34 minute read
The frictionless future for payments
On 16th of June, 2021, senior bankers and top executives from leading financial institutions gathered for the MEA Finance and Volante Technologies Roundtable in Dubai to discuss the emergence of new technologies and how evolving customer needs are driving major innovations in the payments industry while offering financial institutions a window to be more innovative and efficient in delivering service
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Globally, payments remain among the best-performing financial services product segments but unfortunately for banks – traditionally the main providers of payments services – this momentum is no longer extending to most of them especially under the current operating conditions. Non-banking players including e-commerce firms, fintechs, merchants and social media platforms now offer instant payment solutions, a trend that is disrupting and driving rapid changes in the sector.
For banks to maintain a competitive edge in the payment ecosystem, McKinsey said, “Success will depend on thoughtfully assessing capabilities, determining the role of payments in market strategies, and appropriately aligning payments operations to achieve the required performance improvements.”
Although the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic has put the world economy on an uncertain footing and is presenting a set of unprecedented challenges to the financial services sector, it also accelerated and strengthened the adoption of instant payment solutions, a trend that was is also gaining momentum across the GCC region.
The GCC region’s digital payments volumes have soared since the pandemic hit, reportedly generating as much as 10 years’ worth of growth across B2C, B2B, and P2P spaces in just over 12 months.
Industry experts from different financial institutions and payments solutions providers gathered for Volante Technologies and MEA Finance Roundtable themed Future of Payments – The Winning Strategy in Dubai to gain insight into the evolving payments sector and how financial services providers can leverage cloud, payment infrastructure, data and Open Banking to broaden their payments services.
US-based Volante Technologies is a cloud payments and financial messaging solutions provider helping more than 100 banks, financial institutions, market infrastructures, clearinghouses and corporate treasuries to accelerate their digital transformation. The company counts Citibank, Qatar Islamic Bank UK, BNY Mellon, Bank Leumi UK and FIMBank among its customers.
The changes in the global payments sector are being driven by the growth in e-commerce as the pandemic is pushing more shoppers online, evolving customer preferences and demands among the young tech-savvy customer base and the understandable fear that cash might be a possible vector of the virus.
In the Middle East region, the growth of the payments industry can also be attributed to regional governments’
support that is seeing banks leveraging these adoption rates to advance their digital transformation strategies.
Though outsourcing of the full payments stack is a possibility, a new generation of instant payments and financial messaging solutions providers are emerging allowing financial institutions to swiftly expand their footprint while modernizing their payments product portfolio without incurring high upfront investment.
Payments-as-a-service (PaaS) players operate cutting-edge cloud-based platforms to provide specialized services, such as card issuing, payments clearing, cross-border payments, disbursements and e-commerce gateways, said McKinsey.
As instant payments are significantly enhancing the speed of settling payments (the making and receiving of a payment), Boston Consulting Group and Swift expect the global payments sectors’ revenue to hit the $1.8 trillion mark in 2024, from $1.5 trillion in 2019, buoyed by sustained growth in e-commerce and electronic transactions and greater innovation.
Fostering growth
The MENA region payments market is expected to register an annual growth rate of 6.5% between 2020 and 2025, according to ResearchAndMarkets. com. The outbreak of the pandemic and its economic fallout has undoubtedly accelerated a string of existing trends in both consumer and business behaviors while introducing new developments that saw the use of instant payment methods surpassing the use of cash and debit cards in the Gulf region.
The million-dollar question becomes how PaaS in the cloud is disrupting the payment ecosystem and is PaaS the answer to the Middle East region’s evolving payments sector?
The emergence of new technologies and the evolving customer requirements have driven major innovations in the payments industry. It is also offering financial institutions a window to be more innovative and efficient in delivering services.
Deloitte said that it normally takes one business day between the time when the payer dispatches the payment instruction and the time the recipient will be able to re-use the transferred amount of money. However, with cloud and PaaS this will happen in real-time, all year around the clock, with the funds being available immediately for use by the recipient.
Prasad Mopidevi, the Chief Technology Officer at Commercial Bank of Dubai, said, “Payments as we know, no longer have the traditional definition and that calls for the requirement to change and support a world that requires 24/7 social media kind of facilities”.
