Mashreq Bank may not be the Middle East’s largest lender, but it is the region’s most digitally innovative and influential financial institution. Its digital journey was already well advanced when Ahmed Abdelaal was named chief executive in late 2019, but since then innovation has gone into overdrive.
The launch of its full-service digital bank Neo was a seminal moment. In November 2021, the bank got on board with facial recognition, allowing new Neo customers to access banking services by scanning their ID and using their face as the passport. A biometric service for corporate customers will be unveiled in the coming months.
Two months earlier, Mashreq launched a new supply-chain finance platform. Part of Titan, a digital corporate banking platform, it lets business clients onboard their entire vendor base.
“Our continued key partnerships and collaborations across the sector, combined with our passion for innovation, are shaping the future of financial services through convenience, innovation and trust, while delivering a seamless experience to our customers,” says group head of corporate and investment banking, Joel Van Dusen.
More than 65% of Mashreq’s customers interact digitally with the lender. By crunching connected costs, it has reduced its physical footprint by 80%. Today, 95% of transactions, across retail and SME and corporate banking, are carried out wholly online. Nor does it neglect its financials. The bank posted a net profit of Dh1 billion ($272 million) in 2021, against a Dh1.3 billion loss in the previous, pandemic-hit year.
And more big changes are afoot. Under the Neo umbrella, the bank plans to onboard all mass-market clients, doubling its client base to 600,000 and creating the region’s largest digital bank. Mashreq is focused for now on perfecting its digital offering in its core markets – the Gulf, Egypt (where it has a burgeoning consumer presence) and Pakistan.
Trade Tracker lets corporates view all transactions and track them in real time in a single window. Another key service, TradeFursaa, sucks in data from across the business and uses that and artificial intelligence to spot untapped opportunities for merchants and exporters.
Neo offshoot NeoBiz, a digital offering for smaller enterprises, flourished on its launch in the UAE in 2019, cutting the time it takes for SMEs to open an account from as much as three months to as little as 20 minutes. An expanded application to roll out NeoBiz services in Saudi Arabia was lodged during the awards period. After that comes Egypt.
Mashreq’s digital tentacles reach beyond the region. In August 2021, the lender joined forces with UPI, a digital interface developed by National Payment Corporation of India. The platform will allow more than two million Indians who travel to the UAE on business to pay for purchases via UPI’s app in thousands of domestic shops and stores.
Over the past few years, our digital capabilities have enabled us to provide the necessary resilience and support to our customers through disruptive times
Ahmed Abdelaal
Another new service, Trade Alert, collects data on letters of credit, confirms payments and issues alerts to let a customer know if they’re missing out on opportunities. It will be launched later this year across the Gulf Cooperation Council region.
“Mashreq continues to be ahead of the curve in adopting digital technology and a culture of innovation,” says Abdelaal. “This forms the backbone of our efforts to be the region’s most progressive and inspirational challenger bank. Over the past few years, our digital capabilities have enabled us to provide the necessary resilience and support to our customers through disruptive times.”
