Future Banks Summit 2021 - First Day

Future Banks Summit 2021 commenced on 1st November with a welcome note by our honorary chairman Majed AlShodari, Chief Cyber Security Officer at SALAMA Cooperative Insurance Co. (Saudi Arabia), followed by a presentation by, the Principal Solutions Consultant at FINASTRA, Marwan Abouzeid on understanding shifting market demographics and consumer expectations, as well as how KSA intends to turn itself into a top-ten global financial marketplace by 2030.

The summit included essential topics such as the future of retail banking: keeping up with the pace of change, cyber-readiness of financial institutions, ai-bank of the future: how can banks harness the power of ‘data-enabled customers’, saudi arabia: a financial hub in the making under vision 2030 and more.

Our chairman, Majed AlShodari, Chief Cyber Security Officer of SALAMA Cooperative Insurance Co. (Saudi Arabia), moderated the first panel discussion for the day. On the panel Bader H., CEO of Saudi Kuwaiti Finance House S.S.C., and Mazin Alghunaim, CEO of Bidaya Home Finance, both agreed on developing a roadmap for a successful people strategy in the digital age would be crucial for business success. They also discussed on how to foster an innovative culture within a bank and what the top objectives are for bank CEOs in today's society.

Following that, our speakers Arvind Kalla, Business Head of Middle East at ValueFirst, spoke about how banks can use cross-channel communications to their advantage, and Ahmad Ghandour, Country Manager - Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the Levant at Backbase, stated that traditional banks must reduce the paper works and convert everything to a digital mode in order to compete with NEO banks, drive sales, and have a strong impact.

The role of CIOs and CTOs in accelerating Digital Transformation was the highlight of the second panel discussion. Mohamed El Kassas, Head of IT Communications and Security at QNB ALAHLI, Jagdish Narayanan, CIO at Reliance Jio Payments Bank, Mohammed Al Shobani, AVP Digital Transformation at Al Rajhi Takaful and Abdulelah Aloshayni, CIO at Elite Insurance and Reinsurance Brokers all agreed that with the pandemic wreaking havoc on the banking business with Social Distancing, Branch Closures, and Remote Workforce, bank leaders emerged as transformational leaders. Furthermore, in another panel discussion, the topic of pandemic affecting the banking sector was revisited, but this time its implications on retail banking and new trends in retail banking were highlighted. This panel discussion saw Mohammed AlAjmi, Group Head of Retail Banking at Meem as the moderator with Ali Allawala- Global Head Islamic Retail Banking at Standard Chartered Bank and Charbel Diab - Senior Director at OneSpan Middle East FZE as the panelists.

Alex Kwiatkowski, Industry Principal at SAS Analytics, shared his thoughts on how banks can leverage the potential of "data-enabled consumers" to enable data-driven personalization. And to round out the day, our event chairman Majed AlShodari along with the esteemed panelists Sultan Altukhaim, CISO at SAIB, Dr. Tim N, TISO at Commonwealth Bank, Hariprasad Chede, CISO at NBF, Hisham Mohamed, CISO at Emirates NBD, Mamdoh, CISO- Head Cyber Security Intelligence at Prominent bank in Saudi Arabia discussed ways to mitigate and manage risks in an accelerated digital banking environment and emphasized on the cyber-risks for Banks.