UAE-headquartered Emirates NBD , provides retail , wholesale and corporate financial services across the Gulf state and international markets . To increase the speed and flexibility of IT delivery while controlling costs , it embarked on an ambitious multimillion-dollar initiative to transform its end-to-end technology infrastructure and practices . Miguel Rio Tinto , Group CIO , Emirates NBD , tells Intelligent CIO Middle East , why the group embarked on transformation to become an innovative , always-available bank .

With a centralised private cloud platform built with Red Hat container , integration , and application programming interface ( API ) technologies , Emirates NBD has simplified collaboration with third-party partners , cut development cycles by months and launched innovative digital engagement capabilities to compete with cloud-native companies . Now , it can take advantage of emerging technology to offer the services modern consumers in key markets demand .

One of Emirates NBD ’ s strategies to meet customer expectations for convenient , real-time banking was the launch of Liv , an award-winning digital bank targeted to millennial customers who prefer to manage accounts , financial goals and services digitally . The bank partners with third-party providers to offer personalised lifestyle content and deals . Liv is now the fastest-growing bank in the UAE . To continue this growth , Emirates NBD needed a scalable , resilient foundation for rapid , digital-native innovation .

“ We had limited capacity in our servers , so every time we grew quickly , we needed to add more hardware . We couldn ’ t easily plug in with partners to get their services to our customers quickly and cheaply ,” said Jayash Patel , Head of Liv , Emirates NBD .

Miguel Rio Tinto , Group CIO of Emirates NBD

Setting ambitious digital banking goal

As one of the largest banks in the UAE , the Emirates NBD Group , provides retail , wholesale , and corporate financial services to customers in the UAE and international markets , including Egypt , Saudi Arabia , India , the United Kingdom , and Singapore . Like any large financial institution , Emirates NBD ’ s competitive landscape has changed significantly with the emergence of local and international nontraditional competitors .

“ It ’ s no longer about competition from other banks but from new companies that are entering the financial services market with much more flexible , less expensive cloud-native IT platforms ,” said Miguel Rio Tinto , Group CIO of Emirates NBD .

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