Summit Agenda

OPENING REMARKS BY MASTER OF CEREMONIES

KEYNOTE SESSION: GLOBAL INSIGHTS WITH LOCAL CONTEXTS
Fostering Digital Culture – Rethinking the Traditional Banking Business Model

• The Digital Imperative? Digitizing your banking business – something for the wish-list or is it a must-have?
• Has the pandemic accelerated plans at your enterprise and forced your hand? Are the associated effects of economic recovery improving the business case for a ‘complete digital transition’?
• How did you tackle key roadblocks? Cultural shifts, declining budgets, learning & training
• Influencing customer decisions with digital touchpoints? Gaining leverage with multi-channel customer decision journeys [The UAE’s rate of internet penetration sits at 99.15% as of 2019, World Bank Data]

H.E. Sameh Al Qubaisi, Director General - Economic Affairs, Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development

FIRESIDE CHAT: Navigating the CBDC Matrix: Fostering Innovation across the Region

• An analytical framework for CBDC’S in the region and the globe – understanding the future scope of CBDC’s with centralized and decentralized designs and how are banks preparing for this transformation?
• The increase of public & private partnerships with innovation hubs to boost tech companies, fintech and other financial institutions to experiment various models and frameworks
• Given the advancements of faster or instant payments, will there still be a need for domestic retail CBDC? If yes, why?
• 42% believe there will be acceleration of cross border, cross currency instant payments and B2B payments: Establishing cross border safeguards – how pushing for strong AML game with KYC’s measures and promoting customer due diligence. In addition, what role CBDC will play?
• Exploring the mBridge Project what are the lessons learned and what will be the next step? Will any real money be put through the mBridge?
  

Florian Akinbiyi, Master of Ceremonies,
Shu-Pui Li, Advisor - The Governor's Office, Central Bank of the UAE

FIRESIDE CHAT: Leveraging Analytical Capabilities to Drive Revenue in Existing Legacy Banking Models

• Translating the power of advanced analytics & artificial intelligence to drive your mission strategy for the banking sector
• Is it possible to accelerate digitalization in the banking and financial services industry whilst leveraging ecosystem & platform players? How do you foresee this sector disrupting in the MENA region?
• While the power and potential of AI is clear, what are the challenges facing the banking sector faces

Basma Rady, Head of Data Science and Advanced Analytics Hub, Central Bank of Egypt
Ilker Tasdemir, Director - Intelligent Enterprise, MDSap

Boosting Lending Resiliency and Diversification for Economic Growth

• Role of lending in economy growth and diversification
• Understanding the future trends , innovative lending products offering in the region
• Identifying regional inherent advantages for innovation - the way forward for FI’s, technology providers & fintechs

Ankur Aggarwal, Group Product Manager, Nucleus Software

Exploring Data-Driven Banks – from Embedded Finance to Ecosystems

• Increasing the top line – better financial services, new channels and improved experiences
• Managing the bottom line – driving a sustainable profitability
• Protecting the green line – achieving a profitable sustainability

Ernesto Schmitz, Banking Transformation Lead Financial Services, SAP

FIRESIDE CHAT: Strategizing for the Future of MENA Retail Banking Leadership

• How have changes to mass-market customer behavior during the pandemic affected retail banking strategies at your enterprise? How to be one step ahead of the game to future changes in customer behavior as effects of the pandemic subside and economic recovery is in full bloom?
• Are legacy systems the final hurdle in preventing delivery of the high-impact & innovative retail products? Is customer-relevant innovation the way forward?
• If fixing poor customer experience is the number one priority in the MENA region, what projects & investments hold the key to improved results and journey transformation?
• Delivering end-to-end digital transformation with Retail Core Banking technology – SaaS being advanced cloud native pre-loaded with APIs for the full benefit of lower operating costs & elastic scalability – does microservice architecture really help with replacing legacy technology at your own pace?

