MANAMA: Al Baraka Banking Group (ABG) yesterday announced plans that will see the group further advance its digital transformation journey.
The Bahrain headquartered multinational Islamic bank has already pioneered a number of strategic initiatives to enhance the banking journey for customers through digital innovation.
The announcement follows a two-day group-wide meeting held virtually earlier this month.
The meeting, attended by more than 80 business, marketing and IT professionals from ABG banking units from 12 countries, takes place on an annual basis to review progress on digital transformation milestones – an initiative that was launched two years ago at the first Digital Transformation Strategy Workshop.
This year’s meeting featured a panel of speakers from an international advisory firm, that joined ABG officials to discuss topics related to further improving the digital onboarding of customers and customer experience perspectives.
Other topics discussed included setting strategic priorities for the group concerning its digital transformation efforts, leveraging opportunities that exist throughout the group through digital channels and as well as trends and the future of banking and fintech.
Speaking during the meeting, ABG president and chief executive Adnan Yousif said, “This year has been unique for everyone including Al Baraka. However, despite the challenges that have come with the pandemic, we have been able to continue to serve our customers and operate normally. Thanks to the digital transformation journey that started two years ago, we have built appropriate capabilities that helped us maintain business continuity and ensured we could meet the needs of our customers throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.”
The group head of IT and senior vice-president Ahmed Albalooshi said, “The present challenges have helped us to accelerate digital transformation and the group’s focus on projects and initiatives aimed at better serving and meeting the existing and future demands, not just from our customers’ perspective but also from an internal perspective focusing on creating a working environment that also prioritises the digitalisation of operational processes and back office functions.”
ABG has launched advanced mobile banking applications, open banking initiatives, and core banking modernisation in several units. It has also pioneered Insha, a digital-only Islamic bank in Germany, which is now on-stream.
The meeting was attended by Al Baraka Units from Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Pakistan, South Africa, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia and Turkey.
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