Summit Agenda

Opening Remarks by Master of Ceremonies

Welcome Address by the UAE Banks Federation

Jamal Saleh, Director General, UAE Banks Federation

Welcome Address By IBM

Saad Toma, General Manager, IBM - Middle East and Africa

FEATURED FIRESIDE CHAT:

Insights into FAB’s digital evolution journey

• Insights from First Abu Dhabi Bank on their digital evolution and cloud journey
• Key considerations when defining a cloud strategy
• Adhering to regulatory compliance and data sovereignty
• Insights into change management and internal resistance

Moderator:
Liaquat Parkar, Executive Partner - Banking, IBM

Srinivasan Sampath, Acting Group Chief Technology Officer, First Abu Dhabi Bank

MENA Banking Leadership – An Exploration of New Revenue Engines & Capabilities

Ahmad Abu Eideh, Chief Executive Officer, Invest Bank, UAE

FIRESIDE CHAT:

MENA Banking: Innovating for Greater Revenue and Enhanced Capabilities

• Responding effectively to new Fintech businesses who are using data-driven insights to fuel their newly established growth ventures – how are large-scale MENA banks developing platforms & data assets to monetize and pursue intelligent selling / cross-selling?
• Strategies around building a cloud-native technology stack – how important is innovation & engagement to retaining your client base?
• Setting up profitable Banking-as-a-Service (Baas) offerings combined with a strong data analytics backbone at your banking enterprise – does the ability to scale up and down offer benefits in the region?
• Exploring mutual synergies with eco-system platforms to ensure that your bank has a product offering to fit every need of your customer: insurance risk covers (home, vehicle, life, medical, business) investments, dining, retail, entertainment offerings
• How integral are the adoption of microservices for the success of any modern-day bank?

Moderator:
Dr. Jelena Janjusevic, SFHEA, Associate Head of Accountancy, Economics and Finance, Edinburgh Business School, Heriot Watt University

Liam Leahy, Managing Director, Sales, Thought Machine
Nidal Khalifeh, Chief Innovation Officer, Jordan Ahli Bank
Sean Langton, Chief Information Officer, ADCB

2023 Global Outlook for Banking and Financial Markets

Geopolitical uncertainty. Recessionary environments. New competitors. Sustainability pressures. As we enter 2023, banking and financial markets enterprises are fighting some strong economic headwinds.

While financial services institutions cannot control disruption, they can set themselves up to respond versus react. For example, traditional business models were not designed for highly digital economies and consumers. Neither were monolithic legacy architectures.

The 2023 Global Outlook for Banking and Financial Markets discusses how financial institutions can improve financial performance in today’s economic conditions.

Andrés Bernad, Payments Leader, Core Banking & Payments, IBM Consulting

Moving Beyond Digital Transformation to Build Digital Banking Multichannel Solution Platforms

• Enabling banks in the MENA region to deliver integrated & unified customer experience with transaction functionality.
• Provisioning of strong digital enablers required for successful digital transformation of banking products & processes.
• How will implementation of your digital banking platforms make an impact with your customer base? Will it result in deeper customer relationships, expanded market share, stronger financial performance?

Bharani Subramaniam, Head of Technology, Thoughtworks

INTERACTIVE PANEL DISCUSSION:

CxO (Chief Information Officer / Chief Technology Officer / Chief Digital Officer) PANEL SESSION: Exploiting Capital in the New Economy with Next-Gen Technology Transformation

• Hear it from the experts: how did you bring effective returns across technological transformations at your banking enterprise? Overview of personal experiences & success stories
• How does a CIO/CTO/CDO steer investments that signify a digital-first priority? How to validate business cases that fit the bill? And how does this translate to incremental value to your banking eco-system?
• As a C-suite influencer in the MENA banking industry, what are some of the emerging technology investment trends that you are witnessing as the world around us enters a new period of increased volatility, macroeconomic uncertainty, geopolitical risk, and higher inflation? Are there any trends specific to the MENA region that are of particular significance?
• How significant is design-thinking when it comes to designing new product strategy or process re-engineering to adapt to evolving customer perspectives?
• Does the MENA regulatory environment really represent a roadblock to innovation at an enterprise level? Have recent updates allowed for updated technology transformation across your banking enterprise?
• As a C-suite leader, what is your opinion on inspiring a culture of high performance here in the MENA region? From a technology perspective, is the MENA talent engine able to deliver on the promise of qualified candidates?

