Dubai, 27 December, 2016: Emirates Islamic, one of the leading Islamic financial institutions in the UAE, is leading efforts to foster innovation in the workplace. The bank recently organised an ‘Innovation Day’ where various internal teams shared and showcased their innovations with working prototypes, to the bank’s management.

Emirates Islamic staff across business units participated in the event, designed to ideate and showcase innovative solutions in banking and financial technology. Emirates Islamic’s Innovation Day  was aligned with the National Innovation Strategy launched by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai as a primary tool to achieve UAE Vision 2021 in the finance and banking sector.

Commenting on the bank’s push toward innovation, Jamal Bin Ghalaita, CEO of Emirates Islamic said: “Banking today demands an innovative and fresh approach to keep pace with the evolving needs of our customers. Tapping into our internal talent pool for ideas allows us benefit from their varied skills and experience to create products that match customers’ expectations and needs. 

“I am delighted with the enthusiastic participation and strong ideas presented by our staff and we look forward to supporting feasible implementation of the prototypes. As a truly modern Islamic bank, we want our customers to benefit from the accessibility and convenience of the latest digital solutions, as we support Dubai’s aim of becoming the global capital of Islamic economy,” concluded Bin Ghalaita.

Some of the ideas presented included Snap Card, which applied augmented reality technology  to enhance customer experience in a retail environment; HR Panda, an artificial intelligence assistant that can automate more than 50% of the bank’s recruitment process, helping choose the right candidates for the right vacancies based on identifying the communication and soft skills of the candidates and Kids Banking which aims to introduce banking to children and incentivise them based on task management skills. 

Emirates Islamic has consistently taken the lead in innovation in Islamic finance with products, services and thought leadership initiatives designed to foster an innovation culture within the industry. Among the bank’s recent innovations are the award-winning Nasdaq Murabaha Dubai Platform and EI trade, a Shari’a compliant online trading and supply chain platform. Emirates Islamic was also the first Islamic bank in the UAE to launch a mobile banking app.