Retail Banking Facing a Fintech Uprising

The financial services industry has been going through an evolution where organizations no longer can continue to offer standard products and services as customers have become more sophisticated. Banks benefit from their reputation as a safe vault, the key hub for financial transactions and services. However in order to be a leader in this space, institutions need to be innovative and flexible with the ability to instantly adapt to new trends and macroeconomic factors without significant lead time.

Banks in the Middle East & Africa are still catching up when it comes to innovations, financial institutions not only need to converge but banks must think “what’s next”. Augmented reality applications are already being used by relationship managers in Australia. Although bitcoin has been in and out of fashion it has now taken on a new spirt when discussing the possibility of distributed ledger technology. How banksin the Middle East & Africa will collaborate with the new fintech startups to stay ahead of the non-financial competitors in the marketplace and become the Direct Bank of choice for clients?

This year’s dialogue will focus on preparingthe Middle East and Africa banking industries for an environment where barriers for new entry remain marginal, technology and innovation.

The dialogue will focus broadly on the following themes:

• Identifying benchmarks and best practices in emanating from different regions
• Building a competitive retail banking environment
• Discussing the next technology revolution
• Fintech and banks collaborators or competitors