Moderator:
Tim Jennings, Global Data & Analytics Practice Head, Synechron

Ayman Alqudsi, Chief Information Officer, United Arab Bank
Bart Pietruszka, Chief Data & Analytics Officer, Wholesale Data, Analytics and CRM, HSBC - UAE
Noman Rasheed, Chief Information Officer, Dubai Islamic Bank
Srinivasan Sampath, Acting Group Chief Technology Officer, First Abu Dhabi Bank
Vikram Sandhu, Senior Vice President - Head of Digital Transformation, Emirates NBD

The Convergence of Digital Transformation and Innovation in Banking

• Keep pace with the rapidly evolving world & changed customer DNA
• How leaders can re-invent to move at a HYPER pace
• Creating the digital bank of tomorrow – TODAY
• Balancing innovation & technology to achieve true digital transformation

Ashwani Arora, Senior Vice President, Nucleus Software

The Power of Everyday AI

Sid Bhatia, Vice President and General Manager – Middle East and Turkey, Dataiku

INTERACTIVE PANEL DISCUSSION:

Chief Data/Analytics Officer Panel Session: Data in the Digital Era & Powering the Future: Advanced Analytics, RPA & Artificial Intelligence

• Hear it from the experts: what is the secret sauce for a great data strategy that fits a banking enterprise? Are we seeing new in-roads being made in the MENA region?
• Powering a unique digital user experience with data: what are some best practices to bring customized, efficient & low-friction interactions that are protected from cyberthreats with scalable pricing?
• Leveraging in-house enterprise data: can we drive revenue growth by exploiting this asset? What is your opinion on customer demographics & behavior patterns, will unlocking this data help drive new product offerings with improved profitability at your enterprise?
• Does automation only help with task elimination? What is your take on identifying the right opportunities to create unique business values?
• Robotic Process Automation (RPA) often used to automate KYC, AML, compliance & regulatory requirements at MENA banks; how to go about making the connection between legacy & new data within your enterprise systems to bring about more efficiency?
• When it comes to technology infrastructure implementation strategies in the data analytics domain at your banking enterprise, how pivotal is speed & execution? What is your take on the significance of people, culture, capability and mindset?
• Going mainstream with data analytics & mature AI capabilities; what level of stakeholder support is necessary to drive accelerated digitization at scale here in the MENA region?

Moderator:
Rajat Prakash, Enterprise Account Executive, Dataiku

Atul Chandorkar, Head of Data Science, Qatar Islamic Bank - Qatar
Bruno Ascencio Bautista, Data and Analytics Principal, WIO Bank
Gyan Prakash Srivastava, Group Head Data Management & Analytics, Mashreq Bank
Mehreen Zakaria, Director, Head of Cash, Treasury and Trade Solutions - UAE, Citi

Banking-as-a-Service and Embedded Finance: Leapfrogging with Composable Core Banking Platform

• Learn how progressive banks are creating new revenue streams, and reimagining customer engagements with embedded finance
• Discover why it’s the biggest trend for next decade that you can’t afford to miss
• Explore the opportunity that may create winners-take-all possibilities
• Discover how modern core banking platform can power modern digital propositions at scale
• Gain insights into successful Banking-as-a-Service and Embedded Finance implementations
• Learn how you can adopt Infosys Finacle’s composable cloud-native core in a risk-mitigated manner

Puneet Chhahira, Head - Product Management and Marketing, Infosys Finacle (Edgeverve)

Moving into Data 3.0 with Logical Data Management

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 BSFI industry is leveraging data virtualization that facilitates digital transformation via a modern data integration, data management and data delivery approach to gain greater agility, flexibility, and efficiency.

