Smart banking for a digital future from CBD DIGITAL REPORT 2021
IN ASSOCIATION WITH:
COMMERCIAL BANK OF DUBAI
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COMMERCIAL BANK OF DUBAI
SMART BANKING
FOR A DIGITAL FUTURE FROM CBD
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COMMERCIAL BANK OF DUBAI
Commercial Bank of Dubai is driving the UAE economy with its smart digital innovation and client focus
Stefan Kimmel, Chief Operating Officer Commercial Bank of Dubai
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or more than 50 years Commercial Bank of Dubai has been driving the UAE economy and is now future ready with its suite of innovative digital offerings. Stefan Kimmel, Chief Operating Officer, is driving the digital transformation at one of Dubai’s first banks, which has flourished alongside the emirate from the days when oil was first discovered in the Fateh oil field, through its tourism boom to today’s space exploration to Mars. “Customer first, boosted by digital,” is how Kimmel describes the bank’s digital journey saying they only adopt new technology if it will bring value for the end-user. This includes being the first bank in the region to launch a robo-advisory investment app and a preferred bank for e-Dirham. “Our digital initiatives include customer onboarding, loans, digital card applications, and account opening,” said Kimmel who said their mobile banking app is focused on providing the best possible customer experience. “CBD has always been at the leading edge of the digital transformation, so when I was offered the opportunity to join and be part of that transformation journey it was an exciting opportunity,” said Kimmel from the bank’s office in Deira, Dubai. His international experience helped him to hit the ground running in managing IT, Operations, Change Management, Administration and the other areas in his responsibility when he joined at the height of the pandemic. CBD has more than 100bn dirham in assets and an overall market share in excess of 4%. “We have a full spectrum of services for the smallest to the largest businesses,” said Kimmel who pointed out CBD offers a full set of services
COMMERCIAL BANK OF DUBAI
ae atbpay.ae
PAYMENT PaymentSERVICES servicesTAILORED TO YOUR BUSINESS tailored to your business Advanced Advanced Technology Technology Bureau Bureau (ATB) (ATB) specializes in payments processing specializes in payments processing solutions solutions and services. We believe that our dedication and services. We believe that our dedication to to understand understand and and meet meet the the demands demands and and requirements of our clients (both government requirements of our clients (both government and and private private sector) sector) is is what what sets sets us us apart. apart. By By understanding our clients' needs, we design understanding our clients' needs, we design innovative innovative solutions solutions for for automating automating payments, payments, settlements, reconciliations, settlements, reconciliations, funds funds distribution, distribution, payment payment cycles cycles and and much much more. more. We We believe believe in in creating creating solutions solutions and and are are committed to solving complex cases committed to solving complex cases through through our our team's team's expertise expertise and and our our advanced advanced payment payment engines. engines. With With experience experience ranging ranging from from Payment Payment Gateways Gateways integrated integrated with with multiple schemes to full acquiring and multiple schemes to full acquiring and issuing issuing solutions, our unique expertise and costsolutions, our unique expertise and costeffective effective approaches approaches make make us us the the best best choice choice for customers looking for successful results. for customers looking for successful results. Creating Creating a a unique unique and and easy easy payment payment experience is the core of ATB's experience is the core of ATB's culture. culture. With With us, payments are simpler and faster. us, payments are simpler and faster. Our Our solutions solutions include include multiple multiple modules modules ranging ranging from Payment Processing, Acquiring, Card from Payment Processing, Acquiring, Card Issuing, Issuing, Fraud Fraud Management, Management, Wallet Wallet Systems, Systems, POS Terminals, and POS Management. POS Terminals, and POS Management. Our Our Operations Services include card operations, Operation Services includes Card operations, fraud fraud monitoring, monitoring, dispute dispute handling, handling, call call centre, centres, technical support, and field services. field services and technical support. Our Our extensive experience spans across extensive experience spans across locallocal and and international banks, as well as Central international banks, as well as Central Banks, Banks, Government, Enterprises and Retail. Government, Enterprises and Retail.
