PHOTO CREDIT TK32 | Global Finance | September 2020
ANNUAL AWARDS | WORLD’S BEST DIGITAL BANKS—EXECUTIVE INSIGHTS
Global Finance: What lessons has
your response to Covid-19 taught
you about GIB’s digital strategy?
Kahled Abbas: While the events of
the past few months have helped
validate and strengthen the argu-
ment for a digital approach to busi-
ness and operations, they have also
allowed us to stress test our readi-
ness and modify our assumptions
and digital plans. What started
out as a brief disruption to nor-
mal activity is quickly turning into
the new normal. A number of our
early initiatives on the digital front
accelerated outcomes in light of
the Covid-19 situation. From
responding to client needs to assessing
risk, fraud and cybersecurity postures,
the crisis has been a unique enabler of a
new culture and way of thinking.
Priorities have shifted to the adop-
tion of adaptable and open standards
and outcome-based assessments, as the
workforce shifts to an out-of-office
environment, and the increased pro-
vision of the full set of products and
customer services as well as internal pro-
cesses onto digital channels. The need to
refresh strategic digital objectives more
frequently has been clearly evidenced.
One key internal challenge has been the
replacement of co-located agile teams
with virtually connected workgroups
that have built a collaboration method-
ology as they worked. Formalizing these
structures and sharing key lessons and
success factors will be key to continuing
to think, act and deliver at pace. The
crisis has also resulted in greater focus
on collaboration and integration with
key agencies and partners to deliver last-
mile integration of digital solutions for
consumers as well as businesses.
GF: Please tell me more about such
partnerships.
Abbas: GIB is constantly assessing and
evaluating potential partners in the
region and beyond, to allow us to offer
best-in-class and innovative solutions
and services to our current and poten-
tial customers. Our partnership model
and culture are rooted in a belief that
banks can no longer go it alone as they
seek to bring innovation to tradition-
ally unbanked or underbanked segments.
Teaming up with niche service providers
allows GIB to embrace new technology,
markets and segments much faster and
also allows us to serve a broader cross
section of businesses and consumers. It
also helps create an internal culture of
collaboration. It is an acknowledgement
of the fact that banking needs to serve
consumers and businesses in addressing
their need for timely and fair access to
services and capital. The SME [small and
midsize enterprise] segment is projected
to be one of the cornerstones, as the
Kingdom [of Bahrain] looks to diversify
its economy to achieve the objectives ofits Vision 2030. It has also been a
segment that has struggled tradi-
tionally with financial exclusion.
Our recent partnership with
the Social Development Bank and
Beehive to offer MSME [micro,
small and midsize enterprise] fund-
ing was unique in the sense that
it brought not only a technology
partner, but also a financial partner
with a social mission, together in
partnership with GIB. It also helped
fulfill a long-held desire on the part
of our stakeholder community for
GIB to participate in the growth
and nurturing of the MSME sector
from an early stage—something we
regard as a social responsibility towards
the communities we operate within.GF: What do you think will be the biggest
digital corporate banking trends in the
Middle East in 2021?
Abbas: Consumer behavior will con-
tinue to drive corporate needs in the
Middle East, as would apply to any
other market. Considering the focus
on digital wallets, cashless society and
real-time payments, we envisage follow-
ing key digital corporate banking trends
in 2021: greater openness to electronic
payments, greater adoption of open
banking, and ecosystem-driven proposi-
tions. This scope will provide opportu-
nities for banks to offer pull payments in
future and grow online payments much
faster compared to ATM or card pay-
ments in the next few years. There will
be an increased adoption of technologies
including machine learning, artificial
intelligence, and big data to detection
of suspicious and fradulent transactions
as well as facilitating cashless, contactless
and touchless payments. —GWRETHINK AND REFRESH
Khaled Abbas, wholesale banking head at Gulf International Bank (GIB),
shares his thoughts on how the pandemic is pushing banks to find agile
methods to meet corporate needs.