Finastra event highlights key considerations when launching a digital bank

Finastra event highlights key considerations when launching a digital bank

Dubai, United Arab Emirates: Finastra, in partnership with Connect Global Group, brought together senior stakeholders in financial services for a virtual event, to discuss the most common mistakes made when launching a digital bank, and most importantly how to avoid them.

Moderated by Tim Tyler, Head of Strategic Advisory, Universal Banking, Finastra, the panel included: Nameer Khan, Chairman and Founding Board Member, MENA Fintech Association; Ankit Agrawal, VP, Head of Customer, Products and Operations and Co-Founding Member, Liv. Digital Bank by Emirates NBD; Sridhar Iyer, Executive Vice President and Head of Mashreq Neo, Mashreq Bank; Olivier Crespin, Co-Founder and CEO, Zand; Marwan Abouzeid, Global Principal Solutions Consultant, Finastra.

Tim Tyler opened the discussion with insight on the financial services landscape, noting: “Whereas fintechs often operate with a ‘move fast break things’ mentality, banks, as highly regulated entities, face higher risks of penalties when things go wrong. Digital banks strike a perfect balance of the startup world with the security of banking, however, there are many challenges with getting this right. One big question to ask is do banks transform or respawn? Will the winners be the digital startups, or the digital spin-offs?”

5 key considerations highlighted by the panellists are:

1. Building on an