As the race to solve food security and water sustainability intensifies, Future Banking by Emirates NBD and Emirates Islamic demonstrates the opportunity for UAE residents to become urban farmers. In line with the UAE’s aim to be the world’s leading hub in innovation-driven food security.
The exhibit featured a hydroponic vertical farm powered by smart technology, with interactive screens alongside to provide visitors a hands-on experience of the complete value chain of urban farming. Aspiring urban farmers in the UAE can benefit from a designed for purpose marketplace embodying the principles of a Connected Food Ecosystem powered by E20., the digital business bank by Emirates NBD Group. The marketplace aids aspiring urban farmers to choose their farm set-up, apply for a trade license and set up their business, and sell their produce online. The data-driven concept demonstrates how new farmers can monitor crop health and sell farm harvest to B2B clients through an online marketplace, thus creating opportunities for climate conscious residents to contribute to the UAE’s food security agenda and join the thriving SME sector.
As our lives turns increasingly digital, we each leave behind a data footprint – a precious and highly sought-after resource by companies looking to engage, market and sell to us. While individuals have had very little control of how their data is used so far, the Personal Data Economy concept imagines how digitally active individuals can control and monetise their personal data, with the bank’s platform acting as a broker to negotiate contracts on aggregated, anonymised data and generating a source of income from interested parties for willing customers.
In contrast to most retailers, banks are entrusted with sensitive financial information and deeply invested in robust security protocols which, in a future economy, would enable them to act as impartial intermediaries to aggregate, analyse and manage data consent while adhering to privacy and transparency guidelines. This way, customers can finally have a say in their personal data worth if they wish to monetise their information footprint in currency or kind via discounts and loyalty rewards.
Cybersecurity threats have exponentially compounded the risks of financial crime and fraud. With the advent of 5G and connected devices, as customer transactions increase, so will the challenge of managing data and deriving real-time actionable insights. This is where the increasing computational power of Quantum Computing (QC) comes in.
This gamified educational concept is underlined by Emirates NBD and Emirates Islamic's long-term advocacy of financial wellbeing and security. Visitors took on the persona of the bank’s fraud prevention officer and learnt how to spot real life fraudster attempts, using a Sherlock Holmes style method of solving scenarios. The concept challenged visitors to match wits with the QC, man against machine, to detect and block fraudulent transactions from being processed, while balancing customer experience to prevent false negatives.
As the climate crisis grows and sustainability takes centre-stage, the Green Citizenship concept enables visitors to envision how their daily individual choices can contribute to collective action that will benefit both their own health and that of the planet.
Underpinned by Emirates NBD and Emirates Islamic's long-term commitment to sustainability and wellness, the initiative is aligned to the UAE’s Green Agenda and aims to educate and incentivise visitors towards positive impact and change. The concept employs a smart mirror that sits in our future home and is connected to smart home appliances as well as wearable fitness and health apps to reflect, advise, track and reward good green behaviour. Positive green actions such as recycling, going paperless, conserving energy and water, as well as positive health actions such as eating healthy and protecting mental health, exercising regularly are tracked and rewarded through the bank’s Eco and Health points in their bank wallet to encourage a healthier and planet-friendly lifestyle.