Knowing Your Customer

The need to connect with customers with the ability to satisfy their growing standards and expectations of service delivery is fast becoming key to the success of banks in the region and across the globe. Hany Al Deeb Managing Director of BPC in the Middle East shows how they have this at the heart of their suite of services and solutions

Hany Al Deeb Managing Director for GCC and Iraq

Tell us about BPC, your key roles and your activities in the UAE and in the wider region.

BPC has been in the UAE since 2013, delivering world class banking, payments and mobility experiences for financial institutions and their customers. We work alongside retail banks, fintechs, government and payment service providers across the whole of the Middle East and Africa, ensuring they can connect with their customers, bringing seamless and relevant experiences that provide services at the level they expect. With customers increasingly setting industry standards, inspired by the way they shop online, we need to rethink the processes involved in transactions from the customers perspective and use that knowledge to help financial institutions to create better customer experiences. Projects we have been involved with in the region are of important impact in the way people pay, get paid and move. This was a key consideration for building a new payment infrastructure for WeNet, Yemen’s National Financial Switch interbank network. BPC’s SmartVista platform was chosen to develop Yemen’s Instant Transfer Scheme (ITS) for real time retail payments and the National Switch for card payments bringing together all key players, banks, fintechs, telcos and bill aggregator to build the foundation that will help foster new economic horizons in the country.

How do BPC’s mobile digital solutions help banks to better interact with their customers?

At BPC we do not believe a mobile or internet banking solution on its own will suffice in fulfilling customer needs. We are expert in building integrated digital ecosystems comprising of key players, banks, processors & merchants to deliver relevant services to customers to fulfill their everyday financial needs across the region and the world. We link real life needs to smart digital solutions, helping customers in various industries ranging from banking, retail to mobility to build out meaningful ecosystems. In Bahrain, we successfully powered a white labelled payment platform for a PSP (Payment Services Provider), delivering its services region wide and lately marketplaces for a telecommunications business. In Egypt, we are engaged in smart mobility initiatives, removing the need for paper tickets and transport cards, to let people tap and move across public transport using any payment method.

What do you see as the main oncoming challenges for banks in the region and how will BPC help them overcome them?

Banks learned an important lesson during the global pandemic about the importance of accessibility between them and their clients, but they also need to change the way they think about providing services that their customers want. Building strong relationships with customers will never be the same therefore thinking smart and differently is essential. Being part of the lifestyle of customers and consumers is key and there are great opportunities across the region for them if they implement the right systems and approaches. At BPC, we craft customer stories and act as an enabler for financial institutions to keep connected to their customers using best of breed technology. Our SmartVista platform is a comprehensive suite that is easily adaptable to existing customer infrastructure, readily connecting with online banking systems and interacting with external PSPs and can be used in different flavours, big bang approach, modular or as a service. Most importantly, its configuration capabilities help build hyper-personalised experiences for customers that deliver results. As an example, Tyme Bank South Africa, who is using SmartVista, managed to onboard 4 million customers under 3 years by enabling both customer onboarding and card issuing within 5 minutes using kiosks located in retail stores. Kiosks are far from being new, but the capability to instantly get a card issued and the whole experience made the difference. We continue to build new customer journeys with neobanks in the region and seeing the immediate results is what’s motivating us to pursue our mission.

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