The shape of things to come

Matt Colebrook, Regional Head of Wealth & Personal Banking, Europe Middle East and Africa, tells us how the past year has influenced the retail banking sector and how the needs of HSBC’s customers are leading to a blended approach offering more omnichannel services with direct customer contact

As a retail bank, what was your most influencing experience of 2020?

The commitment of our staff to focus on how we could continue to serve our customers and support them, when much of the region was in lockdown, was remarkable and left a lasting impression on me. Our branches remained open wherever we were able to do so, with our staff taking a level of personal risk whilst maintaining the highest standard of safety and care.

In our contact centers, we set out to achieve 100 per cent of staff working from home as quickly as possible, to safeguard our people and alleviate any service disruption when our customers needed us the most. We saw incredible engagement amongst our teams during this time; laptops were flown to India, hundreds of desktops were relocated to our colleagues’ homes and in some cases Wi-Fi and power supply units were provided. Over 900 contact center staff were set up to work from home in under three weeks.

Using video technology and digital signatures, our clients benefitted from being able to invest, redeem, change asset classes and de-risk, all from the comfort of their homes. We also rolled out HSBC Voice ID in the region, which enables customers to use just their voice for verification when using our phone banking services.

Within matter of weeks, HSBC had fully operational virtual solution for clients and we made significant strides towards mobile-first propositions, which we’re now in a great position to build on in 2021. Such agility and ability to react to the world around us is an important aspect to being an HSBC client.

How will 2020 shape the direction of regional retail and wealth banking in 2021?

The effect that the global pandemic has had on retail and wealth banking in the region has been very evident. At the start of 2020, the sector was on a steady path to digitisation. But the pandemic sped up processes and forced new behaviours which might have otherwise taken years, and consequentially the personal banking sector accelerated its digital ambitions. It became and continues to be vitally important to understand what a client’s needs are as they adapt to changing financial situations and develop new priorities.

For HSBC, the regional direction of banking in 2021 and beyond is a blended approach where our customers can access an expanded range of offerings via our digital channels, but at the same time have the option to talk to our people when they need support or expertise for their more complex needs. We’ve seen the regulatory environment rapidly evolve and, quite rightly, regulators have become far more active by implementing industry-wide standards to further protect customers. Increased transparency on fees, commission caps and fully qualified advisors are just some of the requirements that now must be met, with much more to come.

What is your key customer demographic for 2021 and why?

Our goal this year, as always, is to help and support our customers as they aspire to achieve things in their lives, whether that’s economic prosperity, satisfying entrepreneurial goals, or supporting their families and building their future.

We have an ambition to establish a market leading wealth management brand by continuing to digitise our wealth propositions, including FX, insurance and investments. Digital wealth solutions are already an area of focus amongst most wealth managers as customers are preferring to interact digitally, especially the mass affluent segment. There is still a desire from clients to see their advisor

but mainly for the initial investment; all servicing already requires a digital solution to be competitive.

This year, HSBC is expanding its Private Banking business in the UAE with new operations in Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), the international financial centre in the nation’s capital. The new licence and location is part of the bank’s plan to substantially grow its wealth management operations in the country and almost double its assets under management in the UAE. HSBC plans to make the UAE a global hub for its international wealth management expertise.

We will also continue to build our book of Wealth clients including our Jade client base, following its launch in the UAE at the start of 2020. HSBC Jade is a bespoke bank account offering a unique combination of personalised relationship management, advanced wealth solutions and luxury lifestyle services to support

the needs of high-net-worth individuals. It has been a perfect fit for the UAE and we will continue to engage with this demographic through 2021 and beyond.

THE ADVANCEMENT IN ONLINE AND DIGITAL BANKING TOOLS MEANS TODAY’S CUSTOMERS HAVE GENUINE OMNICHANNEL CHOICES

How has the higher speed of digitization increased the ways you work with different customer groupings or generations?

The focus this year is digital simplification; prioritising migration onto latest platforms and straight-through processing journeys. We’re focusing on a mobile-first agenda, including a global money account, and achieving our adoption ambitions of 100% new-to-bank digitally active customers as well as doubling our mobile active customers. A fully operational wealth management digital experience is also on the horizon.

