Organised by BII World the Financial Innovation Summit launched yesterday at the Hilton Doha.

The two-day event covered over 20 fintech experts explore on the latest trends, developments and emerging technologies in the banking sector in the region.

The agenda focussed on a wide range of topics from the importance of investing in fintech solutions, the impact of emerging technologies disrupting banking services and, on the challenges, faced by the banking sector. Leading fintech influencers and C-level banking professionals participated in fireside chats, panel discussions, case studies and keynote presentations.

The conference opened with an inspiring keynote by Lav Kataria, Chief Operating Officer, IT & Operations Group, Qatar Islamic Bank who discussed how partnerships with the best technology providers help in the pursuit of becoming the best digital bank.

Conference Chairman, Thaer Sabri, Chief Executive Officer Electronic Money Association Member of the Board at European Payments Council and Member of European Commission Payment Services Market Experts Group remarked, “The 2019 Financial Innovation Summit provided an opportunity to discuss the latest developments in banking, payments and related financial services; including the open banking phenomenon and the recent developments relating to virtual assets. I very much look forward to future conferences to meet and discuss these topics with financial services professionals in the region”

Some of the highlights at the event included the Regulatory Panel, CXO panel and the Retail Banker’s Panel.

The CXO Panel featured speaker panellists, Georges Hobeika, Chief Operating Officer, Qatar International Islamic Bank, James Elwes, Chief Operating Officer, Qatar, HSBC Bank Middle East Limited, Narayanan Srinivasan, Chief Operating Officer, International Bank of Qatar, Abrar Ahmed Mir, Chief Innovation and Financial Inclusion Officer, HBL, Nvalaye Kourouma - Chief Digital & Innovation Officer, Absa Group Limited.

Exclusive fireside chats with Kaiser Naseem, Bank and Digital Transformation Advisory Services, IFC, and Frederik Bisbjerg, Business Mentor, Qatar Business Incubation Center (QBIC) was another event highlight. The discussions focussed on the importance of data strategy on the digitalization journey and the implementation of digital transformation strategies amongst others.

While Farshad Nowshadi, Vice President, eStrategy and VC at Level39-UK, Saman Bank spoke about the Best Strategies for Banks & FinTechs Collaboration and Technological Future Trends, Samee Zafar, Director, Edgar, Dunn & Company gave his insights on International Expansion for FinTech.

Various topics were covered from discussing the regulatory journey with an emphasis on getting fintech ready to transform BFSI through intelligent robotic process automation. Other topics discussed rolling out innovative technologies to boost payments experience, best strategies for banks & fintechs collaboration and technological future trends and much more.

Our confirmed sponsors are Gold Sponsors - Blue Prism and FourNxt, Associate Sponsors – Deloitte and Volante, Networking Partners – Innervate, Aurion Pro and NewGen and Start-up Exhibitor - Peyt.