Changes, Challenges and Disruptors

DIB - the world's first Islamic Bank - is bringing in technological revolution in the way it operates with changing times.

Over the past four decades, the Central Bank of the UAE has been instrumental in revolutionising financial services across the country by continually improving operational efficiencies and making the sector more accessible. In the past couple of years, it has embraced digital transformation to ensure greater efficiency and a higher level of operability.

As a result, the UAE has witnessed many regulatory advancements that aid economic progress, most notably higher investment flows and rising visitor numbers. As the country embarks on its most visionary strategy to date, Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB) remains fully aligned to the defined agenda and will continue to be guided by the Central Bank of the UAE in its efforts to realise the vision of the nation's leaders.

As the lines between the digital and physical realms become increasingly blurred, we have witnessed profound changes on how disruptive technologies has become more commonplace. This has presented the UAE's banking sector with certain challenges that must be overcome in order to maintain business continuity.

The main challenge facing most UAE banks is finding ways to make their customer banking experience stand out. The UAE banking sector is dynamic and arguably 'overbanked', and in order to navigate the complexities of the market, the adoption and implementation of technological advancements has been key to establishing points of difference between the competitions.

Dubai Islamic Bank has driven unprecedented enhancements over the past few years to its customer experience through 'tech that helps', and in line with the country's digitisation efforts and being the world's first Islamic bank and the largest in the UAE, the acquisition of Noor Bank has unlocked synergies and has been value accretive for both shareholders and customers. The acquisition was fully committed to ensuring that the new banking experience is seamless for customers of both banks. The culture created focuses on leveraging the transparency and speed provided by technology, fostering a feeling of trust in the system and the organisation as a whole. This has provided us with secure platforms that have helped elevate processes, increase efficiencies across vital operations and improve infrastructure in the organisation.

On the 40th year anniversary, we would like to extend our sincere congratulation to the Central Bank of the UAE for this landmark achievement of celebrating progression, advancement and innovation, and thank them for the steadfast efforts they have undertaken over the past four decades.

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