Mopidevi highlighted that the upscaling of the payments ecosystem should not be just on the customer and retail side, but also on the institutional side of things where it involves players in the payments sector such as financial institutions and regulators, though it comes with its share of challenges.
FOR REGIONAL BANKS, I THINK THE BALANCE IS THERE AND THE COMPETITION FROM NEW ENTRANTS IS WELCOME BECAUSE IT IS FORCING MORE INCUMBENT BANKS TO FRANKLY WAKE UP AND CONSIDER THESE FORWARD-LOOKING STRATEGIES AND BE A BIT MORE AGILE
– David Aldred
A full service international law firm built for the Middle East
Ajayi Singh Pundir, Director, Global Industry & Regulatory Affairs, Business Development, Middle East and Africa at Volante Technologies, said that the way the payments industry has evolved is a collaboration of what an institution can do beyond considering deploying software and how a firm can deploy an ecosystem around that software.
“There are hundreds of fintechs offering hundreds of value-added services to financial services providers out there. Bringing these together is one of the best ways of ensuring that as an ecosystem, the payments sector combines what these firms have to offer and provides that value to the
end customer or the macroeconomy”, said Pundir.
Naim Yazbeck, Regional Director, Enterprise and Partner Group (EPG) at Microsoft Gulf, weighed in saying that as someone who works for one of the world’s biggest cloud technology providers, banks and fintechs can leverage cloud solutions to enhance their digital payments services.
“The payments ecosystem is not only about how a payment process is performed but also how the cloud can bring large amounts of data combined with the payments service so that companies can make informed decisions in real-time and in a swift manner,” said Yazbeck.
To maintain a competitive edge in a crowded market or adapt to changing operating environment, payment services providers across the GCC should understand the expectations and requirements of their customer base. Accenture said that as the payments market is evolving, customer experience is becoming the prime competitive differentiator.
Alaa Al Rousan, Senior Account Director at SWIFT, said that with the increasing need for companies to meet customers’ expectations while providing intuitive, seamless, responsive and
efficient services, the payments sector is now a warzone – financial institutions are looking for more volumes to justify reducing the cost and the possibility to make the operating cost more efficient from their perspective.
Financial institutions that have the volume that justifies building infrastructure such as investing in the cloud and collaborating with financial technology solutions providers such as Volante are doing it with ease, but it’s a different story for small firms that have a small customer base.
PaaS in the cloud is expected to assist financial institutions to launch new services and new markets faster while leveraging collaboration with fintechs.
David Aldred, Managing Director - Treasury and Trade Solutions Business Head, MENA & Pakistan at Citi, said that the developments in the payments sector are taking place at a faster pace, which is exciting, but also keeps banking executives awake at night wondering what is the best step into the future?
“For regional banks, I think the balance is there and the competition from new entrants is welcome because it is forcing more incumbent banks to frankly wake up and consider these
forward-looking strategies, and be a bit more agile,” said Aldred.
Leveraging the cloud
As the demands from digitally savvy corporate and consumer customers increase amid competition and increased regulation, financial services providers are being forced to fundamentally calibrate their operating and business models. IBM said, “Beyond cost reduction and scalability, speed to market is perceived as the major benefit by cloud users.”
Afzal Khanani, Head of Strategy & Transformation at Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank,
– Naim Yazbeck
said, “PaaS in the cloud is an enabler, and it will support financial service providers to reduce operational cost while maintaining a competitive edge in a crowded market.”
Cloud computing offers a dynamic platform to develop, trial and offer innovative services—driving operating and business model transformation. According to Volante, PaaS in the cloud offers resiliency, is cost-effective and accelerates customer onboarding, allowing organizations to focus their operating and business models while meeting customers’ demands.
Onur Ozan, Regional Head - Middle East, North Africa and Turkey at SWIFT said given that financial institutions are often chasing after regulation and innovation to cope up with the changes, PaaS in the cloud allows financial services providers to offload some complexities to outsourcing.
Saurabh Jain, Head of Digital Wallets and New Payment Initiatives at Mashreq Bank, said, “PaaS in the cloud seems the right solution in the current operating environment amid the complexity of the payment ecosystem and changing customer requirements. However, this approach becomes much more complex when it comes to large financial services providers and legacy financial institutions because they have invested so much in their legacy infrastructure which hosts the majority of current backup services. Moving all these systems to the cloud poses bigger and multi-dimensional challenges to large banks.”
