20 February 2017
About 70 percent  of respondents a recent survey say that the GCC banking sector is open to integrating FinTech innovations that could help enhance consumer experience and streamline their operations,

According to a FinTech survey conducted by EY, more than 60 percent  of the participants thought that FinTech innovations could help them enhance consumer-centricity and reduce cost.

The EY survey looked the views of conventional and Islamic banks in the GCC towards FinTech related matters and their perception on the impact that FinTech could have on the GCC banking sector.

Two-thirds of the survey respondents suggest that the GCC banking sector is highly likely to collaborate with or invest in FinTech companies to work together with them to meet end consumers’ needs.

Gordon Bennie, Mena Financial Services Leader, EY, said: “The pace of FinTech innovation in the GCC has been extremely rapid over the past few years but still requires more work on-ground to truly revolutionise the banking industry. The variety of ways in which FinTech innovations are being adopted by the banking sector is increasing and we may even see banks collaborating to build ‘shared-cost FinTech solutions’ in the future.

”Participants indicated that the leadership teams in the GCC banking sector generally support digital transformation innovation; 57 percent  of participants stated that they agree with the statement “digital transformation through FinTech innovations is a strategic initiative that is championed by the board of directors and the senior management team.”

However, the implementation of new technologies to diversify offerings does not seem to have moved as quickly; 79 percent  of the survey participants seemed to be in doubt if FinTech players could cause any noticeable disruption in the GCC banking sector in the next one to two years.

Ashar Nazim, Partner, Global Islamic Banking Center, at the leading auditing firm (EY), said: “The drive towards incorporating FinTech into everyday banking is promising, but there is still work to be done in generating more awareness around FinTech innovations and implementation. This is not surprising given that FinTech is a rather recent phenomenon.”

© The Peninsula 2017