Oman Banks Association (OBA) has advised lending institutions in Sultanate to welcome few technological innovations in global banking and financial services landscape. The Association’s CEO, Ali Hassan Moosa, warns Oman banks for neglecting new developments that have the potential to revolutionise the global industry. The innovations include open banking, fintech, robotic process automation, Artificial intelligence, machine learning, Big Data, cyber forensics and predictive analytics.
Ali Hassan Moosa elect fintech as an essential element of banking business success. He stated that lenders around the world are accepting and implementing fintech in their strategies.
“They either buy a fintech company, partner with fintechs, invest in fintech, transform into fintechs or serve fintechs. Many banks, including in Oman, are employing a combination of those strategies. One thing that banks cannot afford to do — whether in Oman or elsewhere — is to ignore fintech.” he said.
Commenting on the shadow casted by COVID pandemic on banking and financial services, the CEO pinned the trends reported around the world are being reflected in Oman too. All the customers around the world have started using mobile applications, contact less transaction, “tap and go” credit cards and e-commerce.
Generation Z, Fintech and Open banking:
Ali Hassan Moosa suggested the local banks to pay special attention to people of Gen Z. Gen Z – Generation Z, a demographic cohort representing people born between roughly 1995 and 2015. They are hyper-connected with the social media and adapt to technological change in short span. This population are high in Oman. So, he suggested the banks to focus on this population.
In his presentation, Ali Hassan Moosa highlighted the importance of introducing Open banking services in Oman. Open banking refers to sharing financial information electronically and securely with the third party. It offers better experience for customers via use of a application programming interfaces (APIs).
The head of Oman Banks Association asked the local banks to gear-up for an upcoming period of acceleration to sweep across the industry.
