Innovations emerging from East and West African banking hubs are enabling the sector to take a lead in reaching Africa’s unbanked population but much remains to be done.

Banks face high costs of maintaining extensive branch networks while having their market share eroded by the ever-growing presence of payments solutions companies and mobile operators providing low-cost alternatives.

The industry has to look beyond growing their market presence through traditional brick-and-mortar branches by exploring new channels like mobile banking and agency collaborations.

Alex Thursby, group CEO of NBAD, highlights the importance of liquidity as he discusses the bank’s new customer-focused strategy.

CEO Tirad Al-Mahmoud discusses his vision of Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank as a top-tier transaction banking institution as the industry evolves and seeks new sources of growth.

Social media, coupled with data analytics, gives a more complete picture of the customer but banks face the challenge of having to make sense of masses of unstructured information.

Mobile banking in Saudi Arabia is still growing and its development is contingent upon customer needs, as the actual number of mobile transactions is low.

Even with the Middle East’s lifeblood, crude oil, stuck in prolonged doldrums, bankers remain optimistic about the future of the trade finance and supply chain business in the region

Increased use of electronic cash management facilities to enhance cost and operational efficiency is the dominant theme in the transaction banking industry in the Middle East and Africa

With over 53 million unbanked still transacting in cash, Egyptian banks are looking to target this potentially lucrative market through mobile or prepaid cards but uptake has been slow

New payment options in the market are creating new opportunities, making competition fiercer, and reducing the use of cash and cheques.

China attributes its slowest growth in a quarter century to uncertainties in the international economic environment, and to weak real estate investment and poor imports and exports at home. Should it export its way back to growth, or take a different tack?

As the Philippines becomes an attractive foreign direct investment destination, the country is readying for high-value-added manufacturing. Metrobank president Fabian Dee says the bank intends to support this direction while sticking to its core DNA, which is growing the business of the middle market, the entrepreneurs.

In the United Arab Emirates, banks have become more competitive in retaining their customers as a result of new regulations, while the rest are developing their individual strengths gained from their own customer experiences. The experiences of National Bank of Abu Dhabi and Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank illustrate how banks have adapted their strategies to new developments in the banking sector.

The Single Resolution Mechanism becomes fully operational to bolster the resiliency of banks in the European Union. This is the second of three conditions for the establishment of a Banking Union, in which all 19 euro member states must join.