Alexey Sidorov, Data Management Director, Chief Evangelist, Denodo

INTERACTIVE PANEL DISCUSSION:

MENA Cards & Payments Innovation

• With Statista research earmarking $84 bn. in payments revenue across Middle East & Africa by 2025 representing a very healthy >7% CAGR outpacing regional GDP growth rates, what is your expert advice on capturing a share of this market as a regional bank? Does innovation hold the key to outperform new challengers on the market?
• What has been your personal experience with managing multiple ISO 20022 modernization programs? Looking back, is there something that you would have done differently to optimize?
• Progress update: What’s next in the roll-out for domestic & cross-border payment systems like – SWIFT, GCC RTGS, BUNA, UAE National Instant Payments Platform?
• What’s the best technology toolkit to improve payments innovation, satisfy internal/external stakeholders & meet challenges? Do low-code platforms that are microservices enabled, configurable with real-time analytics & API enablement feature in your wish-list?
• When it comes to taking payments innovation to the next level, does cloud technology help accelerate digital adoption & is it still possible to leverage a PaaS model for reduced costs?
• Does BNPL still resonate with MENA customer sentiment? Does the implied increase in risk and credit market exposure specific to the geography translate to pursuing a different strategy in view of adapting to global market fundamentals?
• Where do payment processors, banks & card issuers fit in; with reference to global Fintechs like Klarna and Techfins like Apple taking each other on with international scale? What does it take to join forces and shift the balance of power in your favor for the years ahead?
• Payments in an omni-channel world, how to meet the evolving demand of customers who are looking to transact with embedded, almost invisible payments functionality in a collaborative environment?

Moderator:
Andrés Bernad, Payments Leader, Core Banking & Payments, IBM Consulting

Abhishek Saha, Head - Cards, Retail Banking Group, ADCB
Anand Sampath, Executive Director & Head - Global Payments, Collections & Client Implementation, Global Cash Product Management, GTB, First Abu Dhabi Bank
Eli Taranto, Director, EQI Bank
Haroon Durrani, Head of Cards Payments & Direct Banking, Commercial Bank of Dubai

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 enable and understanding next generation banking use cases

Yasir Siddiqui, Sales Director, Snowflake

Digitally Transforming Your Banking Enterprise Using Agile Development, Hybrid Cloud Environments & Innovative Integrated Platform Strategies

James Harvey, EMEA CTO, Cisco AppDynamics

INTERACTIVE PANEL DISCUSSION:

Islamic Banking for a Rapidly Transforming & Economically Stable Digital Economy in the MENA region

• Global Islamic fintech banking market: overview of trends & outlook with a weighted market value of >$3.8 trillion
• Hear it from the experts: how is digital disruption redefining Islamic banking & fintech business in MENA?
• Islamic banking in the MENA region using digital technology platforms – engaging with a rapidly evolving customer base, what are some of the challenges being faced in the industry?
• What is the definition of reaching maturity in the Islamic banking markets? How do regional Islamic banks reinforce their position as leading innovators in financial service offerings?
• Financial inclusion & unlocking Islamic finance with the power of open banking APIs & blockchain - what are some use-cases for digitization & tokenization?

Moderator:
Dr. Zakiya Abdul Samad, Assistant Professor, Heriot Watt University

Adnan Fasih, Group Head SIRAT, Habib Bank AG Zurich
Aleksandra Anna Krajewska, Retail Banking - Strategy & Planning, RAKBANK
Imran Kannuti, Head, Ops Digitalization and Transformation, Reputed Bank in UAE
Soumaya Hissoussi, Senior Vice President and Private Banker, Bank Lombard Odier & Co Ltd
Wan Norhaziki Wan Abdul Halim, Head - Global Shariah Governance, Crédit Agricole CIB - UAE

