here are the ones that can explain their money flow in one page without defensiveness.

What is changing fastest in your field?

Transparency expectations. Five years ago, fee structures and settlement timelines were negotiated privately and rarely compared. Today clients benchmark everything. That is healthy, and it is forcing providers to compete on service rather than opacity.