The meeting had expert speakers from major international consultancy firms, who, along with the members from the Group discussed and interacted on various topics including digital trends and future of banking, digital transformation, customer experience in digital era, and FinTech. The meeting also discussed the importance of efficiency and resource optimization in the implementation of the Units’ Digital Strategy.
Mr. Adnan Ahmed Yousif, President and Chief Executive of Al Baraka Banking Group, in his opening remarks, stated, “Al Baraka has always kept digital transformation and innovation at the forefront of its strategy and we are proud to see today that our Units globally are shaping their own digital journeys and leveraging their potential to better serve our customers”.
In his opening presentation, Mr. Ahmed Albalooshi, Senior Vice President – Head of IT, focused on the importance of winning in the Digital Era and the huge opportunities that can be leveraged to enhance profitability and business growth.
Al Baraka Banking Group has always focused on digital transformation as a top priority and has to its credit, several achievements with the most recent award received by the Group as the Most Innovative Islamic Bank of the Year at the FinX 2018. Another important achievement is the launch of the Al Baraka Global API website as a step towards innovation in Open Banking. The much-acknowledged digital-only Islamic bank in Germany “Insha” is now on stream and is providing services to the German market, flooded with locals and expatriates who are eager to partake in the Digital Only Islamic banking services. Finally, the Group, through its Turkish subsidiary, proudly claims to have established a new FinTech company “alneo” in Turkey that focuses on e-payments.
The meeting was attended by Al Baraka Units from Turkey, South Africa, Algeria, Egypt, Bahrain, Sudan, Pakistan, Lebanon, Morocco, Syria, Tunis, and Jordan.
Al Baraka Banking Group B.S.C. (“ABG”) is licensed as an Islamic wholesale bank by the Central Bank of Bahrain and is listed on Bahrain Bourse and NasdaqDubai. It is a leading international Islamic banking group providing its unique services in countries with a population totaling around one billion.
The Group has a wide geographical presence in the form of subsidiary banking units and representative offices in 17 countries, which in turn provide their services through over 700 branches. Al Baraka Banking Group has operations in Jordan, Egypt, Tunis, Bahrain, Sudan, Turkey, South Africa, Algeria, Pakistan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Morocco and Germany, in addition two branches in Iraq and two representative offices in Indonesia and Libya.
ABG and its Units offer retail, corporate, treasury and investment banking services, strictly in accordance with the principles of the Islamic Shari’a. The authorized capital of ABG is US$ 2.5 billion.
ABG is rated BB (long term) / B (short term) by Standard & Poor’s and BBB+ (long term) / A3 (short term) by Islamic International Rating Agency (IIRA). IIRA has also rated ABG on the national scale at A+ (bh) / A2 (bh) with a fiduciary score of 81-85, the highest level amongst Islamic Financial Institutions in the region.