Jain said that banks should have a balancing act in place to manage the investment in the existing infrastructure as they transition to new solutions that are aimed at advancing service delivery. Managing both seamlessly, assumes a much larger challenge for the financial service providers, he added.
With several cloud solution providers expanding their presence in the Middle
East, financial institutions are tapping into the cloud to boost operational efficiency while improving their ability to partner, source, and collaborate with fintechs.
“Now for the banks, you must know, there are two ways to do business. One is that we keep continuing the way we are doing today and then within another five or 10 years we’ll be out of business, or we need to open up and probably the cloud is the best way to open up, where you have open APIs, where you can have a participative type of partnership with all the other players which are small or big within the payments ecosystem,” Salim
Awan, Managing Director - Institutional Payments Solutions at Magnati weighed in.
Banks are also leveraging the cloud to significantly expand their customer value proposition and geographic footprint while changing their role within an industry or even tap into a different industry.
“The higher the intensity of cloud adoption in the financial service sector, the greater the benefits will be,” said IBM. It is no surprise that most disruptors in the financial service began their journey in the cloud and benefit from low entry costs, scalability and speed to market from the abundance of plug and play composable components available to incorporate into their offerings within and across clouds.
Digital payments professionals and bankers who attended the MEA Finance and Volante roundtable underscored that the shift to cloud computing in the financial service sector is inevitable and can be the key to maintain a competitive advantage in a market such as the GCC region.
There are three areas where the cloud has been driving innovation in the payments sector and these include high data security, cost-effectiveness on the part of banks and as an enabler of innovation as banks keep on introducing new services and products to maintain their market position and meet customers’ evolving demands and expectations.
Regulations
The expansion of the tech innovations in the financial service sector is introducing a new set of security risks and challenges that requires a review of the security infrastructure that is currently in use. Since the outbreak of the pandemic, there has been a surge in cyber-attacks and malicious hacking cases.
However, just like any financial technology, instant payments are not immune to mobile security and data privacy risks. Accenture said that though the cloud’s efficiency in terms of time and money is its most popular feature, organizations are realizing that cutting corners on the cloud can render their organizational processes opaque, opening a plethora of discreet entry points for cybercriminals.
“Payments is a very complex ecosystem, and it is fragmented as well, yes expectations from customers are high, but regulation is also dominating and changing this ecosystem,” said Ozan.
Ozan said that financial institutions are operating under significant pressure
in a bid to meet customer demands and expectations, regulatory requirements, keeping up with changes in technology among other forces.
The explosion in digital payment options together with skyrocketing adoption across the Middle East region was met with an increase in cybercriminal activity as hackers are becoming more sophisticated and aggressive, making occasional headlines by stealing customer data.
Vivek Puri, Sales Director - the Middle East at Volante Technologies, said that the cloud is one of the best innovations of the century and it is being used by almost everyone through a remotely accessible server. With the cloud, the only thing that has happened is the box that used to be stored in a company’s IT Department is now located miles and with the current regulations, that small box is no longer to leave a country or certain jurisdiction, said Puri.
“With PaaS in the cloud, financial services providers are outsourcing services to other companies that are fintechs and aggregators instead of them doing the work or processes themselves,” said Puri.
Ozan said that there is significant regulation happening in the payments sector, whether it is Open Banking, Payment Services Directive (PSD) the scheme in the UK, or what Middle East region regulators are working on.
Drawing an example from the payments infrastructures already available in the GCC region such as Buna, Ozan highlighted that all these regulatory-driven initiatives are leaving a strong footprint in the payments sector, adding, “there is a lot of catching up to be done by the bankers.” Hence in this context, looking at regulation from a payments perspective instead of the financial sector shows that PaaS in the cloud has a significant role to play.
Pundir concurred with Ozan, saying there is a bit of catch-up to be done by regional banks, payment solutions companies or payment services such as Buna. Several changes that are currently being witnessed in the payments industry are being driven by technological disruption not necessarily regulatory.