ATB ANDthe THE COMMERCIAL ATB PAY Pay and Commercial Bank BANK OF DUBAI of Dubai ATB ATB is is closely closely affiliated affiliated with with the the Commercial Commercial Bank of Dubai (CBD) as its main acquirer Bank of Dubai (CBD) being the main acquirer in in the the UAE UAE for for major major government government and and nonnongovernment merchants. Our team has government merchants. Our team has had had the the privilege privilege of of providing providing CBD CBD with with multiple multiple statestateof-the-art of-the-art solutions solutions and and services services over over the the past past years. This was also recently emphasized by years. This was also recently emphasized by our our role role with with CBD CBD as as the the payment payment processor processor (acquiring and issuing), POS terminals (acquiring and issuing), POS terminals vendor, vendor, and and operator operator of of the the Ministry Ministry of of Finance's Finance's eDirham eDirham E11 E11 initiative. initiative.
Together with the CBDCBD Team, Team, we were we were ableable to streamline the technology and service fulfilment of the new eDirham E11 platform. Through CBD's eDirham, individuals and companies can now pay conveniently and securely for a wide range of government services in the UAE.
Key Products KEY PRODUCTS & Solutions & SOLUTIONS Payments Processing A set of compressive payment processing solutions including payments acquiring, card issuing systems, payment gateway, advanced merchant onboarding and maintenance, cards maintenance, fraud monitoring, terminals management, and advanced reporting, among others. Smart POS Terminals Our POS terminals are secure and equipped with anti-drilling, intrusion, and tamperdetection, to ensure a trustworthy transaction environment. Our POS software is a powerful tool that is integrated with the POS for managing, processing, and facilitating payment transactions. It supports online and offline transactions, such as purchases, refunds, printing reports, cash deposits, etc. eCommerce & Wallet Solutions ATB's eCommerce & Wallet Systems are the most advanced in the fintech industry thanks to its payment gateway platform which offers online businesses the complete toolkit for payment services. With ATB's platform, merchants can streamline their operations and offer a wide range of payment options to their customers. Digital Banking We help our customers have the freedom to align their digital banking architecture with our open and flexible platform. We provide on-premises and cloud-based solutions that elastically scale on demand. In addition to simplifying the connectivity to core banking systems, we can quickly implement changes while reducing application development costs and time. We leverage advanced microservices and APIs to create digital banking apps easily.
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COMMERCIAL BANK OF DUBAI
Commercial Bank of Dubai: Leading digital customer service
“CUSTOMER FIRST, BOOSTED BY DIGITAL.”
from lending, trade a richer offering of finance, investment digital services. “When services, and treasury the first wave hit, we cash management. already had our core CBD was established services available to our in 1969 by an Emiri customers so they did STEFAN KIMMEL Decree issued by the late not have to come into CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER, Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed a branch.” These included: COMMERCIAL BANK OF DUBAI Al Maktoum. Today, it • Opening a new dirham is in a position to offer a current account wide range of retail and commercial banking • Getting a mortgage products and services, in both conventional • Applying for a personal loan and Shariah-compliant formats, with a • Opening accounts in different currencies network of 14 branches and over 160 ATMs “When it comes to the customer, we are and CDMs throughout the UAE. always working to improve the user experience, As part of the global Visa Card network, the look, feel, convenience, and the slickness debit cards from CBD can be used at more of the experience. We strive to ensure the than 550,000 banks, 1.2 million ATMs experience they have when they use our online worldwide, saving customers money by services is as smooth as they would see in minimising surcharges, cash-out fees, and social media and Facebook and Apple.” expense processing costs. Kimmel said serving a diverse set of Kimmel pointed out how the challenges customers in the Middle East, where social of Covid-19 accelerated the move to media penetration is the highest in the 8
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world, implies that people expect to do their banking online. “Of course, we also have some traditional customers who prefer to sign a cheque in a branch and for these we have our relationship managers to enable that to happen but also to educate these customers about the benefits of doing certain things through our digital channels. If you take the effort to explain the benefits of online banking it tends to drive adoption with all customers.”
STEFAN KIMMEL TITLE: CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER INDUSTRY: BANKING LOCATION: UNITED ARAB EMIRATES Stefan has 20 years of experience in digital transformation, technology management and innovation with a range of globally leading organisations including BCG, Oliver Wyman and IBM. Prior to joining CBD, he was the Leader Digital Technology, Financial Services at PwC for the Middle East. Kimmel holds a Master’s in Business Management from the University of Nuremberg as well as a Master’s in Business Administration from the University of Georgia in the US.
