Eirvin Knox

'I immediately saw a great opportunity, although the basic planning was already done before I arrived,' says Chief Executive Officer of just over one year Eirvin Knox.

When he arrived the Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank was decentralized without central marketing, sales or risk management functions. Even email was not widely used in the bank. However, with the largest UAE commercial loan business and 40% of its business with nationals, there was still a strong base to build on.

'The first thing we needed was a new organizational structure,' explains Mr. Knox, a five-year Gulf banking veteran. 'We also focused on the customer and began to look at what they wanted rather than what the bank wanted to give them.

'All the top management has changed, and we have recruited people from diverse backgrounds and the challenge now is to get them to fit together and deliver best practice. I have really seen more change in the past 12 months than at any other time in my career.'

Perhaps it should be no surprise that ADCB will launch its Internet banking service in the first quarter of next year with a state-of-the-art system. This is no small achievement for a bank whose own branches were not linked online less than a year ago!

'For Wealth Management products we are trying to lever off other people's skills with third party funds. However, we will be launching our own UAE equity fund next month that we will manage ourselves.

'We see strong demand for local and regional funds with many IPOs coming up and a lot of liquidity, and we also plan to launch specialist funds in infrastructure and real estate.'

The bank has also just unveiled its smart debit card in association with MasterCard. This card gives holders a 0.25% monthly cash return on every purchase, and 0.5% when abroad.

'This encourages people to use plastic rather than cash which saves the bank money, and so we can give a reward to the customer,' explains Mr. Knox. 'It is the first time a bank in the Middle East has offered this kind of card.'

There is no doubt that the changes at Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank have gone much deeper than the new corporate identity and signboards which have also changed in the past six months. But Mr. Knox says the bank is barely halfway through its transformation.

Aside from Internet banking, the bank will be upgrading its other card products and is preparing to enter the mortgage market. There will also be far greater visibility through a major marketing campaign.

'We now have a clear framework for our strategic business and are confident of the future with the UAE in a major growth phase,' says Mr. Knox who acknowledges that the falling cost of IT and shorter implementation times have also greatly assisted him.