Lifestyle banking: The secret of building profitable customers

Deepak Arora, Vice President – Product Management, Panamaxil (Mobifin)

Opening Remarks by Master of Ceremonies

FEATURED FIRESIDE CHAT:

The Digital Imperative for Global Trade Finance

• End to End Trade Digitalization
• Mitigating risks digitally with trade & supply chain resilience
• Treasury management & best practices in an evolving and volatile economy
• Sustainable trade finance development

Moderator:
Dr. Ullas Rao, Assistant Professor of Finance, Heriot Watt University

Mohamed Nazih Rashad, Head of Trade Product, Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank

FIRESIDE CHAT:

Data transformation journey in Banking

• Insights form Dubai Islamic Bank on their transformation journey to develop their data strategy
• Understand how the bank is meeting regulatory compliance when migrating data  for core banking platforms
• Cover the bank’s key challenges they had to overcome and the role of technology that enabled them to build a new modern data architecture

Moderator:
Bishu Panigrahi, Partner - Market Leader, IBM Consulting

Noman Rasheed, Chief Information Officer, Dubai Islamic Bank

Building the bank of the future: unleash collaboration for core banking modernization

The banking and finance industry is undergoing a significant shift caused by new technologies, digital finance, and rising cyber threats, expecting hyper-personalized experiences from organizations they can trust. Consequently, the speed of core infrastructure modernization will define the success of every bank, segregating leaders from the laggards and eventually forcing banks to exit who fail to modernize. Join this session to discuss digitization as key technology enabler as traditional banking models lose significance for increasingly tech-savvy & value driven costumers and how to leapfrog your existing IT infrastructure while reducing costs and ensuring organizational efficiency with the required specialized skills.

Motaz Ghazi, Sales Manager, Kyndryl
Soren Benfeldt, Director, Kyndryl Client Technical Architect

INTERACTIVE PANEL DISCUSSION:

Private Banking & Wealth Management: Technology Transformation Redefining the Value Proposition of Modern Relationship Management

• Hear it from the experts: What is the ultimate ‘WealthTech’ business model that might work in the MENA region? How to go about achieving a low-cost provision model combining distribution and consumer reach with deeply profitable product relationships?
• Using advanced data analytics to deliver personalized recommendations and best-fit user experiences; what are some examples in the MENA wealth management space?
• With digital tools fast becoming the primary channel to access financial products & services, how relevant are privacy & cybersecurity concerns for MENA based investors when it comes to selection of wealth management institutions / banks?
• What shifts in product demand are we seeing in the local market? With digital assets having gone mainstream, will tokenization become more widely adopted to offer niche products to retail investors?
• Are local investors gradually turning out to be less inclined to blindly accept a blanket approach to pricing? Is there increased market pressure for fee transparency and higher-than-usual fees to be justified?
• Will competition from robo-advisers with direct & upfront fee structures eventually outpace traditional wealth management options?

Moderator:
Abhra Roy, Head of Wealth Management Solution, Infosys Finacle

Anand Krishnan, Director - Head of Technology, Emirates Investment Bank UAE
Kaushik Kadayam, Regional Chief Operating Officer, Wealth Management, Africa & Middle East, Standard Chartered Bank
Tomasz Bortnik, Head of Wealth Management Products, Citibank UAE
Vickram Lal, Vice President - Investments, Mashreq Bank

The New Gold Standard - Unlock Innovative Revenue Streams and Engage your Digital Customer

Consumer demand for gold in the Middle East has increased by 59% to USD $15.5 billion in the last three years, reaching its highest level since 2013. Gold has historically been considered a safe haven asset and provided phenomenal risk-adjusted returns on a sustainable, long-term basis.

Consumers are now looking for more convenient ways to invest, save, and trade in gold. Investors in predominantly Islamic markets are also looking for options with access to physical gold.

In this keynote you will hear about:

• What is digital gold and what are the use cases?
• How have banks and financial institutions generated new revenue opportunities?
• How have banks engaged customers digitally and increased TRB/AUM?