1969
The year Commercial Bank of Dubai was founded
160
ATMs and CDMs
EXECUTIVE BIO
Retail and business services Since the past year, Kimmel said most of the new retail products are available online, instantly, and with a few clicks. “For example, a customer can apply for personal loans on the mobile app and it will be fulfilled and in the account within minutes. Likewise, our credit card fulfilment process is fully online. So that's a fully digitised online service end-to-end. We are now looking at digitising mortgages and making those fully available online that will come in the next two or three months. “On the business side, small businesses can already open their accounts fully online with us, and shortly we will have digital loans available for SME clients. That goes all the way up to more sophisticated services such as trade finance. We've just launched our trade finance portal, where companies can apply for letters of credit and guarantees
COMMERCIAL BANK OF DUBAI
1,300+ Employees
100bn+
Dirham assets under management
4%
Market share
14
Branches
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COMMERCIAL BANK OF DUBAI
fully online. They get the dashboards, they do the tracking and all the services they require for trade finance are now fully available online, and we continue to offer more capabilities and more service to them.” Kimmel said although CBD is investing in technology as they power ahead with their digital journey, it always comes down to what will benefit the customer. “Customer first, boosted by digital,” is how he describes the on-going transformation, saying they only adopt new technology if it will bring value for the end-user. “Our digital initiatives from customer onboarding, loans, digital card applications, and account opening are all focused on being user-friendly.”
“Our digital initiatives from customer onboarding, loans, digital card applications, and account opening are all focused on being user-friendly” STEFAN KIMMEL
CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER, COMMERCIAL BANK OF DUBAI
Robo-advisory investment app “We were also the first bank in the region to offer a robo-advisory investment app which allows customers to invest globally into all relevant global stock markets,” said Kimmel. The app was developed in partnership with InvestSuite, a leading wealthtech company based in Belgium. This innovative investment app is powered by smart algorithms that actively manage investment portfolios to deliver optimal risk-adjusted performance. CBD Investr offers customers convenient access to globally diversified and personalised portfolios of stocks, bonds, cbd.ae
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VOLA DIAMO PLATI
ANTE OND OR INUM
COMMERCIAL BANK OF DUBAI
“ We were also the first bank in the region to offer the robo-advisory investment app which has the ability to invest globally into all relevant global stock markets” STEFAN KIMMEL
CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER, COMMERCIAL BANK OF DUBAI
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and other asset classes using low-cost exchange-traded funds (ETFs). These portfolios are tailored based on the customer's specific goals, risk appetite, and investment time horizon and are actively monitored and optimised based on changing market conditions to deliver the best possible performance over the long term. “Customers can start investing in a matter of minutes by simply downloading the CBD Investr app, registering using their Emirates ID and answering a few questions to assess their risk profile and create a personalised portfolio. Customers do not need a CBD bank account to fund their portfolios and can make a local transfer from any bank account in the UAE. The best part is that customers can start investing with just $500 and withdraw at any time, without any charges.”
COMMERCIAL BANK OF DUBAI
COMMERCIAL BANK OF DUBAI HAS BEEN AWARDED THE FOLLOWING AWARDS • “ Best Online Cash Management Award” by Global Finance, World’s Best Digital Bank Awards • “ Most Innovative Digital Bank Award” International Finance Awards • “ Best Digital Bank” - Banker Middle East Awards
DID YOU KNOW...
