MANAMA: Participants of the 3rd Middle East and Africa FinTech Forum, which was held in Bahrain under the patronage of the Central Bank of Bahrain, had witnessed the first digital employee named Fatema unveiled by Bank ABC.
The most exciting part of the exhibition was the public debut of ‘Fatema’, who is the region’s first ever emotionally-intelligent ‘digital employee’. Built by New Zealand-based Soul Machines for Bank ABC, ‘Fatema’ appears as an on-screen employee and uses cutting-edge digital neurology and artificial intelligence to emotionally engage with customers. She is capable of engaging in natural conversation with customers, measuring emotions and expressing emotions of her own in return.
Visitors to the exhibition were able to speak with her and ask her questions on specific Bank ABC products and services. In future when she is more widely available online, however, she will be able to respond to a wider range of queries about Bank ABC and its services.
The Forum was attended by hundreds of delegates, and the discussions dealt with the financial industry’s key issues such as financial inclusion across the Middle East and Africa, open banking, artificial intelligence, and the impact of fast-developing technology on banking and societies.
Hosted by Bank ABC and Arab Financial Services (AFS), the Forum was attended by officials from the Central Banks of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, UAE, Oman, Jordan, Egypt, Libya and Tunisia, in addition to senior representatives from the banking, finance, telecom and tech industries in the MENA region.
The Forum was moderated by Aaron Heslehurst, host of BBC World News programme Talking Business. The conference started with an address from Sophia, the world’s most famous robot, who spoke of the potential for FinTech and AI to contribute to the development of humanity.
Bank ABC Deputy Group CEO and AFS Chairman Sael Al Waary then outlined his views of the current state of FinTech and made predictions for the future. Specifically, he highlighted the potential impact of FinTech in corporate banking, which has been overlooked, and issued a call to action for his fellow bankers to get ahead of this trend.
Heslehurst had a discussion with the Central Bank of Bahrain Governor HE Rasheed Al Maraj, who explained his practical approach to finding the right balance between enabling innovation and protecting the financial system. The Governor also showcased Bahrain’s progress towards implementation of open banking and other regulatory advances, and shared his thoughts on current global financial regulatory opportunities and challenges.
Following the discussion with the Governor, Heslehurst introduced Brett King to the stage. King is the author of Amazon best-seller Bank 4.0 and host of the top-ranked FinTech podcast in the world, Breaking Banks. In his presentation King described the progress of banking over the last 500 years, and used examples from historical banking as well as contemporary innovative practices to illustrate changes in the nature of financial services. “Utility, rather than physical security, is the most important thing that customers want”, he said, going on to describe how banks risk being left behind as tech companies and other alternative providers of financial services take over.
International cryptocurrency expert Henri Arslanian, the Hong Kong-based banker and academic, discussed the future development of cryptocurrencies and how the sector is maturing, as well as linking crypto-assets to other trends in banking such as the rise of AI and the advent of open banking.
Dr Ayesha Khanna, the CEO of ADDO AI, a Singapore-based provider of AI-based solutions for city governments and private clients around the world, discussed the future impact of AI on labour markets in financial services and other industries. She argued that any negative impacts can be mitigated by sound planning, which will allow AI to relieve people of some repetitive work while enabling other kinds of work to flourish.
Anthony Thomson, founder of Metro Bank and Atom Bank (both in the UK) and 86400 (Australia), delivered a presentation outlining his thoughts on challenger banking and his reflections on recent experiences in launching mobile lender 86400 in Australia.
Thomas Blood of Amazon Web Services and Steve Kirsch, CEO of open banking software provider Token, had a panel discussion on the challenges facing regulators in the era of open banking. Blood and Kirsch argued that the opportunities are too great for banking executives and regulators to ignore or avoid.
Dr Pippa Malmgren, former advisor to US President George W Bush on economic affairs, outlined the traits required of senior leaders in modern financial services organisations. She argued that a narrow focus on analytics and reductionism is insufficient to deal with modern challenges, and that 21st Century leaders need to be able to think creatively about how they approach problems.
Dr David Hanson, creator of the robot Sophia, was joined on stage by futurists David Smith and Rohit Talwar to consider several trends in financial services, including the rise of AI and automation, and discuss how these will impact the future trajectory of the industry.
In one of the day’s final sessions, Qamar Saleem of the IFC (World Bank Group) and Dan Cobley, former MD of Google UKI and current partner at VC firm Blenheim Chalcot, discussed the challenges facing entrepreneurs around the world. They compared situations in different countries, and offered their perspectives on how FinTech can help entrepreneurs and small business owners overcome these challenges.
Outside the main conference hall, an exhibition hosted a range of stalls from Bank ABC, AFS, and guests such as MasterCard, Backbase and the Central Bank of Bahrain. These stalls showcased innovative financial technology products, giving visitors the opportunity to see the latest in wearable payment tech, mobile applications, and other developments.
