Emirates NBD partners with Virtusa’s digital innovation hub to
implement and launch emiratesnbdlab.com to drive innovation and digital
transformation
SOUTHBOROUGH, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 16, 2019--
Virtusa
Corporation (NASDAQ GS:VRTU), a global provider of digital strategy,
digital engineering, and IT outsourcing services that accelerates
business outcomes for its clients, announced today the successful
implementation of the Middle East region’s first Open Banking Sandbox
with Emirates NBD, a leading banking group in the UAE.
The Open Innovation Platform, developed by Virtusa’s innovation hub, is
a cloud-based sandbox environment that promotes a culture of
collaboration and innovation by connecting financial institutions,
FinTechs, corporates, educational institutions and technology startups.
It helps financial institutions tap into the opportunities that leverage
emerging technologies to solve real business problems. The platform will
enable Emirates NBD to accelerate the pace of digitization and
innovation by complementing the bank’s internal capabilities with
emerging technologies.
“Many banks are struggling to keep pace with dynamic FinTech firms
and tech giants that are developing and launching new banking
applications at a ‘Silicon Valley’-like speed. At the same time, banks
have to deal with the changes brought about by Open Banking and other
regulatory changes. Juggling the demands of these forces is extremely
difficult and requires banks to enable much greater agility that
empowers innovation,” said Senthil Ravindran, executive vice president
and global head of xLabs, Virtusa.
The Open Innovation Platform will provide Emirates NBD access to ready
proof of concepts and help transform a concept into working prototypes.
Additionally, the platform incorporates design thinking, lean start-up,
and agile development principles, thus facilitating accelerated
innovation with fewer resources.
“Emirates NBD has been happy to partner with Virtusa to debut the
first API Sandbox by a UAE Bank. This collaboration has enabled us to
offer the right tools for enterprising FinTechs and developers who can
now turn their creative ideas into real working prototypes, which
we would then test with real customers,” said Evans Munyuki, chief
digital officer at Emirates NBD. “We aim to accelerate innovation to
continuously bring new and differentiated experiences to our
stakeholders.”
“Virtusa is proud to partner with Emirates NBD in the launch of the
region’s first Open Innovation Platform. Our engineering skills and
in-depth understanding of banking has enabled us to build a platform
that brings banks, FinTech firms, and developers together in one place,
allowing them to innovate and improve the Digital Banking experience for
all customers,” said Vasudev Telikicherla, senior vice president and
head of Middle East Business, Virtusa.
Virtusa’s Open Innovation Platform powers the Banking
Industry Architecture Network’s (BIAN) digital API exchange to help
banks drive faster open banking innovation and also powers the ASEAN
Financial Innovation Network’s (AFIN) APIX
platform – the world’s first cross-border, open architecture
platform for Financial Institutions and FinTechs to collaborate and
catalyze digital innovation while driving financial inclusion. APIX was
launched by Prime Minister of India, Mr. Narendra Modi and Deputy Prime
Minister of Singapore, Mr. Tharman Shanmugaratnam on November 14, 2018
during the Singapore FinTech Festival.
For more information on Virtusa’s Open Innovation Platform, visit: www.virtusa.com/oip
About Emirates NBD
Emirates NBD is a leading banking Group in the region. As at 31st March
2018, total assets were AED 475.6 Billion, (equivalent to approx. USD
129.4 Billion). The Group has a significant retail banking franchise in
the UAE and is a key participant in the global digital banking industry,
with over 90 per cent of all financial transactions and requests
conducted outside of its branches. The bank was declared the Most
Innovative Financial Services Organization of the Year at the 2017 BAI
Global Innovation Awards.
The bank currently has 228 branches and 1057 ATMs and SDMs in the UAE
and overseas and a large social media following, being the only bank in
the Middle East ranked among the top 20 in the ‘Power 100 Social Media
Rankings’, compiled by The Financial Brand. It is a major player in the
UAE corporate and retail banking arena and has strong Islamic Banking,
Global Markets & Treasury, Investment Banking, Private Banking, Asset
Management and Brokerage operations.
The Group has operations in the UAE, Egypt, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,
India, Singapore, the United Kingdom and representative offices in China
and Indonesia.
The Group is an active participant and supporter of the UAE’s main
development and community initiatives, in close alignment with the UAE
government’s strategies, including financial literacy and advocacy for
inclusion of People with Disabilities under its #TogetherLimitless
platform. Emirates NBD Group is an Official Premier Partner of Expo 2020
Dubai. For more information, please visit: www.emiratesnbd.com
About Virtusa Corporation
Virtusa Corporation (NASDAQ GS: VRTU) is a global provider of Digital
Business Transformation, Digital Engineering, and Information Technology
(IT) outsourcing services that accelerate our clients’ journey to their
Digital Future. Virtusa serves Global 2000 companies in Banking,
Financial Services, Insurance, Healthcare, Telecommunications, Media,
Entertainment, Travel, Manufacturing, and Technology industries.
Using a combination of digital strategy, digital engineering, business
implementation, and IT platform modernization services, Virtusa helps
clients execute successful end-to-end digital business transformation
initiatives.
Virtusa engages its clients to re-imagine their business models and
develop strategies to defend and grow their business by introducing
innovative products and services, developing distinctive digital
consumer experiences, creating operational efficiency using digital
labor, developing operational and IT platforms for the future, and
rationalizing and modernizing their existing IT applications
infrastructure. As a result, its clients are simultaneously able to
drive business growth through digital-first customer experiences, while
also consolidating and modernizing their IT application infrastructure
to support digital business transformation.
Holding a proven record of success across industries, Virtusa readily
understands its clients' business challenges and uses its domain
expertise to deliver innovative applications of technology to address
its clients’ critical business challenges. Examples include building the
world's largest property & casualty claims modernization program; one of
the largest corporate customer portals for a premier global bank; an
order to cash implementation for a multinational telecommunications
provider; and digital transformation initiatives for media and banking
companies.
Founded in 1996 and headquartered in Massachusetts, Virtusa has
operations in North America, Europe, and Asia.
© 2018 Virtusa Corporation. All rights reserved.
Virtusa, Accelerating Business Outcomes, BPM Test Drive and
Productization are registered trademarks of Virtusa Corporation. All
other company and brand names may be trademarks or service marks of
their respective holders.
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Source: Virtusa Corporation
Amy Legere
Greenough
alegere@greenough.biz
(617)
275-6517