KARACHI: “Technology is reshaping the banking industry worldwide and Pakistan needs to quickly adapt to latest trends and shift its focus to solve the customer’s pain points,” said Planet N Group Chairman and Founder Nadeem Hussain.

Speaking at the Centerm Dialogue on Digital Banking on Wednesday, Mr Hussain — who also founded the Tameer Microfinance Bank — said the local commercial banking industry is still in the stoneage and does not understand the persona of their customer base.

“Local banks are sitting on a gold mine — the customer data — but haven’t made much use of it,” he said. With a one-size-fits-all policy, they have lagged far behind in developing financial products to cater to different market segments and needs, he continued.

If the banking industry doesn’t innovate and understand customer segmentation, young fintech companies — with better analytics — will eventually eat up the traditional markets, the veteran banker cautioned.

According to Hussain, banks do not see any incentive in innovating as majority of their bottom-line comes from risk-free treasury bills. But their backwardness also presents an opportunity as there is a huge market that still needs to be tapped, he added.

Published in Dawn, January 24th, 2019