The UAE Banks Federation will host, on Monday 16 November, the third annual Middle East Banking Forum in cooperation with Financial Times Live, and The Banker, under the sponsorship of Daily News Egypt.
The forum is entitled “Leaders of Innovation”, in cooperation with top business leaders, bankers, and figures from the local, regional and international governmental sectors.
The forum will discuss the most prominent challenges faced by the banking sector in the region, through a number of presentations, panel sessions, and on-stage interviews.
The speakers’ list includes Mubarak Rashid Khamis Al Mansouri, Governor of the Central Bank of the UAE; Abdul Aziz Al-Ghurair, Chairman of UAE Banks Federation; Anthony Browne, CEO of British Bankers’ Association; and Neal Cross, Chief Innovation Officer of DBS Bank in Singapore, in addition to a number of major speakers in the innovation and banking world.
The forum is set to cover several topics, including the importance of the innovative thinking in administrative development, the growing role of the digital banking services, social media, innovative programmes at banks in supporting start-ups, and the latest threats the global banking sector is facing, in addition to cyber security, and the latest services and products of the banking sector.
According to Abdul Aziz Al-Ghurair, the slogan this year comes in line with the initiatives and innovative products launched by banks in the different economic sectors in the Arab region.
Al-Ghurair explained that the majority of these banks are now competing over creating and providing the most important innovations and techniques, and applying the best practices to develop their programmes and services, in order to maintain the journey of development, success, and stability.
“Our aim is to strengthen the momentum we achieved through attracting creative people in the world of innovation, prominent bankers, and the leaders of the finance and business sector, in order to demonstrate the most important ideas, and exchange experience with them, to provide support for the institutions in the finance sector,” said Al-Ghurair.
Al-Ghurair added that this forum seeks to raise awareness and educate the general audiences about the innovative techniques and methods that banks use in leading the journey of innovation, and drawing out the banking sector’s future.
The UAE Banks Federation held last year a similar forum, in which it focused on the accelerating technological development, and the increasing impact of digital innovations on the banking sector.
That forum attracted more than 300 high-level figures, including officials from the member banks in the UAE Banks Federation, representatives of leading regional and international banks and financial institutions, in addition to prominent experts and consultants in the financial sector.
The participants included Dan Schatt, Chief Commercial Officer at Stockpile and former General Manager of Financial Innovations at PayPal; and Simon Hills, Executive Director of British Bankers’ Association.