For Pundir, regulation is one aspect of that change that is taking place in the
PAYMENTS-AS-A-SERVICE PLAYERS OPERATE CUTTING-EDGE CLOUD-BASED PLATFORMS TO PROVIDE SPECIALIZED SERVICES, SUCH AS CARD ISSUING, PAYMENTS CLEARING, CROSS-BORDER PAYMENTS, DISBURSEMENTS AND E-COMMERCE GATEWAYS
– McKinsey
ecosystem and the major development that needs to be tackled is technological change with regulations. The move is expected to enable financial institutions to unbundle what they thought were the right products on offer, or service they expected to bring in revenues. by joining forces with other corporates and fintechs while acquiring the right technologies to advance services delivery.
Awan weighed in saying that following the outbreak of the pandemic there has been a surge in the adoption of instant digital payment services and people in the Gulf region and entire Middle East region are using various wallets to settle payments. Regional countries are also digitalizing payments for governments services and the trend is expected to ease regulations.
Kartik Taneja, Executive VP, Head of Payments/General Manager - Idfaa payments at Mashreq Bank, said that regulation is helping the financial service sector and financial watchdogs must be more reflective of the advantages of PAYMENTS AS WE KNOW, NO LONGER HAVE THE TRADITIONAL DEFINITION AND THAT CALLS FOR THE REQUIREMENT TO CHANGE AND SUPPORT A WORLD THAT REQUIRES 24/7 SOCIAL MEDIA KIND OF FACILITIES
– Prasad Mopidevi the measures they are implementing in the industry.
“And in particular, I find a lot of PSD is extremely regressive towards innovation. When you regulate some form when you regulate margins, right? What happens is that there is an arbitrage which is created with every regulation, that there’s a possibility of an unintended consequence,” added Taneja.
Ali Imran, Head of Transaction Banking & Wholesale Digital Services, Commercial Bank of Dubai, also weighed in on regulation in the payments sector saying regulation is twofold, one is the consumer protection part and the other innovation – these go hand in hand.
Nzaar Ihsan, Senior Vice President - Business Manager Cards at Mashreq, said, “I think some discontented banks will continue to control everything, I think that’s the issue, we will not wake up one day and our lanes will have been bypassed, our regulation would have been bypassed, then the regulations will evolve to legitimize what is happening.”
Awan also echoed the same sentiments, saying financial watchdogs are being forced to adapt to the innovations in the financial services sector and on their own they will not liberate the market unless a certain development pushes them. Awan identified the market, consumer needs and expectations and cost as the three elements that are driving innovation in the financial services industry and not the regulators.
Enabling environment
In March, Buna – the cross-border and multi-currency payment system owned by the Arab Monetary Fund, said that it is considering launching instant payments at a later stage, in addition to trade finance solutions, securities settlement and ATM/ POS processing service. The move is expected to complement Buna’s current offering of multi-currency crossborder interbank payments, commercial payments and consumer remittances.
Khanani said that the overall dynamics of the payments industry have changed – the efficiency is the game, cheaper infrastructure is a need and the banking sector is being confronted by a lot of external forces including competition from new non-banking entrants, regulatory requirements and evolving customers’ requirements.
With its messaging platform, products and services in use by over 11,000 banking and securities organizations and corporate customers globally, SWIFT offers products and services to facilitate access and integration, identification, analysis and regulatory compliance.
The relationship between financial institutions and payment solution providers is no longer about competition but is now about collaboration through adopting cutting-edge technology services to meet customer needs and expectations.
Aldred said that traditional bank’s viewed fintechs initially as competitors, but these new non-banking entrants have become clients and partners to the financial services sector, adding that who would think incumbent banks such as Goldman Sachs would venture into the payments industry and go as far as tapping into the cloud and APIs, and ignore the legacy technology that has been in use in the sector for decades.
Several regional lenders are leading or participating in several accelerators, incubators and training programs to advance access to instant payment technologies and enhance service delivery. For fintechs and startups, such partnerships provide easy access to resources, data, funding, space and
networking opportunities to test and showcase their prototypes.
