Amit Sah (centre), Roya Khajeh (right), and Martin Andrew Leong, discussing Commercial Bank’s digital strategy and other plans during the virtual roundtable discussion.
Commercial Bank’s digital innovations have become popular among its customers. The bank handles over 2 million contactless taps every month, said a senior official of the bank in a virtual roundtable discussion.
During the discussion with media persons, Amit Sah, EGM – Head of Retail Banking, Roya Khajeh, AGM – Head of Cards and Payments, and Martin Andrew Leong, AGM – Retail and Consumer Banking, discussed at length Commercial Bank’s digital strategy, customers’ response, and the overall transformation achieved.
Commenting on Commercial Bank’s digital leadership, Amit Sah emphasized on the Bank’s major role in setting new trends in the market, to the extent that the whole market keeps on adapting to the innovative products Commercial Bank (CB) launches.
“Our focus has been on creativity and innovation, driven by enhanced value for customers. This has helped adoption rates grow dramatically. It is today entirely possible for customers to complete all their banking engagements, be it simple or complex, through digital mediums, at a time and place of their convenience,” said Sah.
Though Commercial Bank has always strived to stay ahead of the curve in digital innovation, COVID-19 has accelerated its momentum and has changed the scope of how people bank and use digital services.
Roya Khajeh said that “while technology used to be considered as complementary, it has become now an integral part of every customer’s banking system.”
Supporting her statement, Khajeh commented on the large success the CB contactless ecosystem has achieved, “the Bank handles over 2 million contactless taps every month.”
Highlighting the innovative approach of the Bank in transactional banking, the three speakers briefed about CB’s latest payment options which touch almost every aspect of customers’ lives, such as: Tap N’ Pay, remote mobile payment using CB Pay for Merchants, QR code payment, and many more.
Answering an important question about Commercial Bank’s cybersecurity standards, Sah stated: “The safety of our customers’ data is paramount. We are constantly upgrading our cyber security and fraud detection capabilities and will continue to do so at all times.”
Discussing the innovation of customer relationships, Martin Leong explained how Commercial Bank, like many global banks, is expected to offer a digital banking service that is safe, secure, reliable.
He added, “technology is not our primary focus, it is always our customers. We simply use technology to make our customers’ lives easier in both transactional banking as well as more complex financial needs such as wealth planning, personal borrowing and international share trading.”
Replying to the question by The Peninsula about bank’s strategy for expansion of branches, Sah explained how branches are still an integral part of the Bank’s focus on customers and confirmed that there would be no decrease in the number of branches. In fact, a slight increase as the Bank reshaped the layouts, designs, locations of branches, to suit the needs of the customers.
The discussion highlighted the single-minded vision of the Bank to excel in customer experience and how the Bank uses technology to fulfill this vision. “We are certain there are more exciting developments still to come as the Commercial Bank team pushes the boundaries of excellence, in a digital, yet very personal way,” said the bank in a statement.
