Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank is working to transform its branch network to cater to increasingly digitally-savvy customers and broaden its customer base, according to its head of global retail banking, Philip King.
In an interview with the UAE’s The National, King said that ABID has so far reconfigured 75 of its 87 branches, and trained 98 percent of staff to operate using the new technologies.
Already, the digital efforts have resulted in a 48 percent increase in average monthly credit card sales as well as a 25 percent improvement in teller waiting times, he told the newspaper.
“We are looking to transform the size of the branch network…we may not need large branches going forward, but branches themselves will still be very important in terms of access points for customers,” King said. “We call them full-fledged branches but the will effectively be digital branches.”
Additionally, King said that the bank is considering further mergers of its branches. Four in Abu Dhabi have already been combined to form one large branch that serves priority and business clients.
“We merged some branches and we opened some where we saw opportunities,” he said. “Our branch network will be the size it requires to be to service our community.”
In the next phase of the strategy, ADIC plans to launch interactive teller machines, with the first expected to be rolled out as soon as February.
Source Arabian Business