Business Bureau, Gulf Today

GIB Saudi Arabia recently hosted ‘Digital Banking 4.0 - the new frontier’ event as part of the Fintech Tour 19. The event took place at GIB’s Innovation Centre located at its new offices in Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia.

Fintech Tour 19 is part of the Fintech Saudi initiative which was launched by the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority and the Capital Markets Authority alongside financial industry partners, including GIB, to support the development of the Kingdom’s Fintech industry. The Tour is one of the largest cluster of Fintech events in the Middle East, focusing on Spreading Fintech Knowledge and Accelerating Fintech Entrepreneurship. All Fintech Tour events are open to the public, allowing everyone the opportunity to participate.

GIB’s event discussed the key changes in consumer expectations and demands, how leading organisations are responding to these, and what impact these changes are having in the market overall.

These topics were explored by a panel of digital leaders, moderated by Andreas Skopal, Group Chief Digital Officer, GIB. Panellists included: Ross MacLean, Group CEO, Traffic Group, Ali Alshehri, Head of Transformation, PayTabs, Dr. Mustafa Faisal Ahmed, Lecturer at KFUPM and Hussein Buhaliqah, GIB Head of IT KSA.

GIB’s Group Chief Executive Officer, Abdulaziz Al-Helaissi commented: “We’re proud of partnering with Fintech Saudi to help both spread knowledge about new and innovative financial technologies that are shaping our industry and to support the ongoing development of the Kingdom’s fast-growing Fintech ecosystem. With GIB’s position as the first and leading digital bank in Saudi Arabia, we are particularly gratified to be able to put our knowledge at the disposal of the industry and leverage our experience to enhance the role we can play both as a digital banking provider and an industry partner. We were delighted to welcome attendees to our innovation centre and explore a range of topics related to how banks can leverage Fintech to remain responsive and customer centric during this exciting time of change and development.”

“We are very pleased to have so many great partners from across the Kingdom working together to support the acceleration of Fintech entrepreneurship and give everyone the opportunity to learn more about Fintech,” said Nejoud Almulaik, Director of Fintech Saudi.

Gulf International Bank Saudi Arabia (GIB Saudi Arabia) provides retail, corporate and institutional customers across the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with a comprehensive offering of banking and financial services covering wholesale banking, asset management, investment banking and retail banking service via meem by GIB.

The Bank, which is the first to be headquartered in the Eastern Province, has branches in Dhahran, Riyadh and Jeddah, and was established as a local Saudi bank in April 2019 after having operated in the Kingdom for nearly 20 years as foreign branches of the pan- GCC Gulf International Bank (GIB). The Bank, during this time, has been a pioneer in the local market, having launched its “meem” digital banking services in 2015, making it the first digital bank in the region providing Shariah-compliant products for retail customers.

GIB Saudi Arabia is regulated by the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA) and has been established with a paid-up capital of SR7.5 billion. It is owned equally by GIB and the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF).

Gulf International Bank (GIB) was established in 1976 during the first oil boom and is incorporated in the Kingdom of Bahrain as a conventional wholesale bank. It is licensed by the Central Bank of Bahrain and is headquartered in Manama in Bahrain.

Gulf International Bank, through its subsidiaries, provides its services in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries and internationally. The company offers structured financing and advisory services for corporate and institutional customers in various sectors, including oil and gas, LNG, petrochemicals, power and water, infrastructure, telecom and technology-based projects, and aircraft and ships; and underwrites and arranges limited-recourse term financing with a range of debt finance products, such as syndicated debt finance, Islamic finance, export credit, and capital markets.[3] It also provides a range of financial advisory services. In addition, the company offers asset and fund management services to the Middle East semi-governmental institutions and European financial institutions.

The bank had a tough time during the recession of 2008 and 2009 and its shareholders at the time, namely the Saudi Arabian government, injected an additional $1 billion of capital to prevent the firm from going under.