Last year, HSBC UAE launched its online trading platform that enables customers to trade international securities on major stock exchanges in real-time. The platform – incorporated into the Personal Internet Banking site – allows clients to personally manage their equity securities portfolio 24/7, and submit orders themselves with real-time execution. Clients can access stock exchanges in the United States, United Kingdom and Hong Kong, which together cover around 60 per cent of capital markets across the globe. Impressively, our teams rolled out this new product in the midst of the pandemic, and the higher speed of digitisation was certainly an influencing factor.

Matt Colebrook, Regional Head of Wealth & Personal Banking, Europe Middle East and Africa, HSBC

Is now a better time to be a retail banking customer in the region than it was five years ago?

The advancement in online and digital banking tools, particularly through the larger banks and fintechs, means today’s customers have genuine omnichannel choice. Clients want convenience, accuracy and speed, and while they may still want to discuss that big credit or investment with an advisor in person, today’s technology allows them to be more efficient in their decision making.

Digital development has both enhanced personal banking and also required it to keep up with the digital developments of non-financial sectors. Take biometrics for example – customers expect to be able to access their online banking profiles and send and receive payments with the same ease and speed as they access news websites or login to their social media pages. When being measured by customer experience, regional banks are no longer competing only with each other but also with all online and digital businesses, which is exciting.

26 May 2021 JW Marriott Marquis Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Future of Banking Innovation

An exclusive gathering of the region’s leading bankers and technology professionals to discuss pressing challenges of the new digital financial landscape and identify the myriad opportunities presented by the advanced business frontier.

Join more than 150 top executives from leading banks, financial institutions, and technology providers from across MENA.

SPEAKERS INCLUDE:

Mohamed Abdel-Razek

CIO – Africa, Middle East & Islamic Banking Standard Chartered Bank

Stefan Kimmel

Chief Operating Officer Commercial Bank of Dubai

Yuri Misnik

Group Chief Technology Officer, Member of the Group Executive Committee First Abu Dhabi Bank

Award Categories

FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS

1. Digital Banking Innovation of the Year 2. Best Digital Innovation in Islamic Banking of the Year 3. Best Neobank 4. Best Cybersecurity and Risk Management

Implementation 5. Best Core Banking Technology Implementation 6. Best Islamic Banking System Implementation 7. Best Data Management 8. Best Analytics System 9. Best Mobile Banking Services 10. Most Innovative Emerging Technology Implementation 11. Best Cloud Implementation 12. Best Innovation in User Experience 13. Best Innovation in Retail Banking 14. Best Innovation in Corporate Banking and Finance 15. Best Innovation in Investment Banking 16. Best Innovation in Trade Finance 17. Best Regulation Technology Solution 18. Most Innovative Trading Platform 19. Best AML/KYC Solution 20. Best FinTech Solutions Implementation 21. Best Islamic Fintech Solutions Implementation 22. Best AI Technology Implementation 23. Best Open Banking & API implementation 24. Best Branch Digitisation Implementation 25. Best Corporate Payment Service 26. Best Risk & Compliance Implementation 27. Best Retail Payment Implementation 28. Best Treasury Management Implementation 29. Tech Leadership Awards

TECHNOLOGY VENDORS

1. Digital Banking Provider of the Year 2. Islamic Digital Banking Provider of the Year 3. Best Cybersecurity Provider 4. Best Core Banking Solutions Provider 5. Best User Experience Solution Provider 6. Best Data Management Solution Provider 7. Best Risk Management Solution Provider 8. Best Analytics Solution Provider 9. Most Innovative Cloud Services Provider 10. Most Innovative Mobile Banking App 11. Best RegTech Solution Provider 12. Bset Trading Infrastructure Provider 13. Best AML/KYC Solution Provider 14. Best Communications Infrastructure Provider 15. Best Open Banking & API Solutions Provider 16. Most Innovative Payment Solutions Provider 17. Best Wealth and Investment Technology Provider 18. Most Innovative Digital Wallet Deployment 19. Best Digital Transformation Consultancy Firm 20. Tech CEO of the Year 21. Financial Services Technology Leadership Award

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*All nominations shall be submitted on or before 26th April deadline.

Prepared to pioneer

Collin Dallas, Head of Retail Banking explains how National Bank of Fujairah has tackled the challenges of the past year head-on and benefited from a pre-Covid-19 focus on digitisation allowing the development of smart new products and services for their customers

How did NBF manage to deal with the impacts of Covid-19 pandemic?

