Banks urged to learn from digital giants as the region’s largest financial technology conference kicks off in Abu Dhabi

• Banking and financial leaders will descend on Abu Dhabi on Monday (13th) as MEFTECH 2017 gets underway
• Keynote speaker, Jim Marous, will urge Middle Eastern financial firms to build online relationships with its customers in the same way as Facebook and Amazon
• Industry thought leader warns firms that don’t invest in technology to personalize their service – will lose market share.
• Global giants IBM, SAP, Comarch and Facebook Finance will be joined at MEFTECH by dozens of the financial technology solutions businesses.

Hundreds of the region’s most powerful banking and financial services executives will descend on Abu Dhabi tomorrow (Monday) as MEFTECH 2017 gets underway.

MENA’s most prestigious financial technology exhibition will take place at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre from 13-14thMarch, where the most influential financial executives will be joined by dozens of the world’s most advanced and exciting technology solutions.

Jim Marous, a recognised global leader in the field of financial technology will be a keynote speaker at the event where he will urge banks and financial institutions to learn from truly digital companies such as Facebook and Apple to build relationships with their customers.

Mr Marous, the owner of the Digital Banking Report, said: “Today’s consumer expects a more personalized experience than ever before. Using non-banking organizations such as Uber, Amazon, Apple and Facebook as examples, they want their bank to know them, look out for them and reward them based on real time insights.

“They are willing to share very personal details about their life as long as their bank can provide value by saving them time and money and avoiding stress in their daily life. We are talking about using big data and machine learning, combined with AI (artificial Intelligence), IoT (Internet of Things) and voice technology to build a financial concierge relationship.

“Using personalization to provide real-time advice the way the customer wants to receive it results in a better customer experience, increased trust, higher engagement and loyalty. This, in turn, increases share of wallet and loyalty.”

Two more industry leaders will join Mr Marous on stage, Chris Skinner, CEO of TheFinanser.com, and Bank Innovation Consulting Expert JP Nicols. All three will also offer face to face advice over the course of the two-day exhibition.

The stellar speaker line up is bolstered by the latest cutting-edge technology solutions that will be on display, including blockchain technologies, machine learning and Facebook finance, all of which are disrupting the financial services industry across the globe.

IBM has been announced as a platinum sponsor of the event, while two other global giants, SAP and Comarch, have also recognised its significance in the region by taking up gold sponsorship opportunities.

Mr Marous continued: “MEFTECH should be a hugely important event for financial institutions in the Middle East. By bringing together regional and international leaders in the industry, individuals and organizations can learn about the latest technology, insights and case studies that are not available elsewhere. Through networking and learning sessions, participants can challenge legacy thinking and fight complacency in banking.

“If I could give the attendees three bits of advice, number one would be to make data and analytics a top priority across their organizations, as it is the foundation for every future trend and prediction.

“The second would be to leverage this insight to provide a personalized, contextual one to one relationship with customers and prospects, and finally to go beyond digitalization of paper to digitalization of processes, looking at each transformation from the perspective of the customer as opposed to being a cost reduction initiative.

Building upon MEFTECH’s rich pedigree of success, it will be expanded this year with a host of features including, a bespoke appointments-scheduling service enabling exhibitors to pre-arrange one-to-one meetings, closed room roundtables to maximise interaction between participants and speakers, and a world class conference programme featuring a mix of keynote presentations, case studies and live demos.

Board level guests from some of the leading banks in the region have already confirmed their attendance including FGB, ADIB, Qatar Islamic Bank and Bahrain Islamic Bank.