Banks need to embrace opportunities and support use of blockchain technology, says Rakbank CEO

Peter England, CEO of Rakbank, made news after he stressed that banks around the world need to support firms that are developing blockchain technology. The statement from the CEO came during an interview with a local daily, the Arabian Business.

The enthusiasm of the CEO towards blockchain technology is understandable as his own bank uses blockchain and distributed ledger tech for settling international cross-border payments. During the interview, England spoke about the importance of DLT, and how blockchain is revamping the banking sector. He said,

“Blockchain technologies do have the potential to disrupt the financial services industry and create a gap in the market for innovative solutions, which is why banks need to embrace opportunities rather than resist challenges.”

RakBank has integrated RippleNet in its cross-border remittance services and uses the decentralized tech to provide instantaneous cross-border payments to Axis Bank beneficiaries based in India. England wants to reap the riches of low-cost bank remittances, along with the live transaction confirmations. He added,

“Appetite for technology improves economic participation and competition and there is clearly a role for banks to play in developing and supporting companies engaged in the blockchain.”

The Rakbank CEO is pro-technology and also spoke about the use of Artificial Intelligence, apart from blockchain, a technology that has helped the bank in interacting with its customers through chat-bots. The use of chat-bots have made it easier for the bank to identify pending requests, which are then forwarded to human advisers and make the whole process swift. England went onto add,

“By using AI technology to power our chat-bot, our employees are able to get answers to their queries easily and in real time.”

Although the bank is still in the initial stages of implementing AI framework, the enthusiasm of the CEO towards modern-day technologies is certainly going to take the bank a long way.