Fintech
Who will be the real end customer of the future? In conversation: Emirates NBD at Dubai Fintech Summit
At the beginning of May we attended the Dubai Financial Technology Summitand I had the opportunity to speak with some of the brightest minds in the industry, including United Arab Emirates NBD.
Over 8,000 visitors from 118 different countries have made the trip Dubai to learn from industry experts and gain insights from the panels and discussions that take place. One of the pioneers of the industry that many came to see was United Arab Emirates NBDbanking group in the MENAT region (Middle East, North Africa and Türkiye).
The participants experimented three keynote sessions featuring the bank’s senior executives on the event’s main stages, as well as exclusive panel discussions at its pavilion. The bank also hosted interactive activations by key business units, showcasing cutting-edge products and innovations designed to educate and engage visitors.
Fintech Times had the opportunity to meet Emirates NBD Group’s platform manager, Saud Al Dhawyani to know his insights from the event.
Al Dhawyani expressed his excitement about the Summit saying: “It’s a great opportunity to network with colleagues from other organizations and also meet many great founders. Here you will find fintechs in all stages of development: some are in an early stage and others are in a mature stage.
“Some of the most interesting ideas we’ve seen here involve payments. We’ve also seen a lot of innovation in the field of artificial intelligence, which is something that has started to gain traction recently. We have also seen some things in the area of compliance and regtech.”
Cooperation with fintechs
The Dubai Fintech Summit was a fertile ground for new ideas and partnerships. It has allowed many emerging fintechs to talk to industry incumbents. But is cooperation between banks and fintechs feasible considering that fintechs are known for disrupting the “status quo”?
Al Dhawyani said: “It depends. It depends on the technological landscape, the architecture and the project.
“Banks, of course, are very complex and some banks would have a higher degree of complexity depending on the age of the technology components.
“Fortunately we were one of the banks that made an interesting decision. Five years ago, we transformed our entire technology stack, allowing us to have the ability to integrate easily and seamlessly with any component. This allows us to leverage any partner ecosystem and seamlessly integrate fintechs into the architecture.”
As a result of this change in technology stack, Al Dhawyani further explained: “Compared to banks in other regions, we are on young technology stacks. We don’t have the legacy technology that can be found in developed market banks.
“This gives us much more flexibility and the advantage to adapt. We also have perfect interoperability with modern technology which gives us the ability to be much faster in responding to the demand and expectations of our customers.”
Will the landscape have changed much next year?
2024 has been touted as a year of change for fintech. However, 2025 will undeniably host some different trends that will take the world by storm. Concluding Al Dhawyani looked to the future: “I think the debate on artificial intelligence will mature further, especially with the recent interest from governments in AI.
“Banks have started to reap some of the initial benefits from AI, generative AI etc. So between that and some progress from regulators, I think we can start talking about how we can integrate with machines and other technologies, rather than solely expecting customers to use our mobile apps.
“I think we should think about a similar car Tesla banking with with us. Or what would your wearable wristwatch look like with us?
“I think it’s going to be an interesting year. Especially because what we know about customers will change. They might not even be human!”