Intelligent CIO Middle East Issue 107 | Page 9

NEWS

Authorised by Dubai Financial Services Authority , DFSA , the independent regulator

of financial services conducted in or from DIFC , Santander Private Banking , opened its first headquarters for regional private banking in DIFC .

Santander Group ’ s capabilities and international private banking platform , combined with DIFC ’ s world-class infrastructure , access to top talent , and legal and regulatory framework will allow Santander Private Banking to house a significant team of elite private bankers in DIFC . This team will serve current clients and extend the bank ’ s range of bespoke wealth management services to the rapidly growing high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth communities across Dubai and the region .

To formally welcome the bank to DIFC , Arif Amiri , Chief Executive Officer , DIFC Authority , recently met with Alfonso Castillo , Global Head of Santander Private Banking . Other executives that attended the meeting included Antonio Costa , Chief

Executive Officer of Banco Santander International SA , Switzerland ; Masroor Batin , Chief Executive Officer Middle East of Banco Santander International SA DIFC Branch , UAE ; and Ahmed Al Aulaqi , Vice President , Banks and Capital Markets , DIFC Authority .

DIFC has earned the trust of 230 banks , including 27 of the top 29 globally systemically important banks , G-SIBs , and more than 400 highly reputable wealth and asset management firms .

Banco Santander is a commercial bank , founded in 1857 and headquartered in Spain and one of the largest banks in the world by market capitalisation . The group ’ s activities are consolidated into five global businesses : Retail and Commercial Banking , Digital Consumer Bank , Corporate and Investment Banking , CIB , Wealth Management and Insurance and Payments , PagoNxt and Cards .

Crescent Petroleum ’ s solutions roadmap , which commenced in 2020 with Phase 1 implementation , representing the first global implementation of SAP S4 / HANA Oil and Gas Model Company 1809 at the time , supporting plant maintenance , procurement , project systems , finance , human resources functions and HSE functions .

This second phase of the project saw Crescent Petroleum work closely with SAP Services to implement Upstream Hydrocarbon Accounting Management , UHAM , including mass balancing , Integration with Plant Systems , Logistics , Management of Change , Resource Scheduling and Production Planning for its operations . Crescent Petroleum is the first company in the Middle East to roll out the UHAM module within the IS OIL solution stack of S4 / HANA .

The Phase 2 implementation was completed in a record time of 12 months and represents

Ravi Kumar

a significant advancement in Crescent Petroleum ’ s digital transformation journey , enhancing operational efficiency and enabling strategic growth .

Ravi Kumar , Chief Corporate Officer of Crescent Petroleum and Board Member of the Crescent Group , said , “ Having completed the Phase 1 of the SAP roadmap in a record 8 months , we set out to integrate Crescent Petroleum ’ s operations , providing a seamless flow of data , from Wellhead to Customer , in Phase 2 . The benefits are significant as we have integrated data across disparate parts of the plant allowing us to seamlessly integrate plant systems with SAP systems and ensure a single source of truth across the Company .”

Kumar added that digitising the processes has accelerated Crescent Petroleum ’ s broader objectives of determining real-time visibility of information across the entire company and providing insightful data for a range of digital initiatives planned in future .

SAP Services was chosen for the transformation project due to its considerable expertise in the global oil and gas industry as well as its close involvement and experience with Crescent Petroleum during Phase 1 .

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