Ala’a Eraiqat, group CEO and executive director, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB) discusses steering ADCB beyond the global financial crisis, maintaining high morale in the workplace, and emphasising customer experience and digitisation.
June 07, 2016 | The Banking ConversationEmmanuel Daniel (ED): Ala’a Eraiqat, I’m very happy to have you here to speak with me today in your capacity as chief executive of Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank since 2009. In fact, these numbers of years have given you the chance to build a franchise that you can effectively call something that was built with your own hands. It is a position that you rose up to at the time when the bank was in a position of need, and now you have built a bank that can probably be said that, in the context of the Gulf states, in a position of strength. In a lot of ways, you have done that by keeping focus on a proposition that exists in your mind and I would like to draw from you on that proposition.
Give me a sense of what was in your mind when you were first approached to be chief executive of this bank. You were already working in the bank and you have come from other banks, so you are a banker by profession, but an engineer by training, which then makes your way of thinking a lot more precise and a lot more defined. So, take us on a journey from the time in which you became chief executive of your bank.
Steering ADCB beyond the 2008 global financial crisis
Ala’a Eraiqat (AE): Thank you, Emmanuel. It is always an honour and a pleasure to be with you. ADCB as a franchise has existed since 1985 and the financial crisis of 2008 has, of course, had its toll on not only ADCB or banks in the Middle East, but the world. As a result, I was given the challenge and opportunity to lead my team into the challenging days from 2009 onward. Yes, it sounds much easier reflecting on it right now, but it was challenging days. It was a dark period for the financial industry worldwide, and we had no choice but to go back to the basics.
ED: What was ADCB at that time? By virtue of its balance sheet, what was it?
AE: It was half its balance sheet of today, approximately, or...
Categories:
Interview Transcript, The Banking Conversation, Transaction Banking, UAEKeywords:Distressed Assets, Korea, Philippines, Vietnam, Asian Crisis, Argentina, China, Slowdown, Middle East, Bulge Bracket
Ala’a Eraiqat, group CEO and executive director, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB) discusses steering ADCB beyond the global financial crisis, maintaining high morale in the workplace, and emphasising customer experience and digitisation.
June 07, 2016 | The Banking ConversationEmmanuel Daniel (ED): Ala’a Eraiqat, I’m very happy to have you here to speak with me today in your capacity as chief executive of Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank since 2009. In fact, these numbers of years have given you the chance to build a franchise that you can effectively call something that was built with your own hands. It is a position that you rose up to at the time when the bank was in a position of need, and now you have built a bank that can probably be said that, in the context of the Gulf states, in a position of strength. In a lot of ways, you have done that by keeping focus on a proposition that exists in your mind and I would like to draw from you on that proposition.
Give me a sense of what was in your mind when you were first approached to be chief executive of this bank. You were already working in the bank and you have come from other banks, so you are a banker by profession, but an engineer by training, which then makes your way of thinking a lot more precise and a lot more defined. So, take us on a journey from the time in which you became chief executive of your bank.
Steering ADCB beyond the 2008 global financial crisis
Ala’a Eraiqat (AE): Thank you, Emmanuel. It is always an honour and a pleasure to be with you. ADCB as a franchise has existed since 1985 and the financial crisis of 2008 has, of course, had its toll on not only ADCB or banks in the Middle East, but the world. As a result, I was given the challenge and opportunity to lead my team into the challenging days from 2009 onward. Yes, it sounds much easier reflecting on it right now, but it was challenging days. It was a dark period for the financial industry worldwide, and we had no choice but to go back to the basics.
ED: What was ADCB at that time? By virtue of its balance sheet, what was it?
AE: It was half its balance sheet of today, approximately, or...
Categories:
Interview Transcript, The Banking Conversation, Transaction Banking, UAEKeywords:Distressed Assets, Korea, Philippines, Vietnam, Asian Crisis, Argentina, China, Slowdown, Middle East, Bulge Bracket
