Arab Central Banks to drive financial technology spend

To benefit customers, Central Banks in the region are preparing to draft new regulations to force instant transfer and cheque clearance.

Having already spent US$ 1.3 billion last year on technology, it seems that IT will play an even greater role in the way banks service their customers. It also follows-suit that an ever-increasing amount of banks' profits will be dedicated to enhanced technology, if the proposed Central Bank regulations are to be adhered to.

"Banking needs to speed up its services in terms of transfer and clearance to be more instantaneous. Technology enables us to have instant gratification, however if we want to make payments, deposit cheques or transfer money the banks are still holding this for a number of days, which is no longer necessary but obviously income generating for the financial institutions. There are some Central Banks in the region who are bringing in regulations to force instant transfer and cheque clearance to the benefit of the customers," commented Jocelyn Al Adwani, Deputy CEO / CTO at STME.

The FT Summit is an exclusive invitation-only event for CIOs of the TOP 100 Arab Banks, Central Banks and leading IT vendors, from throughout the region. With its cutting edge format, the FT Summit is appropriate for the complexity and sensitivity of the financial technology sector. The FT Summit uses a qualitative approach, to offer a strategic platform for the CIOs and IT vendors to interact one-on-one in a professional business atmosphere, a proven formula which suits the high profile participants.

Commenting on the format, Khaled Eid, Managing Director, The World Development Forum said, "Our proven concept is far beyond the traditional trade show approach, which is usually based on foot-fall. The FT Summit offers focused integrated marketing channels to bring together both the IT decision-makers and leading IT vendors, this concept helps our partners and delegates to make the best use of their time and resources."

In 2006, the event attracted 250 senior delegates, including 70 per cent of the CIOs from the top 100 Arab banks. Under the theme 'The Bank of the Future', this year The Financial Technology Summit will explore the most critical issues & challenges facing the industry, including Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) for the finance industry, the next generation banking platform, creating high performing operating models and organisations and achieving quality through service management for financial institutions, amongst other key topics.

The FT Summit is sponsored by Oracle and STME as Gold Sponsors; Trend Micro and ITS have chosen Silver sponsorship and IMTAC has taken the bronze.