PARTNER CONTENT
Building the future of financial transactions together Changing customer expectations, increased competition and ever-evolving technology continue to challenge existing business models, causing unprecedented pressure to innovate fast. Many of these challenges are not unique to individual institutions but shared by the entire industry. To solve these challenges and build the future of financial transactions, the entire financial ecosystem needs to collaborate Sido Bestani Regional Director, Middle East, Turkey & Africa, SWIFT
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igitisation has radically reshaped the payments space, with the pandemic a catalyst accelerating the trend. In a recent report, the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) found that in the UAE the number of customers using online banking saw a 42 percent increase and the use of mobile banking rose by 65 percent during the pandemic. The Middle East is a vibrant innovation hub, and in recent years, local authorities have been instrumental in enabling the sector’s digitisation. Much has also been done in the region to adapt regulatory frameworks and invest in communication infrastructures.
Fostering greater inclusion and openness In MENA, almost 60% of the population is aged under 30. These young people are tech savvy and digital interactions are at the heart of their everyday lives.
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They expect the same experience when it comes to payments, making the market ripe for digitisation. The shift towards embedded finance, whereby services are seamlessly inserted in other products to create a type of cross-pollination between brands and systems will shape the entire system into a significantly more accessible and inclusive ecosystem for all users. Several national programmes aiming to further enable digital services have been implemented in the Middle East and we now observe a similar trend at a regional level.
Exploring new technology For over 40 years, SWIFT has collaborated with its network to identify industry-wide challenges and develop solutions for the benefit of the entire global financial system and innovation remains central to our new strategy. Thanks to our unique position at the heart of the financial industry, we
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have a vital role to play in identifying and evaluating the viability, practicality and potential of emerging technologies to deliver value to our community. For example, we are engaging with central banks, financial institutions, technology providers and academics to understand possibilities that central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) could enable, and how SWIFT could support central banks should they wish to implement digital currencies. As part of that exploration, we published a paper in May 2021 discussing the opportunities and challenges of CBDCs for international payments. Additionally, we continue to explore how to harness the power of SWIFT’s unique data with artificial intelligence (AI). Combining AI with SWIFT data has the potential to provide unique insights that can help resolve existing and emerging challenges across financial services without compromising the
