 
Author: Subroto Som, Executive Vice President – Group Head of Retail Banking, Mashreq financial institution
February 23, 2021
Digital transformation has lengthy been a strategic objective for Mashreq Bank, and the present state of affairs has solely accelerated the momentum. Rapidly altering buyer behaviour and expectations are a significant factor for us, and we imagine this, coupled with altering laws, is placing stress on banks to more and more flip to know-how to supply options; not solely to chop prices but in addition to extend effectivity and faucet new streams of income.
The provision of digital providers is a component of the financial institution’s whole company technique. Mashreq has all the time been an early adopter of applied sciences that disrupt the approach we financial institution. Some time in the past, we invested in our digital innovation initiative and the funding has borne fruit. We strongly imagine that this was the proper technique and can profit our customers immensely going ahead. The approach wherein the fourth industrial revolution has modified our world implies that digital is ubiquitous: we stay our lives by means of the digital sphere and it’s only pure that each facet of our monetary lives exists digitally as properly. We proceed to put money into options which are modern, however extra importantly add worth to our customers. Over the previous 12 months, customers have offered exceedingly constructive suggestions to our revamped distribution community.
Our whole retail and SME choices have advanced in response to the altering wants of our customers, who embrace self-service applied sciences and digital banking with ease, whereas demanding extra personalised and tailor-made options in phrases of advisory and non-transactional providers. The latest launch of our blockchain data-sharing platform, known as Know Your Customer (KYC), which is the area’s first, is a milestone for us. The new platform will guarantee a quicker, dependable, and safer onboarding and digital statistics change course of, thereby eradicating present cumbersome paper-based KYC processes. In addition, the platform will assist oversee banks’ assortment and administration of KYC statistics. We have been the first financial institution to launch a digital-only SME checking account and the first in the area to allow customers to finish the Know Your Customer (KYC) updates digitally.
What the buyer desires
It is evident to us that customers – people and small and medium companies in addition to corporates – have needed digital banking merchandise and options for a while. We proceed to speculate closely in statistics analytics and AI, and use robotics to automate lots of working procedures, handbook entries and handbook actions which are repetitive in nature. We additionally work with a big quantity of FinTechs in the retail area in the areas of funds, wealth administration, credit score underwriting, and buyer id authentication.
Mashreq was the first financial institution in the area to launch a digital banking proposition for SME, NEOBiz, an important instance of innovation. Prior to the launch of NEOBiz, start-ups and SMEs reported issue in opening a checking account in the UAE and accessing monetary providers. In some circumstances, they averted opening a neighborhood checking account and as an alternative performed their transactions by way of non-UAE-based overseas banks that subjected them to excessive worldwide charges. NEOBiz has been capable of tackle this with a 20-minute digital account opening software, email-based queries, and pill fulfilment. This is a drastic simplification of a course of that beforehand took as much as three months in excessive circumstances. NEOBiz has now been operational for a 12 months, and it continues to obtain extraordinarily constructive suggestions from our purchasers. In the present state of affairs, customers anticipate help from their financial institution. In addition, they anticipate a full-scale digital service with a discount in charges and prices, and entry to value-added services and products. NEOBiz ticks all these bins: maybe that’s the purpose why it’s successful the belief of so many customers. Additionally, the financial institution’s fast remit providing, which is a digital remittance proposition, is broadly fashionable with each SMEs and particular person customers.
Being a digital-only proposition, NEOBiz can be much more economical and offers the buyer decisions with full transparency and flat charges. It gives 24/7 entry by means of on-line and cellular banking along with name centres, interactive teller machines and even a digital relationship supervisor.
The better part about this providing is that it brings third-party merchandise equivalent to accounting software program, cellular level of sale and fee gateways as non-compulsory add-ons, at particular preferential costs for our customers. For the SMEs, it acts as a one-stop store and once more delivers a superior worth proposition. The financial institution is seeking to introduce extra choices in the speedy future.
