Barwa Bank, having recently launched its mobile banking application, will soon launch its Point of Sale (POS) product this year as part of its long-term strategy towards digital transformation, Barwa Bank Group CEO Khalid Al Subaie (pictured) has said.
Talking to The Peninsula on the sidelines of the 5th Doha Islamic Finance Conference which concluded on Wednesday, Al Subaie said the new digital services will create efficiency and customer satisfaction for their clients.
“We have decided that investment in digital innovation is paramount to our strategy over the next five years. We’re now entering into a merger with the International Bank of Qatar (ibq), which will be formalised next month subject to regulatory approvals. And we’re using this as a catalyst to launch our new strategy that includes digital investment,” Al Subaie added.
He also said that to complement the new strategy, the group has created a new role of chief digital officer as part of the management team.
He said: “This is the first of its kind in Qatar. And this will drive efficiency and innovation in terms of customer service and product innovation. We have started with the new mobile banking app, launched early this year. To be followed by our Point of Sale product that’s going to be launched also this year. This is a positive step in our digital evolution”.
Barwa Bank’s merger with the ibq will create a combined entity with total assets of QR80bn and a shareholder equity base of over QR12bn.
Al Subaie said, “We will also gain much larger customer base and will double our retail branches from the merger. For us it’s very important that we reach the customer, and we ensure that they are empowered to transact, and meet their day-to-day banking requirements conveniently. Our mobile banking app, in our opinion is one of the leading apps in Qatar. It is constantly being updated and amended to ensure that customers can do most of their banking transactions through the app”.
Barwa Bank, which is in the middle of its digital transformation, is currently ahead of other Islamic banks which are still found lacking in financial technology.
Speaking at the conference, Dr Essam Al Enezi, faculty member of the College of Shari’ah at Kuwait University, said Islamic banks still have not kept up with conventional banks with regards to technology and digital banking.
Al-Enezi added that adoption of fintech applications by Islamic banks around the world will increase their customer base rapidly and attract 150mn new customers within two years.
According to Accenture, of the more than $50bn spent on fintech globally, only 1 percent has so far come from the MENA.
In its 2016 report, EY found that mobile banking usage in Qatar stood at 19 percent. The survey also said that a large number of bank transactions in the Gulf region are still made on home computers or at ATMs, or through traditional channels involving human interaction, such as branches or call centres. It found that 38 percent of conventional banking customers used mobile banking, compared with 26 percent for Islamic-banking customers, and 36 percent for hybrid-banking customers.
