Fintech Trends In GCC Banking

Sudeep Nair, senior director at Cedar Management Consulting International, examines the key aspects of FinTech that the region’s banks must consider in the coming months

Over the course of the past few years, significant macro-economic factors led by the slump in oil prices have buffeted the GCC economies and the GCC banking industry.

Banks are experiencing a slowdown in growth and a rise in the risk profile of their assets. These factors have also forced the GCC banking industry to review its business models, focus on operating efficiency and adopt new technologies to get the customer’s wallet share.

Financial technology (FinTech) has played a key role in such transformation initiatives. Traditional systems deployed across the eight layers of a typical banking architecture are also undergoing significant changes. These ‘hotspots’ are witnessing a high level of activity in the form of diagnosis, build versus buy decisions and the procurement of new technologies.

FinTech hotspots in the GCC

A quick look at a typical banking architecture reveals a few common areas that most banks in GCC are considering for a transformation:

- Self-service

- Innovation of products

- Digitisation

- Straight-through processing

- Risk management

- Customer insights and analytics

- Disintermediation for cost savings

There are specific issues within each layer of the architecture that must be considered more closely.

Channel layer