Awards for Excellence 2019
Though the Middle East’s banking sector once lagged behind others in digital technology, that has been changing in recent years.
Some banks have made a push over the past year to catch up with the advances that have taken the sector by storm. Among them we may count Kuwait Finance House, which reduced turnaround time on transactions and launched a chatbot to assist customers more consistently.
But no bank has driven these efforts more convincingly than Emirates NBD. The Dubai-based institution, led by Shayne Nelson since 2013, committed to spend AED1 billion ($272 million) on its digitization over the period 2017-2020.
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Shayne Nelson |
Leading the market for digital banking, the bank expanded its contactless payment facilities to include Google Pay last year, while its online bank Liv has gone from strength to strength.
Liv acquired over 10,000 customers every month and secured a 7% customer share of the millennials market in the UAE.
Emirates NBD also introduced new transaction banking products on its corporate banking platform, smartBUSINESS, revamped its fitness app, and extended its 60-second money transfer service to include the UK.