We are fortunate to live in the UAE, where we have the backing of the government and Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE), who have taken extensive measures to mitigate the impact of the crisis by extending financial programmes to help alleviate the effects on individuals and corporates. At NBF, we have always adopted the partnership-first approach with our clients, especially during challenging times, where our support and counsel is needed the most. Fortunately, we were able to maintain good levels of capital and liquidity to meet the challenges without undue fear.

As a bank committed to health and well-being, stringent measures and protocols were taken to ensure the safety of our employees and customers. Some of these actions include installing hand sanitizers at various common areas and offices, providing disposable gloves and masks to all customers coming in contact with any documentation and our ATM/ CDM network, enhanced cleaning and regular disinfection of high touch points across all our branches and many more. We also launched a comprehensive communication and awareness campaign for COVID-19 precautions to keep our staff and customers aware of the current regulations and how to safeguard themselves. Our commitment to provide exceptional customer service remains undiminished, even with working from home (WFH) arrangements there was no drop in any of our significant

banking services and in that context, I want to thank our employees for the efforts they have made to ensure that we continue to support our customers seamlessly and proactively. Additionally, we upgraded our core banking system and implemented a number of digitization projects last year.

Just like other banks and businesses in the market, we are still absorbing the impact brought forth by the global pandemic and the inevitable slowdown in response times across all areas of activity, but we are now more focused on our recovery model. This has been a critical transitionary period and at NBF, our strategy has been not only to respond to these changes with agility, but to thrive on them, further enhancing and strengthening our offerings.

IMPLEMENTING DIGITAL SOLUTIONS WAS ABSOLUTELY CRITICAL TO THE CONTINUITY OF THE BANKING SECTOR

How has the digital transformation trend during the pandemic impacted on running the physical branches?

The movement towards digitisation was a focus of ours well before the pandemic, so we were well equipped to sustain the transition in an effective manner. Our new branches were increasingly becoming more digitised, and our customers have responded well to emerging technology. Moreover, we have been integrating automation and robotics to eliminate paperwork from banking processes and on the corporate banking side, developed trade finance payment facilities and other digital platforms to continue enhancing our offering.

This early work enabled us to respond to remote operations very quickly and I am very proud to say we did not experience any downtime in our service provision throughout the pandemic. Similarly, customers have responded to the availability of many of our online services and the adoption rate has exploded to the point where some of the levels of utilisation that we are seeing now, we had not expected earlier for another few years.

What are the most prominent products and technological banking services that the bank aims to launch?

The global pandemic has truly

accelerated the movement towards digital transformation. Implementing digital solutions was absolutely critical to the continuity of the banking sector. We had adopted an agile mindset and we understand that things are now evolving at a much faster pace than they used to, and thus, tried to remain ahead of the curve.

For instance, NBF has made significant advancements in digitization resulting in improvements in customer (IPA) for the major processes in the bank, far ahead of our peer banks in terms of the outputs.

We are also at the forefront of many of the country’s efforts to become a cashless society, as we have partnered with the Ministry of Finance to launch eDirham Instant, the latest digital payment method that allows customers to pay for governmental fees and services using online banking. We also went live with the Emirates Digital Wallet ‘klip’, a cashless payment application that allows customers to store, transfer and conduct payments in a seamless and secure manner.

experience, enhanced efficiency through automation and optimisation, improved security and better resilience. We have pioneered many technology implementations such as automated Disaster Recovery (DR), moving towards open banking architecture with Service Oriented Architecture as a backbone and fully automated end of day business processes. Since 2017, we have also pioneered in Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and Intelligent Process Automation

Collin Dallas, Head of Retail Banking at National Bank of Fujairah

What are the latest achievements and developments of your bank?

As a dedicated financial partner to businesses in the UAE, we have always recognised the value of SMEs as a key pillar for the UAE, and as such, wanted to extend our support to the business community at a time when they needed it the most. We strove to be the first in the UAE to digitise this vital sector by launching NBF CONNECT - a bespoke platform that was co-created by SMEs, for SMEs. We wanted to create a onestop shop for businesses and empower them with resources and foster a collaborative community to help them navigate the current environment. The results were highly successful and the response from the community was overwhelmingly positive.

What is your outlook for the coming years?

In the macroeconomic conditions, we have seen the banking sector operate in the toughest environment given heightened uncertainty levels. We still expect the relative slowdown in credit growth to continue, as industries right-size. Therefore, banks are required to maintain caution to navigate this evolving environment. At NBF, we believe we can move beyond these conditions and continue to fulfill our role as the financial partner for business, focused on our customers’ personal and professional needs.