What gives CBD the competitive edge? Commenting on what gives CBD its competitive edge, Kimmel praised the leadership of CEO Bernd van Linder who he says sets a clear vision for the bank which is shared and aligned across all operations. “I think something that sets us apart, and is definitely a strong trait, is the degree of alignment in the leadership team as we have a CEO who sets a very clear vision which is shared across the bank. Driving that joint vision is something that works quite well here and is clearly driven by our CEO. “That vision is then translated into our core values, CODE. CODE stands for Collaboration, Ownership, Delivery and Excellence, and we aim for the whole organisation to live these values in all aspects of their day-to-day work. “I think a third aspect to that is taking an end-to-end view across the bank. So what I see a lot in organisations is that different leaders are driving their own agenda within their own silos. For example business trying to optimise products, services, operations or IT optimising the technology side of things. That goes to a certain extent, but then you lose the extra potential and I think the way we drive end-to-end unleashes a whole bunch of additional benefits and capabilities. This starts with the initiation with customers and runs through the entire journey across the bank that provides a whole new level or different capabilities in terms of service, quality, efficiency and turnaround times. Our core value of collaboration is one that is instrumental in being successful in this space. “Finally, we focus relentlessly on Delivery and Excellence. Every bank in the world right now is trying to drive digital transformation but oftentimes it fizzles out and it doesn't yield the expected results. At CBD we are focused on that journey and are working to
• “ Best Cash Management” - Banker Middle East Awards • “ Banking CEO of the Year” awarded to Dr Bernd van Linder, CEO of Commercial Bank of Dubai - CEO Middle East Awards - who Kimmel cites as his most inspirational leader
make sure the benefits are being delivered - it's a relentless follow-up of fine-tuning to ensure we get the benefits of these projects all the way through to the end.” He pointed out Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is embedded in CBD which strives to be an industry leader by adopting progressive environmental standards and practices that demonstrate their commitment to CSR. “We diligently evaluate the way we build and manage our properties, looking for innovative ways to reduce our carbon footprint.” ATB key partner for eDirham Kimmel said: “When it comes to prioritising technology, we prioritise and invest based on customer needs. Sometimes it may not even cbd.ae
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KEY PARTNERSHIPS
COMMERCIAL BANK OF DUBAI
CBD PARTNERS WITH MBME PAY TO TOP UP EDIRHAM CARDS As part of CBD’s commitment to provide innovative payment solutions it has entered a partnership with MBME Pay, a pioneer in the UAE services and payment solutions to enable topping-up the eDirham card conveniently through MBME’s wide network of kiosks. Initiated by the Ministry of Finance, the eDirham card is part of a cashless payment platform that empowers users to make payments for a wide range of services across Ministries. The eDirham card provides the next generation of convenience, security, and flexibility for all financial transactions at Ministries.
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Through the partnership with MBME Pay, customers will be able to instantly top-up their CBD issued eDirham cards conveniently from any of MBME’s 860+ selfservice payment kiosks across the UAE. Dr Bernd van Linder, Chief Executive Officer of Commercial Bank of Dubai, said: “We are delighted to partner with MBME Pay, the leading provider of self-service solutions, to provide a convenient and easy way for customers to top-up their eDirham cards from any of their large network of kiosks spread all over the UAE.”
COMMERCIAL BANK OF DUBAI
“When it comes to prioritising technology, we prioritise and invest based on customer needs. Sometimes it may not even be technology, it might be a process change, policy change or working with a new partner” STEFAN KIMMEL
CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER, COMMERCIAL BANK OF DUBAI
be technology, it might be a process change, policy change or working with a new partner. ATB Pay is one of CBD’s key partners. “ATB is our service partner both on the technology side and in the service fulfilment with the eDirham which is a digital payment scheme for government services in the UAE. That has been another success story for us over the last 12 months as CBD has been selected as one of the preferred banks by the government to provide eDirham cards. ATB is our service and ecosystem partner in that space.” Focus on cybersecurity Kimmel stressed that cybersecurity is a very important topic at CBD. “There's a strict set of industry requirements which we comply with and on top of that, we regularly employ third parties to do external reviews, audits, and penetration testing to really make sure the required safeguards are in place. We invested quite heavily in an internal team, both from a technological side and capability side to be on top of cybersecurity. Clearly with the pandemic
and more things being done online, the risks have increased in that space. “The main challenge with cybersecurity is not so much from an external hacker, the biggest risk is vulnerabilities on the client side where clients are tricked into revealing their passwords and their credentials and that then leads to fraud,” said Kimmel who pointed out CBD work with their clients to educate them on the dangers of phishing and scams. Looking ahead for future services, Kimmel said they have a permanent pipeline between products and services being released. “The next big thing in the retail space is making mortgages available online and adding further investment services to the robo-advisory app. “On the corporate side we already have digital account opening for SMEs and will be doing digital loans and onboarding for them as well. It's a permanent flow of new capabilities and services that we're making available for our customers,” he said.
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