Banking & Fintech Leaders Discuss Digital Transformation In New Age Banking Summit 2021

Muscat: The sixth edition of the New Age Banking Summit Oman, supported by the Oman Banks Association, drew a good response from the banking and fintech sectors. His Excellency Tahir Salim Al Amri, Executive President, Central Bank of Oman was the Chief Guest at the event held on 22nd September at Al Bustan Palace – A Ritz Carlton Hotel. The event was attended by leading names from the banking, finance, fintech, insurance, and securities industry apart from the market regulators.

In his keynote address, His Excellency Tahir Salim Al Amri shared updates on the CBO’s digital journey, steps to promote digital payments, management of related risks, concessions granted during the pandemic, and efforts to study areas including open banking, cloud banking, cooperation between fintech and banks, and crypto eco-system. In another presentation, Ali Hassan Moosa, CEO, Oman Banks Association highlighted the importance of financial inclusion and the collaboration among government, regulators, civil society organizations, banks, service providers, and technology enablers to achieve this.     

The Summit hosted a panel discussion titled ‘Driving Innovation and Transformation in Financial Services’. The panel comprising the well-known industry leaders from banking, fintech and technology solution providers, deliberated on the new trends in digital banking & payments and the future of the financial services sector with evolving customer needs. The panelists included Khalid Al Kayed, CEO, Bank Nizwa; Said Ahmed Safrar, CEO, Oman Investment & Finance Co. (OIFC), Ali Hassan Moosa; Ewan John MacLeod, Chief Transformation Officer, Sohar International; Eng.Maqbool Al Wahaibi, CEO, Oman Data Park and; Eddy Abboud, CEO, GBM Oman. The panel was moderated by Akshay Bhatnagar, Executive Vice President & Group Managing Editor, United Media Services. 

The Summit was a unique platform for the banking and finance professionals to discuss the new developments in global banking and debate on the focus areas for Omani banks. The event hosted a line-up of speakers from Omani and international organisations, including Ali Al Jabri, Manager – Payment Systems Department, Central Bank of Oman; Sunil Mehta, Executive Partner, IBM; Hassan Abdul Ali, General Manager – Service Delivery & Project Management Office, Oman Data Park; Mujahid Said Al Zadjaly, General Manager – IT and Operations, Bank Nizwa and; Minella D’Souza, Lead – Customer Engagement – CEMEA, PayMate. 

The event was supported by leading companies – Bank Dhofar as the Digital Banking Partner; Bank Nizwa and GBM as the Strategic Partners; National Bank of Oman as the Innovation Partner; Sohar International as the Digital Transformation Partner; ahlibank, ahli islamic and Oman Arab Bank as the Associate Partners; Khedmah as the Digital Payments Partner; Taageer Finance as the Finance Partner; Oman Data Park as the Cloud Service Partner; National Life & General Insurance as the Composite Insurance Partner; Takaful Oman Insurance as the Islamic Insurance Partner; Dhofar Insurance as the Insurance Partner; PayMate, United Securities and United GCC Fund as the Support Partners and Ubhar Capital as the Knowledge Partner. 

Oman Banking & Finance Awards 2021, powered by OER, were co-located with the New Age Banking Summit. Bank Muscat won the overall Best Bank award in the large banks category. Bank Nizwa was presented with the overall Best Bank award in the mid-size banks category. National Finance walked away with the best Non Banking Finance & Leasing Company award. The winners for these awards were selected based on a survey of banks and NBFCs done by OER and Ubhar Capital; the results were verified by Abu Timam Grant Thornton. The survey was based on the banks’ and NBFCs financial performance on various parameters over the last four years. 

In addition, various best-performing companies and industry leaders in banking, leasing, insurance, fintech and securities were felicitated with the special awards. The winners of special awards were selected by the editorial board of OER.

The complete list of winners is as follows – 

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