Dinesh Sharma, CEO of Personal Banking & Wealth Management - Middle East, Citi
Peter Vickery, EVP & Head of Distribution and Sales - Consumer Banking Group, First Abu Dhabi Bank
Ramkumar Venkataraman, Senior Partner, Cedar Management Consulting International

The Rise of the Data Cloud: How Financial Services Can Transform to Meet Tomorrow’s Opportunities

• What are the challenges that banks face today that limit their business opportunities and prevent enterprise scale?
• Understanding the components of a successful enterprise data strategy? How can your organization become data collaborative?
• Gaining a competitive edge with data cloud to enable next generation banking and understanding use cases

Mohamed Zouari, General Manager META, Snowflake
Rinesh Patel, Global Industry GTM Lead - Financial Services, Snowflake

Getting Artificial Intelligence (AI) to Meet the High Expectations of Today’s Banking Customers

• Combat bank fraud before it takes place? Harnessing the power of advanced analytics
• Scaling AI capabilities across your enterprise – are challenging market forces driving the need to digitize & innovate?
• Deploying an AI-first strategy as the foundation to deliver better engagement
• Customer experience insights – methods to find areas of improvement

Vishal Soni, Technical Product Marketing Manager, Alteryx

FIRESIDE CHAT: Next-Generation Core Banking Platforms – Bridging the Gap Between Aspiration & Action to Achieve Mission-Critical Digital Capabilities

• What are the true constraints of current-generation and legacy core systems, and where are the opportunities – both technically, organisationally and commercially, for banks using modern core systems?
• Real-world impact of legacy technology – how banks around the world are being underserved and constrained by old-world systems, and why the future is looking bright for those making the switch.
• Deploying modern technology is no longer a leap of faith – it is now available, and live, with the biggest banks in the world – the question is – once you’ve implemented it, how do you maximise the benefit?

Aditya Baswan, Vice President – Head of Governance, Agile Transformation, First Abu Dhabi Bank
Florian Akinbiyi, Master of Ceremonies,
Liam Leahy, Managing Director - EMEA, Thought Machine

Video Showcase by Monty Mobile

INTERACTIVE PANEL DISCUSSION:
CXO PANEL SESSION: Unlocking Asset Potential & Creating Business Value – Exploring the CXO’s Role in Transforming Traditional Banks to Tech-Driven Financial Powerhouses

• Driving digital change across your enterprise during a pandemic – personal experiences and success stories
• Analyzing the invisible divide between a tech company vs. a next generation digital bank – how does the CXO steer investments into going digital-first? Is the business case promising enough?
• Extending influence beyond the C-suite: exploring the role CXOs have played in helping their enterprises weather the impact of the pandemic
• How has digitization changed the mandate for CXOs? Powering the talent engine, inspiring a culture of high performance & staying ahead of the curve
• Overcoming the excuse of regulation as an excuse not to innovate – how can banks as traditional players be as efficient, secure, accessible and cost-effective as the competition?
• Exploring recent shifts in customer behavior and business-model opportunities – understanding their implications on the digital / technological choices available at hand
• How is the role of the CDO expected to evolve? Trend predictions for the year ahead as we strive forward with economic recovery
• Conveying the customer’s perspective to the C-suite & emphasizing on design-thinking principles to prepare for the next normal and helping engage with customers today

Jagadeshwaran K., Managing Director - Treasury & Trade Solutions, MENA, Citi
Linoy Kidd, Chief Information Officer - MENAT, HSBC
Mamoun Alhomssey, Chief Information Officer, Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank
Vikas Sethi, Group Chief Digital Officer, Gulf International Bank - Bahrain
Zubair Ahmed, EVP, General Manager MEA, VeriPark

Cloud Banking: The Game Changer for Next Generation Banking Capabilities

• Driving business innovation with cloud banking – hybrid cloud opportunities for Middle Eastern banks
• Achieving scale, speed and innovation without limits whilst mitigating risk
• Has the ongoing pandemic reshaped immediate priorities at your enterprise? Understanding how leveraging cloud banking will develop a robust business continuity plan

