![An Emirates NBD counter is seen as traders monitor stocks in Dubai. The bank is one of the top financial institutions in the Arab world. [Mohamed al-Sayaghi/Reuters]](/shared/images/2012/04/14/emirates-bank-summit-650_416.jpg)
An Emirates NBD counter is seen as traders monitor stocks in Dubai. The bank is one of the top financial institutions in the Arab world. [Mohamed al-Sayaghi/Reuters]
In a push to convince banks that using their products will help them reduce operating costs and improve performance, specialists said information technology companies encouraged banks to raise their level of investment in IT during this week's Financial Technology Summit in Abu Dhabi.
The summit, which ran from April 10th-11th, focused on the role of technology as a key component in the Arab banking industry. It attracted leading industry experts from financial institutions in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Egypt, and the UAE, as well as leading international technology providers.
The UAE comes after Saudi Arabia in terms of IT spending in the region, as the IT market in the UAE is growing by 30% each year.
However, the level of IT spending by UAE banks is low, said Khaled Eid, managing director of World Development Forum which organised the summit. He underscored the importance of raising that amount in order to keep up with the regional banking industry.
Eid called on banks to invest in innovation by using advanced technology that gives banks added value.
"Most bank transactions are now electronic, thus motivating more improvements through working with international companies that are specialised in this area," he said.
Emerging Technologies, the local partner of leading communications company Nuance Communication, Inc., recently "signed a contract with the Ministry of Health in the UAE to adopt a system that will allow doctors to transfer audio commands into written text. This will reduce time allocated for each patient and reinforce the efficiency of operating hospitals," Peter Aziz, a marketing communications specialist with the company, told Al-Shorfa.
His company has also launched a new voice recognition application for banks which allows the bank's electronic system to recognise its customers' voices before proceeding with phone banking.
"It might seem that it would make it easier to break into the system if someone could imitate your voice, but the opposite is true," Aziz said. "The system would not work if the voice print of the customer changed, in which case they would be transferred to the manual system that would require a pin number."
"Several local banks in the UAE have launched new systems to protect their clients' accounts and credit cards from fraud since these new systems detect irrational transactions made by clients," said Hisham Malik, sales director at CA-MENA (Middle East and North Africa).
"If a client's credit card is used in more than one location in the world at the same time or in close intervals, this would be considered irrational usage and the system will alert bank staff who in turn would monitor the process and directly contact the client to confirm the accuracy of their bank transactions and that they were not victims of fraud," he said.
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READER COMMENTS
عبد الرزاق الشاوي
2012-5-22
The United Arab Emirates is considered one of the countries that have witnessed a lot of development in the recent years. In my opinion, the stages of development in this Arab country are continuously rising, thanks to the plans set for the advancement of many sectors in many areas that the Emirates has been able to succeed in, which led to what it is today, a development that was admired by many countries of the world. The UAE is a country that has seen a quality revival that casts its positive shadows on a lot of joints of this Arab country and also casts positive shadows on the Emirati citizen who is living a far more stable life. The UAE is witnessing a lot of development in the tourism sector, which made it among the countries that tourists from all the Arab countries and the world visit, after the construction of many touristic resorts and luxury hotels that offer the best services for the tourists arriving to it, in addition to the fact that its political stability expanded the investment and the enthusiasm of the businessmen towards it. Today, we find a lot of development in the construction field, the modern buildings and the tall towers, including the Tower of Khalifa, which has become one of the largest towers on the global level. Also, the interest of the UAE in the other sectors, such as oil, has affected the increase of the UAE's imports of hard currency and has given it many other areas to give them attention, moving towards development and interest in all the joints of this country. Today, it is one of the most beautiful countries in the world thanks to the development, which the UAE tends to as well as the structural projects that took the Emirates all of these historical shifts that has made the UAE one of the most beautiful countries in the Arab region, even at the level of many countries of the world.
حمدي نعيم
2012-5-19
The UAE is one of the most developed and advanced Gulf States. I love this country and its kind people. God blessed their land because they are good and they love good for others. I am impressed with the UAE and the massive development in this state, which was a result of hard work and strenuous efforts in which they depended on themselves. The credit goes to the late Sheikh Zayed Al Nahyan who led this renaissance made the UAE one of the most beautiful and advanced states in the world. The current development in the UAE is expected because they are always optimistic and they seek to be the best. I ask God to guide them and I want to say that their dedication is abnormal. They have the highest tower in the Gulf region and Arab world carrying the names of Sheikh Zayed, who started the procession of development in the UAE. I want to say to the people of the UAE that they would achieve more progress and you would find the fruits of your efforts because you are good people and you deserve more and more. The UAE is the first Arab and Gulf state in construction and development and I wish to see all the Arab states like it one day. They work hard to remain in the lead and to excel all peoples and I call on this heroic ruler to keep up this development and progress.
