2022

Where are Middle Eastern Banks on Their Digital Transformation Journey?

Key Statistics at a Glance

• 31% have a fully agile operating model in place.
• 86% say they have a clear digital transformation strategy.
• 57% have made significant progress implementing their transformation strategy.
• 76% claim key decisions in their organization are being driven by customer-centricity.

Top Priorities for Digital Business Transformation in Middle Eastern Banks

• 29%: Growing revenue with new products and/or service offerings
• 23%: Improving the customer experience
• 18%: Challenging the threat posed by new market entrants (e.g., Google, Apple, Amazon)
• 14%: Growing revenue from existing products
• 7%: Reducing costs through improved efficiency
• 6%: Enabling greater agility
• 3%: New customer acquisition

COVID-19 Impact

• 48% said the pandemic was their biggest transformation barrier.
• 71% believe the increasing demand for digital channels during the pandemic will continue over the next 12 months.

The Failure of Past Digital Investments

• 34% said their biggest transformation barrier is the failure of past digital investments.
• 52% admitted the need for change, citing increased customer demand.

Regulatory Challenges

• 30% describe challenges with regulations as their top digital business transformation barrier.

Customer Experience Priorities for Middle East Banks

Data, product, and marketing are listed as the key focus areas for transforming the customer experience.

• 44% said their main customer experience priority is being able to combine customer data across different systems to obtain a richer understanding of their customers.
• 42% are prioritizing the ability to offer new services and products to help advance their customer experience transformation.
• 38% said advanced marketing and branding was a priority. Interestingly, no other region listed this as a key focus.

Operational Transformation: What Are the Priorities?

We asked 90 banking leaders about their operational transformation priorities. Here’s what they said:

• 42% declare modern cloud-based systems to be their top priority for operational transformation — a pattern similar to that seen in Australia.
• 42% said investing in developing new talent is an operational priority, compared to just 24% focusing on existing talent.
• 38% rate gaining insights from data and analytics to better understand their customers as their main focus.

How Do Banks in the Middle East Think They Rank Against the Competition?

• 66% of banks think they’re ahead on all fronts.
• 21% think they lag their competitors in key development areas.

Digital Transformation and ESG

• 78% say ESG is a key driver of their digital transformation plans.
• 70% think their ESG strategy is giving them a competitive advantage.
• 44% are feeling significant pressure to improve their ESG credentials.

Ahead on Diversity

Middle Eastern banks are ahead of the global average when it comes to driving diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), with 49% of respondents saying their organization has made DEI commitments, compared to just 35% globally.

For more information, contact: james.whitaker@publicissapient.com

Found this data useful? Get a global perspective. Download the report.