RIYADH — The CEO of HSBC Global Banking & Markets Samir Assaf said during a session in the second day of the Future Investment Initiative Forum here, that FinTech is a great opportunity for the banking industry as the sector is flexible and can adapt easily.

While he said banks need to have real partnerships with technology giants, Assaf pointed to a partnership between HSBC and Alibaba in Hong Kong to provide IT services, especially in iCloud computing, data collection and technology use.

Assaf revealed that the HSBC Group invested a huge amount in technology amounting to $9 billion in order to reach the current situation.

On the first day during a discussion on “Exponential growth (fintech future) how can business leaders prepare for fundamental technological transformation?”, Samba Bank CEO Rania Nashar said, “We are embracing #digitisation and making it part of every business unit. Today customers are using mobile and are comparing banks to tech-driven services — they want banking but they don’t want banks.”

Her views were echoed by Khalid Al Rumaihi, chief executive of Bahrain Economic Development Board, who said, “More than in the West, we believe FinTech is going to take root in emerging markets. Large unbanked populations and migrant workers are increasingly being served by new technologies for their banking needs.”

On Wednesday, the Future Investment Initiative Forum continued with the participation of a wide presence of experts and leaders from around the world, covering areas of artificial intelligence and digital transformation, at a time when the Saudi investment environment has seen attractive reforms for foreign investment in various fields.

This comes at a time when Saudi Arabia’s economy is growing and the cash reserves of 1.8 trillion Saudi riyals (480 billion dollars) have increased by 1.4 percent, confirming the strength, importance and centrality of Riyadh in the world, both on the investment and economic levels. — SG/Al-Arabiya English