CIO opinion
CIO OPINION
We can be ahead of the curve instead of
looking backwards through the mirror of
what happened yesterday or the week or
quarter before in order to make a prediction
about the future.
Analytics isn’t only going to be one tool. It’s
going to be multiple tools. Every central bank
is struggling to have a consolidated view of
all of their financial indexes in one place on
one dashboard.
The software market today is not mature
enough to provide the central banks around
the globe with the technology needed to
do this.
The importance of AI and Blockchain
There is a huge amount of promise for AI in
the financial sector especially for detecting
fraud. AI will be the pinnacle of fraud
investigation from now on.
There is another side of AI for the financial
sector which is empowering the consumer.
Today in the market we are seeing this
happening with something called Personal
Finance Management.
This will tell you how to better spend your
money, how to better save your money and
how to do whatever goal you are going to
put into place.
Today with AI and Personal Finance
Management this information will be
accessible for the masses whereas before it
was only accessible for the high net-worth
and done by face to face consultation.
The explosion of FinTech in Kuwait
We are seeing a lot of traction of FinTechs
in Kuwait. Some of these became regional
powers as they spread from Kuwait all
the way to Oman, and some of them
beyond the GCC. We also saw an influx of
international investors investing in these
newly established Fintechs.
“
YOU NEED
SOMEBODY IN THE
ORGANISATION
THAT CAN SPEAK
THE BUSINESS
LANGUAGE AS
WELL AS THE IT
LANGUAGE.
The future of Blockchain in the
financial sector
This is a technology that is promising a
lot but we would like to be very cautious.
We would like to see how it is being
implemented as the impact on the person
using Blockchain is likely to be huge.
Going forward FinTechs and the FinTech
ecosystem is going to play a vital role in the
economies of every country. Whatever is written in the block cannot
be rewritten. If there was a mistake and a
transaction needs to be reversed it cannot
be reversed in Blockchain. A person’s credit
history could be ruined for life.
From our perspective as the Central Bank
of Kuwait we want to see a healthy FinTech
ecosystem running in Kuwait. So we are very cautious about this
technology although we believe in it and we
believe it will transform the banking sector
46
INTELLIGENTCIO
but we have to be cautious to see how it will
be implemented.
The banking sector and
young people
There is a big disconnect from the
expectations of young people and what the
current financial systems are providing to
them. They cannot comprehend why they
need to go into a bank and take in a small
piece of paper and sit down for half an hour
to have somebody serve them. They are very
‘digital native’.
They know how to use a computer.
They know how to type. They have
been feeding themselves and clothing
themselves using their mobile. They have
been communicating to their friends
through digital means. This is not just a
phenomenon in Kuwait. There is this huge
disconnect globally.
They want the same consumer grade
of flexibility that they use to feed
themselves, clothe themselves and do
everything they need to do. They want
the same thing to apply to their financials
through their mobiles.
Some of the smaller banks are more
agile and more youth-orientated and
they are gaining market share. Some of
the bigger banks are a little bit slower
attending to these needs and are maybe
more conservative. n
www.intelligentcio.com