Gaurav Mathur, Chief Executive Officer, SafeGold

INTERACTIVE PANEL DISCUSSION:

Hybrid Cloud choices in Financial Services Industry
An interactive discussion exploring the choices available for the financial services industry

Moderator:
Ghazanfar Ali, MEA Systems Sales Leader, IBM

Osama El Samadoni, General Manager of UCMC, Gulf Business Machines
Sylvia Scheerová, VP, IBM Power Sales EMEA

INTERACTIVE PANEL DISCUSSION:

Powering Intelligent Risk, Compliance, Governance, Fraud & Audit with Digital Modernization & Transformation

• Hear it from the experts: What does it take to digitally transform the holistic risk management process in your banking enterprise which embraces a strong risk culture, bringing better clarity to risk ownership with a consistent and comprehensive challenge process?
• What are some well-defined strategies to obtain buy-in from key stakeholders (C-suite) and influence them on the benefits of digitizing integrated risk management when it comes to cost, flexibility, efficiency and effectiveness?
• Capturing & communicating the returns-on-investment (ROI) from digital transformation: what are some of the best methods to promote compliance & risk as a function and reimagine how the overall business can be supported?
• How can the internal audit function keep up with digital transformation? How are internal audit leaders in the MENA region able to act as change agents to adapt for accelerated transformation for delivery of incremental value for internal/external stakeholders?
• The digital-first audit methodology; at what stage of the maturity curve are various regional financial service providers? How can modern approaches like digitized risk assessments, agile auditing, and dashboard reporting?

Moderator:
Andrea Gay, Partner, BCG (Boston Consulting Group)

Abbas Bou Diab, Executive Director - Head of Compliance & AML, BLOM Bank Qatar LLC
Abhishek Pratap Singh, Head of Information Security Governance and Risk, Oman
Noman Chaudhry, Financial Crime Compliance, Habib Bank Ltd - UAE
Zsombor Brommer, Chief Compliance Officer, United Arab Bank - UAE

INTERACTIVE PANEL DISCUSSION:

Retail & Commercial Loans, Mortgages & Lending: Next-Gen Technology Platforms Empowering Digital Transformation & Access to Capital

• Hear it from the experts: What are some types of technology-assisted service efficiencies that we are seeing across products like direct loans, auto loans, project finance, grants, multi-currency loans and home mortgages in the MENA region?
• Is there a direct correlation between technology investments and greater levels of customer/borrower satisfaction? Is 2023 the unique window for new technology implementation to push for digital transformation?
• Progress update on the digital lending market & new fintech players in the MENA market – across what business segments are you seeing competition tighten up? What’s the real game-changer in the local market?
• Digital loan lifecycle management right from origination to disbursal and credit checks to compliance: what are some regulatory roadblocks often seen in the MENA region? Can we adapt to shifting paradigms to reduce bottlenecks?

Moderator:
Bhavya Kumar, Managing Director and Partner, BCG (Boston Consulting Group)

Abdelrahman Ahmed, Chief Strategy Transformation Officer, Arab National Bank - KSA
Mahmoud Ibrahim, Head of Transaction Banking & Escrow, Wholesale Banking, Ajman Bank
Rajeev Chalisgaonkar, Head of Business Banking, Mashreq
Shaker Zainal, Chief SMEs, EDB (Emirates Development Bank)

Traditional banks are evolving... today, banks are mobile-first

In 2022, average screen time surged past 5 hours a day in the Middle East, while smartphone and internet penetration reached almost 100%. Mobile Banking, Digital Wallets & Payment, Personal Loans, Cryptocurrency Trading... What are the winning and losing categories of 2022?  How can you plan ahead for 2023? data.ai explores the trends banks and finance institutions need to know to grow their user base and sell more products and services.