امير
2012-5-18
The UAE’s banks are always accurate in their performance and connection with the other banks. The UAE’s banks focus on the management of the general budget efficiently and application of wise criteria to manage the risks and maintain a high level of performance in the market, side by side with improving their operations in all the different local and foreign sectors. The UAE’s banks achieve constant development and positive results every year. They also reinforce and restructure their marketing abilities, which made them capable of benefiting from the business opportunities locally and internationally. This strategy enabled them to achieve high net profits during the 1st quarter of the year. The UAE’s banks focus on the expansion plans on the international level to achieve more positive results and improve their presence in the strategic markets. The current network of their offices and branches contribute significantly to their net profits and they seek constantly to increase the profits of the group and get the best investment chances through the integration between the local and international businesses.
حسن عاطف
2012-5-18
We have to hail the great role and the intensive efforts that are exerted by the bank to organize the work of the banking sector and arranging its internal affairs whether through a group of instructions and the laws that were passed in this respect through its control role in mentioning the banks and meeting the applicable international and local standards. The UAE has one of the biggest banking systems in the region and it developed and trained high competencies and long experience that make them capable of supporting many of the investment activities and plans in order to help the state to avoid the repercussions of any new crisis that may occur in the future through determining the activities and the programs that can lead to achievement of the strategic objectives and determining the financial costs of these activities according to the national and international standards, side by side with determining the needs of the federal administrative bodies and the costs necessary for achieving the tasks that are assigned to them.
فهد العويسي
2012-5-18
The UAE always works on strengthening its relations with the neighboring states and all the European and foreign states. Of course, this is very good and I would like to say that the works of construction and development in the UAE are very promising. I want to say that the people of the UAE are good people and very cooperative. God has guided them to carry out very good achievements and they worked hard until they reached this stage as to arts, construction, development, security, and stability. They adopted the western strategies and seek to become as advanced as Europe. A Saudi announcer used to introduce annual program every Ramadan called “Ideas, or Khawatir” in which he shows the good things in each state. The UAE was the best as to the construction and development. All the schools were tidy and clean. The students used to work and the classes as well as the bathrooms were very clean too. I do not envy them but I want all the Arabs and other Gulf States to learn from them to convey our message to the world and tell them that the Arabs play a great role and that all their achievements are very good and advanced. I hope that this will be auspicious and I want to thank the ruler of the UAE, as he is a zealous hero and I wish all what is good to him and his people. I ask God to guide them and to help them to achieve more development in all sectors. Amen O Lord of the worlds.
سعدون شريف
2012-5-17
The UAE banks are considered among the major banks in the Arab States and the organization that the Emiratis are doing is a matter of utmost importance. I think that everything in the UAE is good and the financial situation is very good for them. In my opinion, the Emiratis are those who are working on the great immunization to all the money and from every respect because all the money, they take advantage of it through loans and through making the UAE from the best Arab countries. I believe that the United Arab Emirates are always doing everything that they can in order to achieve all the things they want. I believe that the United Arab Emirates and the UAE banks are among the best and most important banks ever. For this reason, the Emiratis are using the money in everything that benefits their country and this matter is very important. They always want to remain as one of the best Arab and Gulf countries ever. This matter is very important and we call upon Allah for them to have all the goodness and success, and we encourage them to make more progress.
طارق ابراهيم
2012-5-1
UAE banks have the funds for deposit and loan from which the owners of companies and institutions borrow, and are run for profits and benefits that accrue to the bank and their depositors in accordance with the state’s system, which was set to maintain the state treasury and the advancement of money in the Treasury to pay off debts as well as cover the loans and not to expose the statement of accounts in the bank in order to remain under cover and to cover the return of profit to the owners of deposits. The UAE banks may be more likely to refinance bonds worth pricing at the current level. According to the data of the agency, the UAE banks have custody of bonds and cash worth 3.49 billion dollars obtained in 2012. And the three largest banks in the UAE, the Emirates NBD, the National Bank of Abu Dhabi and the Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank owe the greatest part of the debt.
ليلى احمد صايل
2012-4-27
The UAE banks suffered many troubles in the past years because of debts. However, after their success in reaching settlements with international banks, they rescheduled their debts and managed to pass through this crisis successfully. What makes these banks special is that they established giant projects that boosted the UAE economy and offered many easy loans to the youth to establish their small projects, which made them respectable and well known in the banking sector in the neighboring states. These banks established giant projects that succeeded in providing them with huge profits benefiting both the bank and its customers, who also receive high profits. Certainly, this added to the reputation of these banks and improved trust in them internationally. Of course, this had positive influences on the UAE market, allowing these banks to reduce their debts that were incurred because of the global economic crisis, and even succeeded in achieving amazing successes as to increasing their capital, which encouraged the investors to invest their money in these banks. This was not limited to the UAE banks, but it spread across the global markets. This helped the banks to establish more giant projects worldwide to generate huge profits that pushed the UAE banks ahead of the other banks worldwide. The UAE economy witnessed many reforms and made it better than the economy of some industrial states as to the technology and infrastructure. The UAE became a competitor to the major world powers.