CIO OPINION
CIO
opinion
CIO OPINION
“
WE CAN’T STOP
THIS WAVE OF CHANGE
THAT IS COMING IN BUT
WE CAN DIRECT IT IN THE
RIGHT DIRECTION.
//////////////////
Tariq Al Usaimi, Head of Digital Strategy for the
Central Bank of Kuwait
Foundation for
transformation
With the rapid expansion
of the FinTech sector in
Kuwait, the country’s
central bank is
embarking on a landmark
digitalisation programme.
Tariq Al Usaimi, who as its
head of digital strategy
is leading the evolution
process, tells us analytics
and Big Data have
become the foundation
for transforming the
financial sector.
T
ariq Al Usaimi, the newly
appointed head of digital strategy
for the Central Bank of Kuwait, has
a mandate to transform both the bank
itself and the country’s financial sector.
Recently appointed as the bank’s CDO,
he is on a mission to drive its digitisation
as well as transform the whole banking
sector in Kuwait.
He is able to take advantage of a wealth
of IT experience having served as CDO at
the National Bank of Kuwait and CIO at
Kuwait Credit Bank.
“One of the mandates that I have is to
transform the Central Bank of Kuwait to
have it more digitalised, to transfer all
the paperwork to digital processes and
to transform the whole banking sector in
Kuwait,” he said.
“One of the projects I am overseeing
is called the Kuwait National Payment
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INTELLIGENTCIO
System which is divided into eight
systems such as Central Bank Digital
Currency, Automated Clearing House,
E-Wallet platform and more.”
The rapid expansion of Kuwait’s FinTech
sector, the importance of Big Data and
analytics platforms and the disconnect
between the expectations of young
people and the way they interact with
financial institutions are all topics Al
Usaimi gives us his opinion about below.
On transforming the central
bank’s approach to technology
As you can see now the wave of FinTech
is really hitting the GCC very hard. As its
regulators we cannot stop the change
that is coming but as our Governor Dr
Mohammad Al-Hashel in a speech at
the Global Informatics Forum said ‘We
can’t stop this wave of change that is
coming in but we can direct it in the
right direction.’
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