WISSAM KHOURY
Consumer trends, mobile adoption, the rise of fintechs, and changing regulations are all driving innovation in the industry.
BIOGRAPHY
Wissam Khoury is the managing director for the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia of Finastra, the third-largest financial technology company in the world. In this role, he is committed to maximizing potential, driving sales excellence, and enhancing the overall efficiency of cross-functional operations across the organization. Prior to his current role, he was managing director for the Middle East and Africa of FIS, the world's largest global provider of banking and payments technologies. He holds a joint MBA from NYU, LSE, and HEC.
What is Finastra's role in Dubai's fintech ecosystem?
Finastra was formed in 2017 from the merger of two fintech giants, Misys and D+H. We have over 8,500 customers globally, including 90 of the top 100 banks. Over the past two years, Finastra has moved from being a solutions provider to a platform company with the launch of FusionFabric.cloud, our platform for open innovation. We are changing the way financial services software is developed, deployed, and consumed like no one else by building the foundations of a completely new financial services ecosystem and marketplace. We are also opening up our APIs for core retail banking, payments, corporate banking, lending, and treasury and capital markets and enabling the wider ecosystem to build on top of them to increase innovation and offer better services to a growing market.
How are you forcing banks to be more innovative?
There are a mix of factors. Consumer trends, mobile adoption, the rise of fintechs, and changing regulations are all driving innovation in the industry. We enable banks to be more innovative by supplying them with the technical details to do this. For example, in the event a bank wants to develop an application to provide customers with a single view of all its relationships across different departments, the traditional way of providing this is time-intensive; by the time the product is ready, the market will already have shifted. It is vital to understand that the only constant is change. The end user has been pampered for so long that they demand from their banks the same services they get from their retail experiences. If they can get a fast service from Uber, then why not from their bank? This has pushed banks to be more innovative in creating better customer services. 6
WISSAM KHOURY
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Interview
Sultan bin Saeed Al Mansoori, Former Minister of Economy,
The ministry's way forward is to spur more international collaboration, whether inside the country through FDI flows and encouraging foreign entrepeneurship or outside the country through China's highly-valued Belt and Road Initiative.
read articleInterview
Dr. Mohammed Al Zarooni, Director General, Dubai Airport Free Zone Authority (DAFZA)
In addition to pursuing an aggressively innovative trade and industrial policy, DAFZA is working behind the scenes to boost Dubai's role as the world's most dynamic hub for global halal services.
read articleInterview
Hatem Sleiman, Regional Vice-President, Head of Network, Middle East and South Asia, Western Union
Technology, globalization, and migration will ensure that no matter the nationalization policies carried out by regional governments, the remittance spout is unlikely to dry up any time soon.
read articleInterview
Hamdan AlShamsi, Senior Partner, Hamdan AlShamsi Lawyers & Legal Consultants
With the expected increase of business in the region, Hamdan AlShamsi Lawyers & Legal Consultants stands ready to assist new or current businesses with the implementation of ideas and the protection of IP.
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Marwan Bin Haidar, Executive Vice President of Innovation and the Future, Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA)
Through its digital arm, DEWA seeks to disrupt the entire business of public utilities by becoming the world's first digital utility to use autonomous systems for renewable energy and storage.
read articleInterview
Will Goodwin, Managing Director, The Priory Group
Social media can lead to living a virtual life, with limited face-to-face interaction, avoidance, and often misconstrued reality. This may lead to mental health-related issues such as depression, loss of individual value, low confidence, and anxiety.
read articleInterview
Colm McLoughlin, Executive Vice Chairman & CEO, Dubai Duty Free (DDF)
One of the leading airport retailers in the world, DDF currently operates some 40,000sqm of retail space at Dubai International Airport and Al Maktoum International Airport, reporting sales over USD2.029 billion in 2019.
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