#FutureFinanceFrontiers: Digital transactions of tomorrow

During a panel discussion at the Internet Commerce Summit (ICS) MENA 2024, moderators Ian Hooper, Partner Payments Leader, Global Banking Expert, PwC and Luis Jardim, Senior Manager, Payments, PwC Middle East opened the conversation around digital transactions of tomorrow by highlighting how the power of e-commerce and digital channels are opening up avenues of growth for financial and insurance companies.

It is no more about reinventing e-commerce keeping in line with the rising and evolving customer expectations but all about creating something new, inventing a new paradigm, pointed out Javed Akberali, Co-founder & Managing Director, WELLX.

Rahul Matiwadekar, Chief Product Officer, Insurancemarket.ae added that adapting to the right payment channels and methods helped them grow their reach, making the platform available to a wider audience.

The future is all about digital transactions and Brad Whittfield, Co-Founder and Chairman of Cashee mentioned that to keep it GenZ and youth-centric they had to plan on a strong banking model that is accessible in a click. Now they are looking to extend this model to traditional banking and that’s where the success will lie.

Lito German, Chief Executive Officer, BayaDIRECT Payments presented a different side of reality and highlighted that his team is working with the “left-behinds.” While one side of economy is highly tech savvy and always ready to click their way through every transaction, there is also a large population of immigrants who do not even have a proper bank account. This is where BayaDIRECT comes into the picture to make it seamless for them and takes their cash to pay their dues and bills digitally. German’s team is the touchpoint that is helping this population gain more digital foothold.

Both Akberali and Matiwadekar agree that insurance is more a grudge purchase, and consumers end up buying insurance because it is mandatory. So, it is important to make the buying and claim experience more frugal, easy and as much fun as possible. It is all about listening to the consumer about their needs and then allowing the best experiences to take the centrestage. Be it helping them split their payments through an EMI plan or allowing them to claim a discount by making them play a small game, it is all about making the customer happy with their purchase journey in a seamless way.

Incentivising the process of acquiring an insurance and gamifying the process helps the experts attract the right customers and it builds long-term connect as well with the customers. It is all about making the customer responsible for their actions without having to give them lectures or scary anecdotes. The new wave of e-commerce is all about making the process more attractive and consumer friendly instead of being daunting.

Overall, this session highlighted how Fintech & BFSI leaders are rewriting the playbook for modern digital insurance, banking and financial innovations and at the same time inventing new ways of new customer acquisition, retention and engagement.