The partnership between PaaS in the cloud solutions providers and banks is crucial for the financial sector because it allows players in the industry to calibrate their business models while enabling them to bundle some of the solutions available on the market to meet customers’ demands, whether it be embedded banking, lending, working capital and data solutions, said Aldred.
The competition between instant payment services providers in the GCC region can be considered as a battle to achieve competitive advantages using precise strategies to obtain favorable positions.
“The requirements of new customer demographics have also changed, and their expectations are clear – if I click a button a payment is settled, if I put a card or my mobile phone near a wireless POS terminal a contactless payment has been initiated. So, there are too many things happening at this point and fintechs are playing a crucial role,” said Khanani.
Sameer Nemazie, Director, Transaction Banking at Standard Chartered Bank,
posed a question, “How do you incentivize someone to use your products?” Nemazie said that an institution could implement a scheme allowing for the payment of for example $5 or $10, every time a sale is done. He added that “It’s about trying to bring in some of those schemes back into the payments ecosystem and making it easier or making it more trustworthy for someone to say, Okay, I see value in terms of what I’m doing or what I’m selling.”
Awan joined in saying several fintechs that opened their doors for business in the last decade have grown bigger,
THE REQUIREMENTS OF NEW CUSTOMER DEMOGRAPHICS HAVE CHANGED, AND THEIR EXPECTATIONS ARE CLEAR – IF I CLICK A BUTTON A PAYMENT IS SETTLED, IF I PUT A CARD OR MY MOBILE PHONE NEAR A WIRELESS POS TERMINAL, A CONTACTLESS PAYMENT HAS BEEN INITIATED. SO, THERE ARE TOO MANY THINGS HAPPENING AT THIS POINT AND FINTECHS ARE PLAYING A CRUCIAL ROLE
– Afzal Khanani
dwarfing some financial institutions in terms of their size, services and products they offer as well as the regions they cover. This is because these companies, mostly startups, are open to adaptability, they are agile, have created partnerships across the value chain and accept the current challenging market trends.
Embracing the new technology
Although the banks in the Middle East have made significant progress in their digital transformation journey compared to their peers in other financial centers such as Hong Kong and London, the fact that payments represent the most frequent touchpoints between financial institutions and their clients makes digital investment in the sector more important than ever.
Houssam Chaker, Regional Sales Head at Volante Technologies, said that instant payment is a revolution going on around the world, and regionally it is already in full swing in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain and its coming to the UAE big time. “The big definition of instant payment today is if you see for instance what’s happening because of the COVID-19 pandemic, is that we all have big pressure on cash management and cash flow management,” said Chaker.
Chaker noted that instant payments are also based on size and quantity too and a lot of data is attached to these payments, hence there will be two payments using an instant payment and can attach invoices to accompany the payments.
McKinsey has said that carving out the payments business allows a more flexible approach to growth while also establishing a currency that makes subsequent consolidation possible, as carve-outs can tap into the higher valuation afforded payments companies.
Treating payments as a stand-alone entity for example in the case of Emirates NBD’s Network International and First Abu Dhabi Bank’s Magnati allows for the expansion of services across the financial services sector and opens the service to a broader array of customers, thereby driving scale and improving profitability.
Murali Krishna, Associate Vice President, FX -Products, Emirates NDB, said that the Middle East financial service market should probably take a leaf from North America, where PaaS in the cloud solutions are being developed so that the integration process becomes plug and play for banks.
Krishna also highlighted that one of the common issues that usually affect financial institutions is the amount of time it takes to onboard customers to the new service. “By building the connectivity with fintechs and cloud aggregators, our ability to connect one time to the cloud, and then allow customers to come in and plug and play with equal labor and infrastructure will be a game-changer that the clients would want,” said Krishna.
The advancement in the Middle East payments industry is being driven by a shift in consumers and businesses
behavior towards e-commerce platforms and associated services, and support from regional governments making it imperative for banks to provide frictionless payments solutions. It is also opening the door to new entrants such as fintechs, global retail giants as well as card networks and neobanks.
Tushar Gaur, Sales Director, Middle East, and North Africa at Volante Technologies said instant payment services were brought into existence from the cash surplus economies. “From an end-consumer perspective and using instant payment service as an option, I can also benefit from the service not just in terms of the convenience it offers,” said Gaur adding that if a consumer has an option of using instant payment at any point in time, they can manage the cash they have.
