The UAE Banks Federation (UBF) has emphasised the importance of continuously improving the banking sector and staying up-to-date with the latest trends to maintain its leading position in protecting digital infrastructure and enhancing the security of payment solutions.
The banking federation said banks must keep pace with the rapid developments and transformation in technology to support, accelerate and advance digital infrastructure while providing the highest level of security and cybersecurity.
Speaking at the Threatcasting event hosted jointly with Mastercard, Jamal Saleh, Director General of UBF said the UAE banking sector is one of the most innovative, advanced and technology-intensive sectors.
The Threatcasting event is a part of UBF’s continuous efforts to ensure a safe banking experience in light of the rapid technological advancements in the banking and financial sector. The event helps anticipate potential future threats to know the most expected risks that can occur considering the adoption of these modern technologies, and to develop appropriate solutions to deal with them.
Mastercard is working with futurist Brian David Johnso, Professor of Practice at Arizona State University’s School for the Future of Innovation in Society, and several economic, social and cultural experts and professionals in the public and private sectors to conduct workshops and exercises to develop practical models to anticipate and understand potential future threats over the next ten years.
“Collaborating with the pioneers of future sciences confirms UAE Banks Federation to keep up with the latest developments to maintain the leading position of the banking and financial sector in the UAE, as anticipating future threats (threatcasting) is one of the latest strategies in the world to keep pace with rapid developments, especially concerning modern technologies such as blockchain, artificial intelligence and quantum computing,” said Saleh.
The event saw participants from the various member banks of the federation divided into groups, with each group to study potential threats and their effects on the financial and banking sector and the best possible ways to deal with these threats to ensure the safety of the digital infrastructure, and that customers are not affected by any threats.
Saleh emphasised the remarkable growth in the adoption of advanced banking technology in the UAE and the high level of customer confidence in the banking sector.
The UAE ranks second in the world in terms of customer confidence in banks with 84%. This motivates the federation to explore future directions to maintain these gains and achieve further successes so that the banking sector can play its role in economic and social development.
It is worth noting that the threatcasting strategy focuses on different aspects that can affect a specific sector. Thus, its application in the banking and financial sector contributes to the development of appropriate scenarios and solutions for fraud prevention, expected changes in the legal and regulatory framework and maintaining customer confidence.
The banking federation said banks must keep pace with the rapid developments in the sector to provide the highest level of security and cybersecurity.
