Experts exchanging insights at panel discussion entitled ‘FinTech and the Impact it has on Fighting Financial Crime’ at the 15th MENA Regulatory Summit.
Doha, Qatar: During a panel session held yesterday at the 15th MENA Regulatory Summit, industry experts uncovered a range of perspectives on how law enforcement agencies and regulators can fully harness the potentiality of FinTech in order to successfully counter the threat of financial crime.
The panelists included Dr. Leonie Lethbridge, Commercial Bank’s Chief Operating Officer, Nick Court, Assistant Director at Interpol Financial Crime and Anti-Corruption Center, Elias Kokaly, Head of Deployment Strategy at TRM Labs, Sarah Al Mawlawi, Director of Corporate Information Security at Ooredoo Qatar and Aditya Kumar Sinha, Head of the Fintech & Digital Innovation at Qatar Financial Centre (QFC) discussing on the topic ‘FinTech and the Impact it has on Fighting Financial Crime’. Dr. Lethbridge highlighted on Commercial Bank’s dedication to advancing the industry. In a statement to the Press, Joseph Abraham, Group CEO of Commercial Bank said: “We are pleased to have been part of the 15th MENA Regulatory Summit as the Innovation Partner. At Commercial Bank, we recognize the importance of actively collaborating with regulatory bodies and our banking peers to support events that harness digital technology to promote innovation in the financial sector.”
Abdulla Al Fadli, EGM and Chief Compliance Officer at Commercial Bank stated “A successful compliance program in the MENA region requires appropriate (need-based) training and developments to foster a sustainable culture of compliance. Our participation in this summit underlines our commitment to staying at the forefront of the industry, utilizing cutting-edge technologies to combat financial crime, by way of real-time monitoring, behavioral data analytics, enhanced authentication, pattern recognition, and predictive analytics to combat financial crime. As a result, contributing to the overall integrity and stability of Qatar’s financial landscape.”
During the discussion, Dr. Lethbridge remarked that growing with the prospects of technology is one of the primary focuses of the bank in order to provide better services and outcomes. She said, “In our fight against financial crime, it is a combination of technologies that are, for instance, we use quite complex algorithms in fighting terrorism.”
In addition to that, she outlined that bots are much in use to make decisions better and faster, while huge investments are being made towards AI. “And it is really important again that you design the technology so that it is supported by design,” she added.
“I think that we can leverage the exposure to innovation and the different technologies to solve the problems that the financial institutions are facing to combat the cybercrime and fraud and financial crime,” said Sarah Al Mawlawi expressing the need to leverage the technology.
She said, “We need to ensure that the problems are well defined to have the technology effectively addressing that specific problem and not other problems.”
Al Mawlawi noted that this collaboration is very important and having that exposure to more technology as a core business can add and contribute significantly to the regulators.
On the other hand, QFC official Aditya Kumar Sinha stressed that several new frameworks are coming to resolve the issues.
“As we see an uptick in digital products and services and the foundation from traditional to digital, there is demand for technology and services and how we look at this sector, Sinha said. He pointed out that while technology is a solution, it can also be a threat. He said: “Computing quantum computing, with its power of technology, can crack the keys and other network security. But on the other hand, if it is used ethically, it can be a solution to do fast and much more.”