Lee Allcorn, Regional Director - MEA, Temenos

Video Showcase by IntiCo

Oscar Gomez, Managing Director & CEO, IntiCo

Key Elements for CRM in Business Banking

• Nine key themes from our customers in EMEA - improving personalization at the digital level
• Benefits from a local public cloud
• Salesforce impact for the UAE Economy

Omar Faiz, Financial Services Lead - Middle East, Salesforce

FIRESIDE CHAT: Roadmap to ESG – The New Frontier for Innovation

• Understanding the governance around ESG and key departments and personas involved
• The core components to solve the ESG puzzle – how a bank could start to tackle the new risk in light of yet evolving regulations and guidance document. The role and availability of data, models and process governance is critical
• Challenges to tackle – where does a bank find its biggest challenges in tackling ESG area?

Poonkodi Vasanthan, Head Risk, Policy & Governance, Risk Management, ADCB
Yogesh Pathak, Head - Risk Practice - MEA, SAS

INTERACTIVE PANEL DISCUSSION:
SMART DATA & ANALYTICS: The New Digital Frontier with RPA, Quantum Computing (QC), Big Data Analytics & Artificial Intelligence (AI)

• Is it possible to drive revenue growth using in-house enterprise data? Could customer demographics & behavior pave the path forward and help conceptualize new product offerings?
• Hyper-personalized banking – is this a real-world possibility? Is there enough interest among MENA customers & is there room to scale?
• Is it possible to accelerate digitalization in the MENA BFSI industry whilst leveraging ecosystem & platform players? How to go mainstream with data analytics & mature AI capabilities?
• Bringing speed & execution to the table – how to bring the right people, culture & capability to your enterprise?
• QC: Preparing your enterprise IT landscape for Quantum Computing – is it time to sunset some of the legacy architecture?

Basma Rady, Head of Data Science and Advanced Analytics Hub, Central Bank of Egypt
Gyan Prakash Srivastava, VP, Stream Head - Data Management & Analytics, Mashreq Bank
Mehdi Kerchouni, Sr. Associate Partner – EMEA, FICO
Mohamed Ghazala, Head of Data Architecture and Analytics, Banque du Caire
SriLakshmi Bannigol, VP - Head of Analytics and Artificial Intelligence, First Abu Dhabi Bank

Boosting Efficiency with Fully Automated Financial Spreading

• Market challenges of financial spreading within the credit life cycle
• Introduction to Spreadsmart – an automated application to extract data from financial statements - accurate analysis and accelerated extraction

Saikat Gupta, Spreadsmart Expert - VP Financial Services, Evaluserve

OPENING REMARKS BY MASTER OF CEREMONIES

FIRESIDE CHAT:
Digital Corporate Banking – Accelerating Change to Service Lean New Economy Companies

• Shifting trends in MENA corporate banking – moving from relationships to platforms
• Using the technology toolkit to help your corporate customers embrace digital solutions – building platforms and scaling to improve revenue growth
• Providing advanced solutions to corporate clients related to operating capital using AI-driven risk analysis and credit products

Florian Akinbiyi, Master of Ceremonies,
Suresh Lalwani, Managing Director - Head of Coverage, Commercial Banking, First Abu Dhabi Bank

Accelerating Data-Driven Enterprise Transformation with Logical Data Fabric

Financial organizations are globally accelerating their digital journey, making rapid strides with their digitization efforts, and adding key capabilities to adapt and innovate. Many companies find digital transformation challenging as they rely on established systems that are often not only poorly integrated but also highly resistant to modernization without downtime. In this session Denodo will speak on how industry is leveraging data virtualization that facilitates digital transformation via a modern data integration/data delivery approach to gain greater agility, flexibility, and efficiency.

