The Banking Executive Magazine - February 2022

The Horizon Of Digital Financial Inclusion In Arab Banks fore they are made, and encourage customers to save with goals, re- wards and incentives. Data-driven insights can enable every customer to see their true overall financial position to understand exactly what they can afford and when. The International Banker report by Alexander Jones, identified key tech- nologies that play a pivotal role in closing the digital divide gap and en- hance digital financial inclusion, with fintech (financial technology) in particular driving financial services towards consistently greater levels of accessibility and democratisation around the world. Ultimately, this enables more people to access pre- viously inaccessible financial prod- ucts and services than ever before. Key ways for achieving financial in- clusion through technology solutions include: • Developing an attractive and sig- nificant customer experience. By designing simple, elegant services, customers can conveniently access financial systems in an uncompli- cated manner. • Socialising financial products and services. Customers want to partic- ipate socially with their savings, as evidenced by the rise in the num- ber of peer-to-peer (P2P) funding sites such as Prosper. • Raising commitment between fi- nancial institutions and their cus- tomers. Banks must keep engaging in dialog with their customers to build loyal relationships and in- volve them in certain financial services. • Boosting access to banking re- sources and improving financial health: Innovative tech-powered solutions can help people manage their savings better. • Using blockchain beyond cryp- tocurrencies: As an immutable record of information and transac- tions, blockchain can enable finan- cial inclusion through many applications. • Using Big Data: the use of informa- tion and knowledge through the application of Big Data enables fi- nancial institutions to offer more customized packages of banking services. • Using biometrics: Alternative user- identification and authentication methods such as iris recognition and selfie facial recognition do not only make access to financial serv- ices easier but ensure that user se- curity is maintained. • Rapid adoption of internet and smartphones. The digitization jour- ney of financial services providers has been accelerated by the rapid adoption of internet and smart- phones. • Using mobile devices to digitise services and processes. Devices such as point-of-sale terminals, phones and tablets offer existing services (for example, customer registration and loan applications) at a lower cost and digitise processes to increase efficiency. Microfinance staff can also go pa- perless, provide new services such as savings collection and use mo- bile agencies (mobile branches, tablets) instead of physical branches. ISSUE 158 FEBRUARY 2022 the BANKING EXECUTIVE 45