Dubai – UAE: Fintech Surge 2022, the Middle East and North Africa region’s leading finance and innovation event, yesterday heard how understanding and empathizing customers could be the key to delivering successful Fintech products and services.
Now open at Dubai World Trade Centre from until 13th October 2022, Fintech Surge 2022 is gathering Fintech architects, startups, over 600 powerful investors and leading innovators from disruptive Fintech businesses globally.
A panel of experts kicked off the region’s largest gathering of the Fintech investor community with a discussion on how customer empathy would be essential in the advancement of innovation in finance-related technologies.
“Expect the world of banking to change considerably when central banks issue digital currencies,” said Fernando Morillo, Group Head of Retail Banking, Mashreq Bank. “Currently, ten percent of businesses are based on empathy. There will be a ruthless focus on client experiences and fintech is the way to make it happen.”
Amnah Ajmal, Executive Vice President, Market Development, EEMEA, Mastercard, said, “Every great innovation has its origin in empathy. Most innovators try to find a solution to a problem that frustrates them. When you try to solve a problem, you empathise with your consumers. Knowing that you do not know everything – this is where curiosity comes in. It requires us to be curious about how people feel and what they think of an idea.”
Emirates Post CEO discusses Fintech move
Ahmed Mohamed Al Awadi, Managing Director & CEO, FintX, Emirates Post group’s recently launched Fintech arm, discussed why the organisations decided to move into the Fintech space. “The number of fintech companies in the Middle East has nearly tripled since 2020 from 165 to 465,” he said. “After the pandemic, no one wants to go to the bank and spend time with the teller face to face. The UAE has huge ambitions for fintech and we want to contribute actively to this vision. We have existing financial services assets which are a strong base for our fintech ambition. Our ecosystem is an accumulation of related products, and services; several of our customers’ needs served under one roof.”
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