Will The Uae Be Cashless By 2020?

Shehzad Hameed, Head Retail Banking, Standard Chartered Bank, UAE

In line with the world’s most forward-looking economies, the United Arab Emirates is working to lead the digital front across the global economy. One may say that for a country with 75 percent of its transactions cash-based, the goal to become a cashless society by 2020 is aggressive.

Can this be Done?

The UAE has one of the highest mobile phone penetrations in the world, according to the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority. Global information company, Nielsen, has reported that for every 100 UAE residents about 78 of them own a smartphone. The adoption of digital technology is even wider in the UAE, with its tech-savvy young and affluent population.

A Potential $3 Billion Market

Indeed, there is a widespread desire throughout the GCC for greater convenience in the financial transactions space. According to some, this can create a potential $3 billion market in the UAE alone by next year.

Modern technology has led to a significant evolution in the payment space, where traditional wallets can now be easily replaced with a mobile phone. Most payment transactions for which the customer needs to visit a bank’s branch can now be executed simply through online or mobile banking.

This has made the movement and management of money digital, extremely easy and hassle-free. At Standard Chartered, for example, we have seen a massive shift in the way customers interact with us. At present, 98 percent of our total transactions are Shehzad Hameed being channeled through our digital platforms.

Security is a Concern

Cashless, contactless and frictionless payment transactions are the future; however, the perennial debate over security and privacy also needs to be addressed. Failure to prevent fraud is not due to a lack of secure solutions, but a lack of wider adoption of a consistent standard.

The average person will always want the highest level of security possible to protect their assets, but in practicality, they are only willing to trouble themselves to a certain degree. While they want fast, unhindered payments, they also do not want to go through tedious authentication levels such as trying to remember long and complex passwords or carrying around tokens.

Cashless Payments a Top Priority

As mentioned above, the UAE aims to become a cashless society by 2020, as per the Smart Government initiative. Digital commerce and cashless payments have been identified as top priorities in the UAE Vision for 2021. The UAE mobile wallet initiative is also known as Emirates Digital Wallet, which will connect the entire payments ecosystem including banks, exchange houses, billers and other financial entities, is already in the development phase and is planned to go live by early next year. Furthermore, the Wage Protection System, under which the UAE's 4.7 million migrant workers will be paid electronically, is another great example of the UAE’s effort to create an all-inclusive digital economy.

Mobile Wallets Integral to a Digital Future

Although banks are partnering up with mobile payment ventures to enable digital payments, some may think that there is a grave danger emerging of Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM ) wallet providers and other technology giants such as Samsung, Apple, and Google taking the lead in the payments space. Banks are experts in providing financial services and have come a long way in digitizing their products. Mobile wallets are simply add-on services that are an integral part of the industry's digital future.

Mobile wallets enable banks to provide an all-inclusive payment ecosystem, thereby increasing customer convenience. Wallets can be viewed as a complimentary accessory amongst many other accessories that can be used as a plug and play. Digitization helps reduce the cost of financial transactions in the economy as they trim down the cost of acquiring and serving customers.

To drive digital usage, banks need to invest heavily in the user interface and user experience and must also ensure that their customers feel secure while banking digitally.

Challenge to Become the Digital Main Bank

It is here that banks will need to offer the best service in terms of ease of use, control, management of functionality and security. Banks must also invest time in educating customers on moving to digital channels to drive the shift from traditional branches to more effective digital mediums. Standard Chartered had realized the importance of this fairly early and it is for this reason that we are front runners in this space today. We had geared up our technology budget and laid out a solid transformation strategy. Our award-winning online and mobile platforms have been recognized globally and this is evidenced by our leading position in the adoption space. Over 65 percent of our clients actively use the online and mobile channel and 98 percent of all our transactions are clocked through digital channels.

We have recently launched Touch ID login, which makes the login experience easy and secure. This is coupled with the use of OTP for financial transactions and SMS alerts which improves our security further.

We empower users to transfer realtime to key markets, reap the benefit of real-time rates, utilize exciting offers on the go and pay bills at the touch or click of a button. In addition, our digital offering also delves into the customer onboarding journey, where through our Retail Workbench initiative; we harness the power of technology to ensure a paperless account opening process at the customer’s doorstep; within this, we also provide real-time approvals in case the client wants a Personal Loan or a Credit Card. This all falls in line with the UAE’s digitization strategy. We are not the only banking embarking on this journey; the entire industry is actively marching towards a mutual goal.

While the UAE is slightly behind a few other countries in the adoption of mobile payment services, there is every reason to believe that it will definitely become cashless by 2020 given its robust infrastructure.

Financial

Retail

Fraud