One of the main mandates is we have to
transform ourselves and become more agile
and more adaptive. For example, in Kuwait
back in 2013 we only had one FinTech.
At the end of 2018 we had 63 FinTech
companies operating in Kuwait. So with that
influx of FinTechs we need to re-engineer
and digitise our processes and make a lot of
investment in AI, analytics and Big Data.
The need for central banks to
be more progressive in their
adoption of analytics
With this influx of FinTechs, analytics and
Big Data have become the foundation for
transforming and better regulating and
supervising the financial sector.
Central banks across the globe are now
racing to put in their Big Data and analytics
platforms which can supervise financial
transactions across their borders.
Formulating a strategy to digitise
the banks
It’s more digitalising the infrastructures that
the banks will ride on. At the central bank
we don’t have a direct connection to the
consumer. We regulate plus we supervise
the local banks. The transactions between
www.intelligentcio.com
“
WE NEED TO RE-
ENGINEER AND
DIGITISE OUR
PROCESSES AND
MAKE A LOT OF
INVESTMENT IN
AI, ANALYTICS
AND BIG DATA.
the banks are supervised and overseen by us
because the central bank is a regulator.
It’s crucial for us to reinvent ourselves. We
are moving towards more and more being a
24/7 central bank.
Having an expert in charge of
digital strategy
This position is starting to become not
just ‘nice to have’ but a ‘must’. Having
somebody within financial institutions help
navigate these changes, and have to adapt
technology and increase user acceptance
within their organisation, is very crucial.
I came from an IT background and now
this has become a ‘must’ in this position as
a CDO because during your education as a
CIO you have been introduced to problem
solving skills and techniques.
On the business side they are not aware of
this – the techniques and principles that we
are using. Today with the evolution of agile
methodology, digital design thinking and the
Innovation Lab principle, these are tools as
a CDO that we have in our hands in order to
transform an organisation.
You need somebody in the organisation that
can speak the business language as well as
the IT language.
Investing in analytics and Big Data
This is something that every central bank is
moving towards. This has been labelled as
a SupTech or Supervising Technology and
the foundation for that is analytics. Once
you have the right data, and the validity and
privacy of that data is checked, then we can
deploy multiple tools on it in order to make it
meaningful information.
INTELLIGENTCIO
45
45