Superapp Vs Everything Bank

[Music] hello everyone thank you so much for joining us today we're going to be discussing a very interesting topic it's something that relates to every and uh every service that we take and use every single day it's uh about applications and we have here with us the experts so the panel is about super AB versus everything bank and to start this discussion I would love for you uh jaish to first introduce to us and just simplify the concept of everything bank and how does it compare to Super apps yeah thank you uh for having us uh look I I I think an everyday bank is supposed to help you give you the confidence to manage your money and grow it yeah that is the objective you have three aspects your money money you want to borrow and wealth you want to grow those are the three things we help you manage and do that I think what the super app helps you do is live your life with some of that money yeah uh your Karim right so when you're stuck in traffic yeah uh getting the food delivered that is what it helps you do yeah so I I think two great services to help you manage your money better and use your money better and I think this is something all of us use here let's let's take a a quick survey so by show of hands how many of you depend fully on uh applications your bank's applications applications like kareim other applications that use fintech everybody in the room and I mean I cannot remember the last time I went to the branch to do any transaction I do everything online and now that Kareem is also offering remittances and uh this service is of course gamechanging for Karim so let us uh if you can just give us a brief about this and why did you start this uh this line of business yeah uh no great great question so Karim has been on a journey over the past uh it's now 12 years it's called it started as ride hailing at some point we're like all right we're going to be a super app started investing in food grocery growing that and in the back of my our mind there was always this element of fintech and financial services being a core service and product that customers will need and that will keep them coming back and and engaging in the app now Kim P started as something very very different right uh if you kind of look at the early strategies es was not was not on the cards but it was one of those where at some point we were looking at it and you know if you think of Karim you have our captains you have our customers uh as well right and we saw that for our captains who kind of depend on Karim as source of income they need to send money home right so we started there and we built that service initially for the captains saw that going really really well uh and we're like all right if this works this is actually also quite relevant to customers and we started and we iterated and we we saw was there and what we found is people need to send money home like no matter how you look at it particularly in a densely expat heavy market like like the UAE it's the second largest market globally and I think the demographics as well are supportive because it's really young demographics is it is Young professionals right who come here to make a living build a life but still often want to support family home make investments abroad Etc and we kind of just found that the people found the convenience of of you know they already have their card on file with Kim they already trust the brand and you know it's it's been going really really well so this is amazing uh but to what extent do you think Jes it's easy for traditional Banks to integrate digital options and uh uh you know to take this consumer and client experience up to the next level to what extent is it easy some so you know I think uh you know the challenge I think building digital apps everybody can do I I don't think that's the challenge I think organizing a company so that the core Focus you have is making sure you give your customer great experience great knowledge transparency I think that is a challenge I think it's less a technology problem more a people and an organizational uh problem I give you an example at weo everything we do is focused on how does the customer end up being better than uh with us they added value to the customer added value to making it simple yeah so that they can understand what they do I think banks globally have done a good job yeah of convincing you you can't manage your money we want to give you the confidence back you're smart enough you can manage the money we'll keep it super simple for you you make the decisions yeah so I I I think the challenge is not building the technology it's building this mindset and organizing yourself around this idea at we we want to make money when our customers make money not make money when customers make mistakes yeah so it's a whole different approach and I think that's the challenge and what does that mean to Kim yes muham I just obviously I'm a whe customer I love love the product but it's there's a reason even what we do in Kim and US entering into financial services and doing well works it's because to to to J's point the way you're set up and the DNA of the people and how they come to solve the problem you're starting from a very very different place compared to a traditional bank right Traditional Bank in a sense will have their existing processes and then they're trying to take that existing process put it in a digital experience in a sense right versus when you're really building from the ground up everything is structured around how do you serve the customer from from the from from this new kind of Channel interface that that that they're going with but let me ask you this to what extent do you think that the uh requirements and demands of consumers and customers have changed over the past years and especially following Co because this is something we keep hearing about in all different type of Industries and specifically for financial services whether it's on applications whether it's in fintech or just traditional Banks they keep telling us that what customers wanted before Co is quite different from what they are demanding now so to