Rohit Dhawan, Chief Information Officer Bank of Kigali

Q- In post COVID-19 era, with the emergence and growth of FinTech and digitalization of banks what do you think would be potential opportunities of the banking industry?

Due to COVID there has been an acceleration in the changes and digitalization of various verticals in the Financial industry. This has created both partnership and competition between the banks and Fintech’s. Banks now don’t see FinTechs as threat but an enabling organization. An example is that the Fintech’s onboard a customer in the lower segment of the value chain much more efficiently, and as the customer matures for the need of more services and broader financial needs, they switch to banks. While banks lose out on the first part of loyalty on the customer adoption and volume play, what they gain is the tremendous value of an educated and a demanding customer, seeking broader services. This need of boarded services and maturity of individuals and businesses from Fintech to Banks in a way enforces the need to both the segments to collaborate. Due to COVID both banks and FinTech’s have now realized that to create the right balance they will need to partner and deliver based on the customer demand.

Q- Also, what would be concerns or challenges of the banking industry?

The biggest challenges that the banks today have is technology and regulation. On technology we are competing with the technology companies, Fintech’s, services companies, almost anyone who has human resource demand. Acquiring and Retaining technology talent is difficult and is driving innovation in human capability management. This is causing a lot of focus to move away from traditional banking practices. The rules of engagement are changing across. With the regulators, banks are finding themselves having an expectation to reduce costs of digital services and channels. While the volumes are growing and changes how banks are approaching technology implementations. Regulators are sometimes catching up and the dialogue that is taking place sometimes is positive and sometimes it is disruptive. The regulators are taking a risk free approach and new regulations on banks are being amended with a focus on safeguarding the customer and the economy. This is forcing banks to have a very cautious approach to Innovation, that is a challenge when they are facing competition from Fintechs who enjoy a head-start.

Q- What is the role of CIO from Developing policies to developing Infrastructure for Digital Transformation in the banking sector?

Transformation of a bank today is not digital, but the medium through which the transformation is preferred to be delivered is Digital. As every bank looks at what it is doing and where it wants to be, it needs to change the mindset and bring about focus on the customer and market demand, with a digital mindset. The appetite to automate is increasing and so is the need to speed up services. This requires the banks to invest, not on the Infrastructure but also on the process excellence. As we review and rewrite the process transformed with a focus on the customer the policies and governance around the services across the bank undergo a rethink. Infrastructure is undergoing a paradigm shift with technologies allowing the banks to stop building monoliths and move to a much more hypervised environments, be it on premises or on cloud. The focus on being available, fast and able to analyse data are the new tenants of adopting technology.

Q- According to you, who leads the way in change and transformation -Banks or FinTechs? Who inspires, who follows trends and who brings customer needs into perspective?

My response to this would be both, they both have customers needs at the heart.

What Fintechs are doing is they are targeting a unique segment which has a mass or niche requirement. They are transforming a segment of the customers by filling gaps in service areas that are deficient or noncompetitive. Banks are targeting a wholistic approach. They are providing the bedrock when seen as a larger picture. On trends, FinTech’s will always have an advantage as neither do they have the legacy or the attachments due to legacy, they can experiment. Banks are risk organizations, their appetite is lower of risk and hence, they will always remain cautious. But off late there are a few areas where banks have broken free of this limitation and are innovating. This is partly from the fact that banks are using the model of Fintech’s and creating small teams that are built to work as entrepreneurs and develop new strategies, products and services. Not as fast as a Fintech, but there is a definitive movement.

Q- What steps would you take in your organization towards building a Cyber Resilient and Digitally Empowered Economy?

WWe are already on a journey where we are treating API’s as the method to communicate. We invite partners and service providers to use our services through API’s. This allows us to provide and expose the bank as a service provider for various channels. We have a thriving Enterprise Service Bus that integrates the channel partners and make it independent for them to consume our modern and legacy systems. The partners do not have to explore how a core banking or accounting systems work at a bank. They get an API which is relevant to their purpose. They get exposed to is modern and performant system, which allows them the flexibility to develop and rollout services faster. And what banks retain is the ability to manage the ecosystem, without the complexity of directly exposing it to partners. We are working as an enabler in the Economy. We now provide not only banking services to Customers and Businesses, but also to companies that are expanding and innovating that are in need of transaction processing.

Q- What would you like to say to your industry peers and banking professionals who are looking forward to attend this conference?

As a banker we are tuned to measure everything on parameters of risk. I would urge all to look at the various innovations that are taking place and evaluate what works for you. All organizations and their needs are different, explore and experiment. Think out of the box and challenge the normal.