“On the contrary, from an institutional point for view, I know the amount I have, and I can manage that, I can do an instant payment and on the other side, the corporate or vendor receiving the payment is satisfied and I can save as well in the process,” he added.
Gulf region countries are spearheading different digital payments initiatives such as Oman’s Mobile Payments Clearing and Settlement System, UAE’s e-Dirham, DubaiPay, BenefitPay in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia’s Sarie – all of which are meant to enable service providers and government entities to offer payment facilities around the clock.
Nemazie said that in terms of resources and the operating environment, we should appreciate efforts by banks and countries in the Middle East to drive innovation as regional governments are pushing towards cashless economies. This is the point where regulatory support for innovation is coming in.
However, banks are also expected to continue to be vigilant about their choice of fintechs to partner with and the type of controls do they have in place, and that is probably going to be a slowdown, added Nemazie.
The growth of instant payments services in the region is also driven by their popularity among small businesses and start-ups. Instant payment is expected to revolutionize the payments sector and its application into the retail industry, standard B2B transactions and the entire trade sector is projected to potentially disrupt the market in terms of how business is currently being conducted.
The Volante Technologies and MEA Finance Roundtable was attended by representatives of several financial institutions in the UAE including Afzal Khanani from ADIB, David Aldred from Citi, Prasad Mopidevi and Ali Imran from Commercial Bank of Dubai, Murali Krishna from Emirates NBD, Salim Awan from Magnati, Kartik Taneja, Nzaar Ihsan and Saurabh Jain from Mashreq and Sameer Nemazie from Standard Chartered Bank. Also, on the panel of speakers were Naim Yazbeck from Microsoft as well as Onur Ozan and Alaa AlRousan from SWIFT, the world’s largest interbank electronic payments messaging system. At the roundtable panel representing Volante Technologies were Houssam Chaker, Vivek Puri, Tushar Guar and Ajay Singh Pundir.
– Murali Krishna
Leading inclusive innovation
Rola Abu Manneh, CEO of Standard Chartered Bank, UAE
Rola Abu Manneh CEO of Standard Chartered Bank, UAE, outlines why it is important to lift participation of women in our societies, telling MEA Finance that through proactive actions to create inclusiveness of opportunity, such as their Women in Technology (WiT) Incubators programme, and by focusing on sustainable finance and economic growth strategies, we can overcome COVID-19’s setbacks and be better placed to face the challenges and the opportunities of the post-pandemic era
You have been the CEO of Standard Chartered Bank UAE for exactly three years, during which time disruption, competition and Covid-19 all came to a head. Have these been the three most challenging years ever for banking and finance?
Over the course of my career, I have been fortunate enough to make meaningful contributions to the industry and community in both a personal and professional capacity. Since I joined the bank three years ago, these experiences and challenges have allowed me to contribute to the development of Standard Chartered in the UAE. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has changed our ways of working and living and brought unprecedented challenges, like we have never experienced before,
to virtually every sector. Banking is certainly no exception. If it has taught us anything, it is the importance of compassion within the business sphere. While a crisis’ early days might seem like the time for leaders to put their head down and exhibit control, it was just as critical to showcase a degree of emotional intelligence and ensure employees and colleagues are able to grapple with their own reactions.
Although the past year has been a testing period across the industry, it has also provided us valuable opportunities. The evolution of the bank during this pandemic has set us up for our future. We changed the way we worked, the way we communicated and accelerated our product offerings to adapt to the new world. This year onwards, we want to keep pushing this strategy forward. We will continue to innovate and continue to communicate with our clients to ensure we are meeting their needs in a timely manner. We know that the COVID-19 has caused a significant shift in the banking sector and has accelerated the drive towards digital adoption. We are proud of the digital transformation we have undergone – especially here in the UAE, and it is great to see our hard work come to fruition. Moving forward, we will continue to place priority on developing that work even further as we enter the new normal.
You are among a growing number of female bank CEOs in the UAE and the wider world. How long overdue is this in finance and how different would the world of banking be if it had happened several generations earlier?