Dmitrii Ilinov, Finance Account Executive, Data.AI

Practical outlook on Blockchain technology for Banking transformation - Usecases and Reference stories

• Tokenisation of Securities Assets
• Trade Finance
• Working Capital Solutions
• Central bank digital currencies (CBDC)

Sunath Kolazhi, Vice President Sales, Settlemint

INTERACTIVE PANEL DISCUSSION:

From CX trends to Metaverse and Multichannel Marketing Hubs:  Toolkits for Powering Up an Omni-Channel Dominance

• Hear it from the experts: What is the secret to building a business case for CX improvement & technology investment strategy at your banking enterprise? What are some best defined strategies to obtain buy-in from key stakeholders (C-suite) and keep them excited about the impact?
• What is the most effective toolkit to measure CX trends and engagements at your organization today? Are we considering data sets like customer attitude, loyalty, preferences, digital touchpoints and purchasing behavior?
• How to formulate the ‘perfect strategy’ to provide our customers with hyper-personalized experiences at scale, without friction and whilst retaining the ‘human element’?
• As MENA CX & Marketing leaders, how to find the right ‘Metaverse & Web3 strategy’ that would fit your organizational needs & circumstances? Is it just a giant playground or will entering the metaverse early prove itself as training grounds in the virtual banking experience with new marketing & revenue models?
• Pioneering the right approach to leveraging customer data; can we use predictive analytics in real-time to spot local market trends, predict demand & business outcomes?
• Multichannel marketing hubs – what would you classify as a mature implementation and in your personal experience, how effective is targeting and response in the MENA region?
• What are some low-hanging fruit when it comes to products that make the biggest impact on the bottom-line? Will omni-channel strategies work with personal finance apps, digital on-boarding, chatbots, machine learning based offerings & digital feedback tools?

Moderator:
Marcello Baricordi, Senior Advisor, Strands

Alex Bak, Head of Customer Experience, Transformation and Innovation, Commercial Bank International
Dongjun Choi, Group Chief Customer Officer, RAKBANK
Ernesto Giralt, Chief Commercial Officer, Strands
Ms. Mai Momani, Head of Client Experience, Invest Bank, UAE
Vikram Sandhu, Senior Vice President - Head of Digital Transformation, Emirates NBD

FIRESIDE CHAT:

Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) Panel Session: Exploring the Holistic Approach to Combatting Threats & Vulnerability

• Hear it from the experts: how to go about communicating the strategic imperative of cybersecurity; are metrics delivering the real story with merely data and no context?
• What are some of the best use-cases to build a ransomware defense strategy for enterprise resilience whilst keeping pace with digital innovation in the banking industry?
• What is your opinion on the increase in SaaS application adoption at your banking enterprise? Are there weaknesses in the network security architecture that can be improved to remove the threat of exploits?
• In today’s era of remote/hybrid work, how to develop an effective strategy to remove vulnerabilities & network security threats? What are some use-cases around BYOD that have proven to be effective that can be combined with modern work applications?
• When it comes to network security services, what are some of the best examples for the MENA banking environment? Can we improve speed & agility for converging services and secure cloud access environments? Does Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) play an important role?
• What role does identity management play as the new security parameter on applications, software, cloud-native products, IoT and mobility? Does the vendor landscape offer any solutions to level up against the security threat presented?
• What is your opinion on Machine Identity Management (MIM) and Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA)? Are these effective tools to combat some of the latest hacks witnessed in the MENA banking context?
• What in your opinion as CISO is the secret sauce for an effective strategy deployment in a MENA context? Is playing offense still the best defense? And are the terms of engagement often negotiable to drive value proposition across the enterprise to safeguard assets?
• What are some unique trends being witnessed exclusively in the MENA region when it comes to cybercrime in the financial services industry? Are we looking at a broad spectrum of fraud and attacks across services and communication channels?

Moderator:
Frida Kleimert, Director of Security, IBM - Middle East and Africa

Abhishek Pratap Singh, Head of Information Security Governance and Risk, Oman
Somnath Sarkar, CISO - Group Head of Information Security, Mashreq Bank