Competing for Customer Trust and Mandate

Middle East and Africa International Finance Summit

The financial services ecosystem is entirely different to a decade ago, with political upheavals, economic uncertainty and planning for numerous regulatory changes coming into effect in 2019. Additionally, financial institutions are facing increasingly fierce competition from both traditional and non-traditional players in payments, supply chain, risk mitigation and regulatory compliance. The global commercial banking industry, which is approximately the same size as the global oil and gas industry and three times the size of the global airlines market, is going through a major revolution as banking and technology collide..

Although financial penetration has scope to increase, the corporate-bank relationship in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region is being tested as customers move away from the concentration of services in one institution, towards provider-agnostic solutions. Supply chains in a multitude of sectors are expanding, creating more complex value chains. Developments like blockchain and the integrated use of advanced analytics and machine learning (AAML) are moving global transactions into the future. The MEA banking community has to proactively form its own unique industry response to growing demands brought on by sweeping global banking reforms. The economic background is one of continued anaemic growth and volatile energy prices, with some governments pushing hard to diversify away from dependency on oil

The Asian Banker’s Middle East and Africa International Finance Dialogue provides a platform to regulators, key decision makers from financial institutions, industry players and disruptors to discuss the latest trends, developments, challenges and best practices in the global financial industry.