Gender equality has been in the headlines, and in our hearts, for decades. Whether at home or the office, we have seen women fighting for their right to be heard, to be included, and to have equal opportunity. Despite significant progress in this regard, we have hit a bump in the road to equality due to the pandemic, which has hindered the ability for women globally to progress in their workforces, effectively erasing years of reform aimed at ensuring equal opportunity and gender parity in the corporate sector.
In the banking sector particularly, women had to fight for a seat at the table for decades. Historically, C-suite roles were held by men and if women were given a fair opportunity, then, we wouldn’t be advocating for equality today. This is why it is imperative for women in leadership today to support the younger generation and be a voice of inspiration for them.
Every woman may be subject to gender inequality as she embarks on her journey to seniority. Despite these obstacles, we should continue to approach work with a high degree of confidence and push ahead. Through courage, conviction, dedication and commitment, anyone
is capable of navigating their way to corporate success. I know that there is still a long way to go to create an industry in which women have equal access to opportunity and positive outcomes. However, my experience as a citizen of this country and a CEO of one of Standard Chartered’s key markets for the Group is a testament to the industry’s growth and enhancement to a more equitable field for both men and women. This also demonstrates the great wok the UAE and its leaders are doing to lead the way in this domain acting like a beacon for other nations in the region to follow.
Looking at the banking sector, specifically, even the decision to be part of the industry took a significant amount of bravery. I found that shattering the metaphoric glass ceiling, one that can sometimes deter women from the corporate environment altogether, was a task that brought with it a considerable amount of uncertainty, as well as some excitement. Being able to maintain this level of bravery and unwavering determination has ultimately led me to the role I’m in today.
What more can be done to lift the participation of women in our societies?
It’s no secret that the financial industry is a traditionally male-dominated field and, despite our undeniable progress, a 20 percent representation of women on executive committees and 23 percent on boards is not enough. There is still a long way to go to create an industry
in which women have equal access to opportunity and positive outcomes. Government authorities must be held responsible for creating inclusive and progressive frameworks that enforce measures that foster gender equality in the workplace. In this sense, I am proud to say that the UAE is paving the way. However, corporations must also be held accountable for developing a gender diverse and equally opportune workplace. It’s not just about employing women, but also encouraging them to progress and supporting their success.
A key area of opportunity for women is in digital and technology. As we become an increasingly digital society, we can expect that new technology will continue
THROUGH COURAGE, CONVICTION, DEDICATION AND COMMITMENT, ANYONE IS CAPABLE OF NAVIGATING THEIR WAY TO CORPORATE SUCCESS
– Rola Abu Manneh
to enter the market and create new jobs and, therefore, require new skills. Likewise, technological platforms will enable women access to various vocational opportunities, as well as access to valuable SME and entrepreneurial markets.
A great way to leverage the rise in technology is by equipping women with the necessary tools and resources needed to excel through training and education programmes. Standard Chartered is championing initiatives in this capacity, such as the Women in Tech and Goal programmes. These initiatives aim to educate women of all ages to adapt to the changing technological advancements and leverage them in their professions.
In of the post-pandemic world, economic recovery in the region will depend heavily on entrepreneurial activity. Will ensuring greater inclusiveness in entrepreneurship boost economic success and are banks actively encouraging this?
At Standard Chartered, we recognise the importance of entrepreneurial activity in the economic growth in the region. Globally, nine out of ten new jobs are created by small businesses and nearly 3.3 million new jobs are needed every month in emerging markets by 2030 to absorb the growing workforce.
Entrepreneurs will always seek more knowledge of basic financial management tools. Relying on their past trial and errors, or their experience of family entrepreneurship won’t suffice. Lifting the participation through improved financial knowledge can provide entrepreneurs with the skills they need to grow their businesses and contribute to local economic development. Additionally, governments and regulators are increasingly focusing on the role banks play in supporting those businesses to grow and furthering financial inclusion and education.
At Standard Chartered, we have launched our Women in Technology (WiT) Incubators to support female tech entrepreneurs and to respond to calls for greater diversity in technology and opportunities for women to further develop leadership expertise.
