UBF ME Banking Forum 2017 gears up for engaging sessions on future of tech-based banking

Artificial Intelligence top on the agenda

The UAE Banks Federation (UBF), a professional representative body comprising 48 member banks operating in the UAE, has released the full agenda on the highly anticipated Middle East Banking Forum. This fifth edition will be held on 22^nd November 2017 at The St. Regis Saadiyat Island in Abu Dhabi.

Hosted by UBF in association with Financial Times Live and ‘The Banker’, and supported by the Central Bank of the UAE, the conference will gather senior industry executives under one roof to explore the theme ‘Harnessing the Forces of Global Disruption’. The UBF has confirmed that Dr. Andrei Kirilenko, Director of the Centre for Global Finance and Technology at the Imperial College Business School, will be the keynote speaker. He will explore the megatrends that are disrupting the banking sector, such as technology, regulations and competition amongst others, and point towards possible solutions to help banks get ahead of the curve and weather the challenges.

H.E. Abdul Aziz Al Ghurair, Chairman of UAE Banks Federation, said: “As a flagship event, the Middle East Banking Forum will steer the conversations on banking and finance towards critical areas of advances and emerging trends. In line with the recently announced UAE Strategy for Artificial Intelligence (AI), a high topic on the agenda, financial institutions will have to further embrace the forces of technology, and event like the ME Banking Forum is an important addition and an exceptional platform to explore the wide gamut of changes and ways to harness it. I am confident that the caliber of speakers and delegates confirmed to join the conference this year will be of added value and a major part of its success.”

The forum will also set the stage for stimulating panel discussions led by distinguished industry experts. The first panel discussion, titled ‘Financing SMEs in the UAE and lessons to be learned from other countries’ will tackle the steps taken by the UAE to improve liquidity for SMEs and go over global cases to see how the world is tackling challenges pertaining to SME financing.

Second panel discussion titled ‘Dangers in cyberspace – what would it take to bring down a bank?’, will put the spotlight on hackers, their motivations and the challenges that banks should navigate to protect their clients from sophisticated hacking tools.

A presentation about futuristic banking titled ‘The robo-banker: advanced analytics and artificial intelligence’ will go live to break down buzzwords like ‘automation’, ‘machine learning’ and ‘Big Data’. The event will highlight the critical role of ‘Enhancing the payment experience in a customer-centric environment’, and how the digitally connected lives of individuals opens up exciting opportunities for payments services providers.

Ralph Hamers, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Executive Board, ING Group will conclude with a talk on  ‘Capturing the power of technology’ shedding  light on the role of technology in helping banks unlock greater power from their operations and the role of tech-based components such as ‘robo-advisers’ and ‘blockchain’ in financial institutions.