what extent do you feel this yeah I I think a few things have happened one inflation has happened things are ton more expensive than uh your used to so you need to manage money better two I think consumers I think the last panel talked about content there's a lot more content and because we were locked down in covid we started consuming more digital content so customers are smarter they're more educated yeah uh and so you have a more educated customer base you have more content yeah that is being generated you have more pressure on income coming in and I think customers want to make smarter decisions I think the second big thing that happened is there's been a tech boom yeah so kareim started kareim pay yeah we emerged out of covid now you have this digital platforms which give you great experience transparency value and there is an alternative to the only thing you got yeah and so I think consumers are embracing all this and that's the big change in Behavior yeah if you don't serve me right I will find a platform that serves me right and I think the the other element of this is cust customer expectations about what they want on their fingertips is is just very very different postco right it was already you know you could see the the markings on this over the past decade but I think Co just completely accelerated this I think the the there is an element of I want something I want to do it now I want that pie fa and then I want to move on to the next thing that that that I want to do so that element of convenience on demand always being there for the customer just completely changes how uh the their their set of expectations and how you need to serve them remember when I first started to do more services and you know do more uh transactions uh on digital platforms I was worried about my privacy about data privacy I to what extent is is is this um me using digital apps may allow my phone or my laptop to be hacked so how do you integrate the element of privacy protection and data protection in your services J please so I I I think look it's this is a super important topic yeah uh we are regulated by the central bank and they have a very rigorous framework of data protection and I think they they come up with new practices and policies to continue to enhance that which I think is great for the consumer yeah uh so I think we have to thank the regulator for making sure uh this is taken care of as an organization we follow that and we make sure our consumers know exactly where their data is going to go yeah if we're going to ask for your location we're going to let you know hey we're going to ask you for a location we're not going to ask you questions for things that we are not going to consume but a third party might be able to use yeah so I think there's better governed Frameworks yeah for regulated industry like ours I think our regulator does a fantastic job of it uh but I think the challenge arises where regulations are not there yeah uh and when you just download a random app and start doing stuff but I think the Reg at industry the regulator has done a fabulous job how do you integrate privacy and data protection so so I I think there are a couple of things there there's obviously what you do to protect the customer which is incredibly important and that means having rigorous cybercity Frameworks within the company people who are dedicated to closing any potential breaches and gaps and making sure that the data is not compromised right there is your ethical standing I have to say as a company right and what you choose to do with the data like and and you know this the reality is while there are consumers who are super conscious about their privacy some consumers will just go through terms of condition and and that's part of the digital age right I'll just check a box and and and go through I won't even read through I've never read them never so that just written in a like n how many of you have read the terms and conditions when using uh digital apps okay we have a couple of hands good for you I've never done it but very rare right and so there the onus becomes a on the company itself and what it stands for because the reality is if you're building a company for the long term the thing that you can't mess up is customer trust right and even if you can get away with it at some point you will be found out and it's a very very long road to recover from that and the second aspect is obviously complying with regulations around this which are meant to provide you know kind of a more objective uh riew of this uh but I think for the customer ultimately it is about not just making sure you're worthy of the trust but you also need to build the perception of trust I think this is why particularly in the space of fintech it's really difficult for a company coming out of nowhere startup to just come in and say oh I'm you know I'm I'm just going to start taking care of all your financial needs give me all your information so building that is a as an art right you need to contextualize why you're asking for everything and all the permissions that you're you're taking from a customer but you also need some markers of trust so with with wi obviously you guys are launching you have you're backed by some of the largest known entities here in the UAE Kim has built a a brand of trust over over a decade right so we we got some leeway there so J earlier you mentioned something important that if we don't offer a certain service or if our quality doesn't meet the standard of the consumer or client they will just go elsewhere to what extent do you think that fintech today is a market that is very competitive so look I I think first fintech is amazing what fintech has done is brought customers more options yeah and companies that had been running for a long time that hadn't changed they're forcing them to change yeah so in competition consumers always win yeah I think so I think it's phenomenal I think uh where are we we started this phase where they said the finex are going to take over and the banks are going to die that didn't happen now they are working together uh I still think we are at the early stages