Alexey Sidorov, Chief Evangelist, Denodo

INTERACTIVE PANEL DISCUSSION:
Maximizing Potential of Digital Lending Leadership

• Adapting to the needs of digital-first MENA customers in the lending space – have banking enterprises truly evolved to emulate technology companies simply with financial service offerings?
  • What is your personal take on what lies ahead for the future of the Lending industry in the region?
  • What is the level of disruption the industry has witnessed in last few years, would you consider covid as the ultimate disruptor?
  • How do you plan on leveraging digital solutions as part of your retail strategy? Is there a stand-out theme that you would like to highlight?
• Building the case for seamless end-to-end digital lending with zero human intervention – is this truly achievable for banking & financial service?
  • What role do you foresee data and automation playing in this space?
  • Will advanced digital lending capabilities on the cloud with virtual loan origination, onboarding, collection processes and other microservices be the key differentiator to the bottom line?
  • What can we learn from Global players?
• Taking the Ethical and Collaborative approach for Excellence in Islamic Banking – bringing best in class high-performance Sharia-compliant banking solutions for the young & digitally-savvy MENA customer base
  • How can technology be leveraged whilst bringing innovative Islamic finance to life?

Sohail Shafque, Head of Retail and Wealth Products - Islamic Banking, Standard Chartered
Dr. Tarun Sharma, Senior Business Consultant, Nucleus Software
Naif Alharbi, Chief Information Officer, Arab National Bank
Noman Rasheed, Chief Information Officer, Dubai Islamic Bank
Salil Ahuja, Head of Business Banking - Products, Portfolio & Value Proposition, First Abu Dhabi Bank

Wealth Management 2.0 : The Power of Digital Client Journeys

• What is state of the art digital wealth management today? What does the WealthTech ecosystem offer?
• Digital banks, neobanks, big-tech, fintech, digital lenders – why does everyone want a slice of the banking and financial services revenue pool?
• Case study of Saxo Bank and additiv in providing end-to-end solution: recommendations for a full wealth proposition from a bank

Nicholas Wright, Head of MENA Institutional Business, Saxo Bank
Thomas Schornstein, Head Middle East & Africa, Additiv

INTERACTIVE PANEL DISCUSSION:
The MENA Open Banking Revolution

• Building trust with a simple & secure ecosystem – Open Banking & Open APIs
• Getting onboard with the transformed retail experience – building independent payment networks integrated with merchants & developing trusted digital-ready products
• Sharing the pie with big-tech, neobanks, fintechs – what’s the way forward?
• Driving future growth with Open APIs – mitigating competition risk & offering customers real-time, dynamic, contextual, scalable services

Mahesh Nagavalli, MD and Head of Channels & Innovation, First Abu Dhabi Bank
Matthew Williamson, Vice President of Global Financial Services, Mobiquity
Mohamad Najmeddine, Head of TTS Digital Channels MENA, Citi
Naif Alharbi, Chief Information Officer, Arab National Bank
Vikas Sethi, Group Chief Digital Officer, Gulf International Bank - Bahrain

Video Showcase by Monty Mobile

INTERACTIVE PANEL DISCUSSION:
Digital Wealth & Asset Management – Using the Right Technology Toolkit to Empower Customers & Prospects to Make Confident Financial Decisions

• Advanced data analytics for best in class content marketing tactics – appealing to every demographic in the MENA region using hyper-targeting
• Is the MENA wealth management revolution only about robo-advisors and no-fee offers? What are some of the established players and low-cost fintechs doing to attract affluent & mass-market customers with digital-first products?
• How to crack the code on digital performance when it comes to online brokerages?
• Asset management with flexibility & scalability to adapt to changing markets, customer segments & regulatory mandates – Digital Wealth & Asset Management Platforms
• Getting to engage clients on their terms – how to orchestrate seamless customer journeys across channels & platforms of their choice?
• What is the holistic application development strategy for asset & wealth management? Does it comprise of data management, predictive analytics, workflows, integrations & platform plug-ins?