The WiT Incubators target femaleled entrepreneurial teams and provide training, mentorship and seed funding. There is an annual open call for participation leading to a final selection of top contestants (ranging from 5 to 20 businesses) with the most compelling ideas. In the UAE, Standard Chartered introduced this programme, the 2020 edition of which has adapted its curriculum to give its third cohort of startups the tools they need to navigate the unprecedented challenges incited by the COVID-19 pandemic through various learning modules and expert resources. The unique experience-based accelerator follows a blended model where startups are immersed in one of the region’s most vibrant investment hubs during the Dubai bootcamp, complemented with virtual support before and after conducted remotely in their home countries. The three top-performing startups will be awarded a total of $30,000 in equity-free
prize money following the completion of the programme.
Set to begin operations later this September, the upscaled Women In Tech programme is geared towards empowering female entrepreneurs to confront the challenges of uncertain times as they grow their impact-driven businesses across the AME region.
In your opinion, what are some of the most significant challenges the industry needs to overcome in order to thrive in the future?
In the past year, the banking industry has embarked on an innovation renaissance. Digitisation is a key area of focus for the region, and we know that the COVID-19 crisis has caused a significant shift in the banking sector and has accelerated the drive towards digital adoption. Insights derived from my own bank’s Road to Resilient Growth – which is a series of action-oriented insights aimed at helping businesses build resilience – indicates that digital transformation is no longer an option but an imperative.
While traditional banks still dominate across the region, it has become increasingly clear that relying on existing tools and customer bases will not be enough to preserve and gain market share. There is great opportunity in traditional banks identifying their place on the digital banking spectrum; be it through FI-Fintech partnerships, Banking as A Platform, AI or blockchain, to formulate a clear strategy and subsequently innovate, integrate and accelerate into the future.
In regions such as the GCC, with a population encompassing mostly young and tech-savvy individuals, digital banking is gaining popularity amongst customers who would prefer an electronic service rather than visiting a physical bank. Hence, in order to thrive in the future, organisational and structural challenges need to be addressed. Banks will need to assess the evolving customer needs and identify a clear strategy in order to implement a robust digital transformation. Outdated organisational structures, rigid processes and working methods can all impede digital transformation success. This was never more apparent than in 2020 when companies struggled to shift to a remote business model.
How is Standard Chartered championing sustainability? What are some key initiatives you have been leading in the UAE?
We have all seen the urgency for global economies to move towards a sustainable recovery. What we are seeing across the region is both regulators and government authorities have started a series of nationwide sustainability initiatives aimed at reversing the consequences of climate change and have called on institutions to act as champions. Across all our markets, Standard Chartered is committed to Accelerating Zero while promoting sustainable finance and supporting sustainable economic growth, expanding renewables financing and investing in sustainable infrastructure where it is needed most.
GCC economies, particularly the UAE and Saudi Arabia, are heavily moving towards diversifying their energy mix by investing in renewables including solar and waste to energy. Solar energy has continued to grow in the region since Masdar inaugurated what was the world’s largest concentrated solar power (CSP) plant at the time – Shams Solar Power Plant – in 2013. The plant, which remains one of the world’s biggest CSP projects, has paved the way for additional renewable energy capacity in the UAE, most notably with the recent development of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park in Dubai and the completion of the Noor Abu Dhabi solar power project. The Bank was mandated as the lead arranger of Noor Energy 1 of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum (MBR) Solar Park and provided $4.32 billion in financing to fund this monumental project, playing an integral role in its impending completion. Earlier this year, we were also involved in financing the $1.2 billion waste to energy project by Dubai Holding-led consortium to build one of the largest energy-from-waste facilities in Dubai. Banks like Standard Chartered have the ability and potential to connect, provide know-how and support economies to make tremendous progress towards achieving sustainability and meeting the SDG targets by 2030.
Most recently, we have launched a new study that reveals that multinational companies will cut suppliers for failing to curb carbon emissions, with 78 percent of multinationals (MNCs) planning to remove suppliers that endanger their carbon transition plan by 2025. For UAEbased suppliers who fail to transition alongside their MNC partners, this could mean a loss in export revenue of $119.6 billion.
Utilising our position as a leading global bank with a prime commitment to sustainable development, our goal is to continue to work closely with our partners in the private and public sectors to put into place effective systems and regulations that will drive the UAE’s sustainability leadership and achieve net-zero.
