Dubai UAE
Sallam Sallam
Commercial Bank of Dubai (CBD) is embodying the spirit of the UAE Innovation Month, an initiative launched by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Rules of Dubai, by prioritizing initiatives around promoting innovation within the bank.
The UAE is celebrating Innovation Month in February, with the goals of strengthening the country’s position as a global hub for innovation, enhancing the development of innovative ideas and capabilities, and creating a widespread culture of innovation.
With a similar objective in mind, CBD kicked off a bank-wide initiative late last year to promote innovation, particularly in the areas of digitization and customer experience. Throughout February, the bank has put special emphasis on this ambition by hosting a range of events, such as training sessions on “Agile Project Management” and “Digital Banking”, and an insightful keynote presentation on “Innovation and Digital Transformation in the Financial Industry” by Dr. Ali Fenwick, Professor of Organizational Behavior and Innovation at Hult University. The bank also launched a FinTech Demo Day as part of an effort to collaborate with global FinTech startups, from markets such as India and Australia, to help solve key business problems, improve efficiency and identify new opportunities across the bank.
Dr. Bernd van Linder, Chief Executive Officer of Commercial Bank of Dubai, said: “As a leader in the digital banking industry, CBD has always been committed to engage in the innovation drive that the UAE is witnessing. We were pioneers in launching UAE’s first digital-only bank, and have recently, launched CBD Lab, a corporate workspace opened in late 2018, which is focused on building a culture of innovation, collaboration and disruption within the bank.”
He added: “Through CBD Lab, we aim to showcase new and emerging technology to our employees, socialize across departments, facilitate design thinking and brainstorming sessions and introduce and test new tech solutions internally. We will also host innovation-focused activities for our employees, including an internal Innovation Challenge and a Hackathon.”