The alternative for digital-only banking providers and merchandise is the potential to construct upon the group of customers
In addition, by means of the adoption of know-how equivalent to blockchain, synthetic intelligence, statistics analytics and machine studying, Mashreq has been capable of streamline prolonged documentation practices and cumbersome paper-based KYC procedures, guaranteeing a quicker, dependable and safer onboarding and digital statistics change course of. Our long-term imaginative and prescient for NEOBiz is that it permits customers to deal with and increase their enterprise. We have main enhancements in the pipeline to increase these providers to attain our ambitions.
The UAE has an exceptionally excessive smartphone penetration, at 96 % of the grownup inhabitants in response to 2019 statistics from the Media Lab. Digital inclusion is a superb equaliser, and this sturdy entry to digital providers by means of both a PC or a smartphone is enabling individuals to get pleasure from high-quality providers and is a chance for a lot of companies and banks, like us, to cater to their life-style wants, like in areas equivalent to e-commerce. In 2019 the UAE was named as one of the fastest-growing hubs for e-commerce in the area, in response to a joint research by Dubai Economy and the world funds know-how firm supplier Visa. Furthermore, the UAE is properly famend for world-class infrastructure, providers and initiatives which are geared in direction of enabling sensible cities, and due to this fact enabling digital providers and monetary inclusion.
Meeting the pandemic problem
The COVID-19 outbreak has propelled the shift in direction of digital banking at an exponential velocity and we see the alternative to proceed this transformation. Internally, at the onset of the pandemic, we gave our groups entry to particular know-how kits for digital desktops, and distant conferencing amenities, in addition to controls and pointers which are particular to every enterprise unit. We have additionally created a microsite with a full suite of banking providers, in order that each our retail and company customers can meet their necessities simply and with out problem throughout this troublesome time.
I can proudly say that in the previous couple of months, when almost 97 % of Mashreq was working from house, we provided our customers uninterrupted providers and seamlessly transitioned them in direction of digital banking. Today, 92 % of our buyer base has on-line and cellular banking credentials. This in itself is an indicator of the power of our digital choices and our clear place as a digital chief.
In 2019 alone, the quantity of transactions processed by means of the financial institution’s gateway elevated by 126 % year-on-year, permitting for a whole bunch of thousands and thousands of safe digital purchases to happen. This share is considerably greater in 2020.
We just lately collaborated on the launch of klip, the digital money platform launched by Emirates Digital Wallet. This initiative, the first of its type, will present customers with a seamless, safe funds platform that’s geared in direction of enhancing monetary inclusion and driving contactless and cashless transactions.
We additionally launched two main platforms for our customers: WhatsApp Banking, to supply extra comfort, in addition to NEOBiz, the UAE’s first digital banking proposition catered solely to SMEs. The response from our retail and SME customers to those initiatives has been extraordinarily constructive, with shoppers embracing the comfort and suppleness they provide. Our department community has reworked considerably since 2019 and now boasts digital-only kiosks in addition to personalised flagship branches for segments equivalent to Mashreq Gold and Business Banking and SMEs. On the company banking aspect, the financial institution has additionally on-boarded most of its purchasers on Mashreq Matrix, our digital GTB world transaction banking, commerce and money administration platform, which gives options for commerce transactions, money administration, liquidity pooling and commerce tracker capabilities.
Transformation is an ongoing course of
The potential to gather buyer statistics is usually built-in into the operations and processes of digital banks proper from the starting. This statistics is used to interact with the buyer post-acquisition, and likewise assist them as they transact, thereby making the buyer expertise seamless and personalised. This gives distinctive insights into customers’ behaviour and empowers digital banks to offer invaluable and related gives in actual time.
The alternative for digital-only banking providers and merchandise is the potential to construct upon the group of customers. In a related world, co-operation and partnerships are key, as they foster a symbiotic ecosystem. This is of immense worth to younger companies and SMEs, as we now have seen by means of the huge success of NEOBiz. Transformation in the digital area is an on-going course of for us. The financial institution has invested in a know-how organisational platform that can permit us to proceed with our transformation drive effectively and successfully.