Alfredo Rubina, Vice President, Head of Financial Services Industry EMEA, SoftServe
Gustavo Madico, Head of New Business Models - Strategy & Partnership, Derayah Financial
Mohamed Ghazala, Head of Data Architecture and Analytics, Banque du Caire
Suresh Lalwani, Managing Director - Head of Coverage, Commercial Banking, First Abu Dhabi Bank
Vipul Kapur, Head of Private Banking, Mashreq

Enabling Financial Institutions to Deliver Transformed Experiences through Hyperautomation

Banks are riding the digital acceleration wave. In this foray, they have established the concept of straight-through processing for enhancing customer experience. Furthermore, the institutions need to make the experience complete. The abandonment and rejections need to be closely monitored and converted.  Automation in pockets or siloed initiatives often lead to chaos and compliance issues. For financial institutions to stay customer-centric and competitive, they must embrace hyperautomation—a combination of cutting-edge technologies—mobility, analytics, cloud, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and robotic process automation to achieve strategic objectives, enhance customer experience, and attain operational excellence in a continuous manner.

Ritesh Varma, Global Head & VP for Business Solutions Group, Newgen

Metaverse - The New Frontier in the Digitization of Banking Services

• Reimagining the banking experience in the Metaverse
• Real banking use cases in virtual reality to immerse customers – possibilities to elevate customer experience
• CBDC and NFTs can enable a multiverse for banking – creating new markets and opportunities

Rajesh Mirjankar, MD & CEO, Kiya.ai

INTERACTIVE PANEL DISCUSSION:
Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) INTERACTIVE PANEL DISCUSSION: The Cybersecurity & Resilience Imperative

• Examining the accelerated digital shift for banking products, services & communication in the MENA region – has cybercrime risen exponentially? Are there unique patterns or trends being witnessed exclusively in the MENA region?
• As banking security leaders, is playing offense still the best defense? Are the terms of engagement often negotiable to deliver best results for leading MENA banking enterprises?
• With cybersecurity strategy & execution now an imperative for success – what is the CISO’s roadmap to effectiveness? How does a successful CISO drive value proposition whilst delivering results 24/7?
• With identity being the new security parameter across applications, software, cloud-native products, RPA, IoT and our very own mobile devices – is Machine Identity Management the way forward? How does Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) fit in as part of the solution?
• Will Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) bring about agility & speed whilst converging network security services to deliver best in class experiences for banking environments in the MENA region?
• How to remove vulnerabilities & keep network security optimal in today’s era of work from anywhere? Has the rapid adoption of SaaS applications at your bank exposed weaknesses of inflexible network security architecture?
• Communicating the business value & strategic imperative of solid cybersecurity – do metrics merely represent data with no context? And how to build a ransomware defense strategy for organizational resilience in today’s evolving threat landscape whilst keeping pace with digital innovation?

Ahmed Nabil Mahmoud, Regional Sr Business Information Security and Risk Officer, Standard Chartered Bank
Charbel Diab, Senior Director of Sales - METAP, OneSpan
Hariprasad Chede, CISO, National Bank of Fujairah
Hussain AlKhalsan, Chief Information Security Officer, ZAND
Imran Kannuti, VP, Banque Misr
Parthasarathy P., Chief information Security Officer, First Abu Dhabi Bank

Modernizing and Transforming Lending Platform for Unlocking Business Value

• It’s the age of the digital customer. The lending industry is undergoing tectonic shifts with digital customers demanding personalized experiences. Understanding the transformational needs of the customer is crucial for a successful lending business.
• How can banks and financial institutions transform their lending operations to meet their business imperatives of driving innovation, delivering superior customer experiences and increasing business agility?
• Learn how pennApps Lending Factory on IBM LinuxOne helps financial institutions unlock business value and drive growth
  

Sireesh Patnaik, Head of Product Management and Engineering, Pennant Technologies
Suchitra Joshi, Manager, IBM Z ISV Ecosystem