of fintech I think there's a ton of new things going to come fintech is doing two things one is the pie of financial services revenue is growing because people who didn't have access to loans things you couldn't do are now possible through a more efficient platform and two is there's some reallocation yeah of who has what share I think what that ends up doing and with some of the new technologies that are coming in I think we're just starting I think we're going to see some of the coolest Innovations in the next 5 years yeah so we super excited about this we started this discussion we're with talking about technology boom and how that changed everything for us as consumers for governments for corporates as well and of course for app designers um ahammad when we look at what's happening globally it's an AI boom today it's all about blockchain Technologies Ai and it's disrupting and you know making huge transformations in all different sectors and industries how are you at kareim investing in Ai and to what extent you think that it will add to our experience with Karim yeah so a great great question so I think every company today has a responsibility uh to its customers and to its people uh to figure out how AI Works within within their specific use cases right and so at at Karim we're already uh investing quite a bit in increasing productivity for our employees through AI so whether you look at things like uh co-pilot right for our Engineers as they coding whether you're looking at things like actually enabling customers to use Chach PT so that they can do what what they're doing like whether it's writing a job description or you know we actually use quite a bit of that and even some of our creative uh creative studio uh in-house creative studio so there's one element which is around productivity there's another element which is around how do you serve customers better as a result of this and I think that's something we've been looking at quite closely in Karim we uh we launched something called ask Karim which is kind of your dineout guide so if you want to discover new places in Karim you're able to do that but effectively AI can also play a key part across all of your operations right so think of it whether it's matching supply and demand right think of it from a pricing perspective there's just so many use cases for AI within uh with within the company and yeah have we hit the Home Run of like oh my God this has just changed everything yet I wouldn't say say so at the moment okay but does it feel like there's something at the cusp 100% And I think if uh if we're not actively investing and looking at it we're going to miss miss the train so what about Ai and fintech so look I I I think we have a ton of stuff a lot of changes coming one operationally getting more efficiency two serving the customer better and I give you an example something we are looking at you get a bank statement this used to happen 50 years ago without having online banking now I can see all my transactions on my app but the bank statement still is very similar how about having a bank statement that you can talk to how did I do this month AJ you spent 5,000 more on food next month you've got some bills coming so let's try to be better next month yeah something that actually helps you rather than a bunch of data points yeah I think some of this stuff becomes practical with AI yeah where the ability for a consumer to manage their money becomes better the one I want from kareim is to say hey it's Thursday it's Biryani night you're going to send me the best Biryani without me ordering it that's the AI I want from them wait for it but but but I think there's so many use cases where your life becomes easier uh through some of this stuff yeah rather than just giving customers information which is not as relevant I I think just there is an element as well though of we do need to use it responsibly as well right so even something like this as soon as you want to be able to give customers accurate information right and there is an element where we we know AI still has you know and you look at conversational AI agents there are still some issues that could come up so I think just battle testing it really really well becomes uh quite important so let's make some news today are you working on some sort of collaboration between your two companies we always working always working together to what extent do you think that this sector needs collaboration between different 100% you know apps app organizers and app creators I I think one thing with technology I think this notion I will do everything myself is gone you have to work with different companies I think uh companies with similar dnas we have a great similarity in our DNA with kareim there are tons of things we look at some things work out some don't yeah but I think this is critical because the consumer is looking for this yeah I think companies that decide I'm only going to do what I'm going to do no partner with everyone else I I think they'll struggle to retain consumers yeah I think even it's it also depends on where you're coming at it from right so if if I I started my first fintech in this region five six years ago right and if you think of it as a fintech and then a bank right you had two issues right you have a bank that just does not want to work with you because they think they are able to do everything and and they don't need you and you have fch we like oh banks are horrible like why would we work with them you know and you know there's this huis around we're going to change the world on on our own I think we're in a much more mature place now as an ecosystem overall and I think there's just a realization amongst banks that Finch is going to loock a lot of value for customers and for Finch saying actually it's a lot more Progressive mindset right now and we gain more by by being in same I think there is only one way and that is forward everybody should just catch up and especially with this Tech boom and AI boom that we are seeing it's a wrap thank you so much for joining us at Finance week and thank you so much for coming here thank you [Music] what