Abu Dhabi sets stage for key industry players shaping future of finance

ABTEC paves way for more investment by banks in financial technology to drive revenue growth, meet customer expectations, stay competitive

Dubai, UAE, 8 June 2015: The MENA region’s largest trade showcase for the entire financial technology community opens in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday, pointing the way forward for banks and financial institutions to drive revenue through a greater focus on IT innovation.

Live demonstrations of technologies shaping the future of finance will be a key feature at ABTEC, the two-day event backed by the Government of Abu Dhabi, with leading industry players eyeing a US$13 billion a year regional financial technology market fuelled by a growing shift in the banking business.

ABTEC, which takes place at Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre, combines a series of conferences featuring a 30-strong international panel of influential speakers and an exhibition attracting more than 60 innovative technology providers from overseas and the Middle East.

While the event is set against a background of extensive technology initiatives introduced by regional banks in the last year, industry experts say much more of the same will follow in the drive to remain at the cutting edge of technology, meet customer expectations and remain competitive.

“Banks are relying more and more on technology to grow revenue and help them be efficient,” said Arnold Gutmann, Executive Partner, Gartner, the world's leading information technology research and advisory company and one of the conference speakers.

“Over the last year we’ve seen a continuing trend among banks, especially across the GCC, heavily investing in IT services that can support big data and analytics.

“Budgets opened up for software in the business intelligence space, followed by infrastructure and data centre, mobile, cloud, customer relationship management and security - but I would not call any one of those an actual game changer.

“Moving forward, innovation, flexibility, industry expertise and IT risk management are key priorities in the investment strategy of banks.”

Gutmann will take to the conference stage to assess how new digital technologies and business models can present banks with fundamental challenges, but at the same time foster urgently needed innovation and create new competitive opportunities.

The significance of ABTEC is that it is the MENA region’s first event bringing together the entire financial technology industry under one roof in order to analyse challenges, identify solutions and develop new partnerships. “This is the only platform where the industry’s brightest minds converge to shape the future of finance,” said Syed Faisal Abbas, Event Director of ABTEC organisers Turret Media.

The conference will spotlight new tools and innovations reshaping the electronic trading landscape, with speakers including Akl Noun, Chief Information Officer, Invest AD, discussing how the industry embrace change more effectively, and assessing the outlook for technology spending in the capital markets industry.

In one conference session, delegates will pick the brains of top Chief Information Security Officers, including IIyas Kooliyankal of ADS Securities, on security trends and future challenges.

ABTEC, whose sponsors include Platinum Partners ADS Securities and FIS, and Gold Partner AFS, fits in with official measures in the UAE to create one of the world’s most modern business environments. The UAE government declared 2015 as the Year of Innovation, while the Dubai Innovation Hubaims to position the city as a centre for innovation and creativity for over two billion people around the globe.