Your Excellency Mubarak Rashid Al Mansouri, Governor of the Central Bank of UAE, dear guests, colleagues, ladies and gentlemen.
Good Morning
I would like to welcome you all to the third UAE Banks Federation Middle East Banking Forum.
We are very pleased to have you all with us.
As you know, the theme for our conference this year is “Leaders in Innovation”. It is no coincidence that this echoes our conference theme last year, which looked at Innovation in a Digitally Connected World. We believe our willingness and ability to innovate as an industry is crucial to our survival as banks, and to our future wellbeing, as well as that of the people, companies and institutions that we serve.
Innovation comes in all shapes and sizes. It can help companies become more efficient, and it can help them to break new ground and enter new areas of business. It can also be a major challenge for some of them. But such challenges should be welcomed. They form the basis of modern day evolution.
In its most recent Global Innovation Index, Cornell University, in partnership with the World Intellectual Property Organisation and INSEAD said that innovation-driven growth is no longer the prerogative of high-income countries alone. Tangible examples of effective innovation policies are being increasingly undertaken by developing countries. The report adds that not even a decade ago many low and middle-income economies were not on the innovation map, but they are now increasingly part of a more globalized innovation landscape. Their experience holds lessons for other countries and for the global distribution of innovation more broadly. It underlines the fact that tomorrow’s world will be very different to today’s, and that the future is not as far away as it used to be.
This is of direct relevance to us here in the UAE, and in this region. The UAE government has adopted a very proactive and enlightened view of innovation and has encouraged both the private and the public sector to not only embrace it but to demonstrate it in everything they do. In this – the UAE’s Year of Innovation – the banking industry is under the spotlight to show what we can do to support that vision.
Our aim in all of this is to provide better service – better to serve our customers and better to grow our businesses , and more broadly contribute to the economic development and prosperity of the country and well being of the people. That I know sounds an obvious thing to say, but in such challenging economic times, particularly for the banking industry, it has much greater resonance than usual. We are pleased that our recent independent survey on customer trust in banks in the UAE has come out so positively, both in absolute terms and relative to other international markets. But the survey also shows us that we cannot take customer trust for granted and that there is still much to do to ensure our services are tailored to what they want, and that services are priced fairly and transparently. Innovation will help us achieve this, without doubt.
Finally, I cannot finish without extending a special note of thanks and appreciation to the UAE Central bank for its prudent guidance and valuable support.
So, thank you again for your attendance, and wish you a stimulating and enjoyable event.
