The financial year 2020 has been a year of expanding our digital capabilities to deliver increased value from existing services and introducing new services for customers across the bank says Ahmed Al Musalmi, CEO, Sohar International 

– An OERLive Exclusive Interview

Please share some of the major achievements of Sohar International during FY2020?

The year 2020 has been an unprecedented year for businesses around the globe separating the agile and the resilient that have been able to navigate through the challenges and uncertainties. Despite economic challenges, Sohar International has been determined to deliver along with long-term sustainable growth, following an institutional building approach for the future successfully navigating the financial impacts of COVID-19, demonstrating a robust financial performance in 2020 – a testament to the strategic business continuity plan and crisis preparedness set forth by the bank’s leadership team and the collective performance of its workforce.

The bank reported modest growth in net loans and advances of two per cent to RO2,504mn.  The Bank continued to demonstrate its ability to source liquidity in a competitive market, where the deposit base successfully increased by 6.44 per cent to RO2,232mn. Amidst the socio-economic impact of Covid-19 and with a clear vision and strategy, the bank retains its focus on diversifying its income streams and optimising the expense base to maintain a healthy cost to income ratio, reflective of the strong underlying operating profit performance. During the year and with significant customer loyalty and trust, deposits witnessed the highest growth within the banking sector alongside a healthy increase in asset growth enabling the bank to achieve a market share of over 11.5 per cent, becoming the third-largest bank in size within the Sultanate. This significant milestone has positioned Sohar International as one of the leading banks within the country that continues to contribute to the overall socioeconomic scene within the nation acting as a positive catalyst for change.

Furthermore, Sohar International concluded a $100mn two-year syndication, which is a landmark transaction for the bank in the year 2020. The successful closure of the syndicated loan reflects the confidence of international banks in the Sultanate and in Sohar International as a local leading financial institution. During FY2020, we did not only meet our commitments but also, disbursed several big value financings to blue-chip companies highlighting the strong liquidity management abilities in turbulent times. 

A futuristic, institutional building approach has put several local, regional and international accolades to the credit of Sohar International covering performance, growth, brand, and CSR.  Earlier in the year 2020, the bank received Infosys Finacle Client Innovation Awards – frontrunner under the Innovative Custom Components category.  This was soon followed by the prestigious ‘Best Performing Banks’ in Oman Award by the UK based Financial Times.  Acknowledging the results of its sustainable growth strategy, the Bank received the ‘Best Bank (Large Size) in Growth’ Award at the Oman Banking & Finance Awards 2020.  Later in the year, the brand was rated within the top three best brand experience and received an accolade at Transform Awards MEA 2020.  Furthermore, in recognition for its outstanding contribution supporting the government and society during the Covid-19 pandemic, Sohar International was conferred with the ‘Industry Leadership in Social Impact’ award at the prestigious Alam Al-Iktisaad Awards 2020. The recognition is an industry benchmark and highlights the bank’s continued socio-economic commitment to the Sultanate of Oman and its people.

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced organisations to look at innovative ways to serve customers and ensure business continuity. How has Sohar International ensured continuous customer engagement and service without disruption?

It has been rightly said that “necessity is the mother of all inventions”, and the past year is a testament to the same. Individuals and corporates were made to think beyond traditional ways, channelling their imagination to innovate and make things better. How you use innovation to engage is another key learning. During a period of crisis, it is imperative to interact with customers, employees and the community at multiple levels, both personally and professionally. A good communication process is reflective of the individual, team and organisational performance where we replaced all physical connectivity with customers and other key stakeholders with digital technology to connect virtually.  

Sohar International has demonstrated utmost agility and resilience in adapting to changes posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The bank continued to serve its wide customer base with no disruption in overall service delivery, ensuring business endurance, enabled by a spontaneous responsive banking environment. We continued to grow our client base in line with our principles of providing more vision, more value, and more velocity.  From providing them with additional online capabilities to ensuring staff continue to serve and complete their duties with flexible working set-up at home.

One of the major activities that saw a paradigm shift was the bank’s prize scheme draw events that used to act as a platform to engage with customers and reveal the winners of the product.  With agility, and instead of eliminating the entire activity, we adopted the approach of virtual draws through our official social media platforms as first movers, therefore stay well connected to our customers and followers as well as ensure uninterrupted activities. This helped broaden the bank’s overall market coverage and audience. Other measures included precautionary imposed measures on all bank staff throughout the various premises and ensuring that our business continuity plans are well in motion being reviewed and adapted in response to the market.

The pandemic has accelerated the thrust towards digitalisation. Can you share the initiatives taken to strengthen the bank’s digital offerings?  

Year 2020 has been a year of expanding our digital capabilities to deliver increased value from existing services and introduce new services to customers across the bank. At the heart of our vision for the digital age is a collaborative approach to innovation, where we actively look to develop new, radical ways of working to maintain our competitive edge. To this end, we are adopting futuristic technologies to help validate, build, and grow our business. Accelerating digital transformation supports the bank in delivering further value to customers, improves existing services, and creates new areas of growth. In view of the current crisis, Sohar International continues to emerge strong by being consistent with a customer-oriented strategy involving a convenient banking experience. 

As part of its digital transformation journey, the bank commenced implementation of key technological projects that would contribute internally to automate and create efficiencies, and more importantly contribute towards the overall experience of customers and stakeholders in general; both retail and corporate. The ‘bank from home’ experience was enhanced through digital channels, higher cybersecurity and innovative products.  

Furthermore, Sohar International has managed to increase mobile banking penetration two-fold during the year 2020 as well as launch the exclusive Mobile Banking Service for SMEs (Sole proprietorship companies) which was received well in the market. Continuing to invest in existing digital platforms, the bank’s eFloos digital mobile wallet app ensuring quick, secure and easy payments was upgraded with additional features and services such as instant remittances to nine countries and other key functionalities including extensions to our POS terminals.  

The increasing adoption of technology is also enabling the achievement of other objectives of the government, such as ‘financial inclusion. An integral part of ‘financial inclusion is to provide timely access to affordable credit, which is a challenge for small businesses and SMEs. Sohar International consciously ensured access to credit, providing the required impetus to SME development. With businesses in lockdown for the most part of the year, SMEs were also provided with relief measures to minimise their financial burden. However, despite the adaptation of technology, Sohar International stays true to the belief that great customer service is still driven by human interaction. With that approach, the bank aims to broaden its product range and services for its customers with access to global marketplaces and insights.

Given the fact that technology plays a pivotal role in Sohar International’s short and long-term strategy, the bank is encouraging customers and staff to increasingly embrace digital platforms for engagement – while ensuring appropriate levels of awareness and adoption of best banking practice.  Certainly, cybersecurity continues to be at the forefront as the bank strives to embed digitalisation as a way of life.

COVID-19 has been a catalyst for significant change, has the bank taken significant steps in changing how it does business with customers? 

The year 2020 has provided us with learnings to plan for uncertainties and unforeseen crisis scenarios. The year has been an extraordinary learning journey for Sohar International as it stayed ahead of the curve, pursuing a prudent growth strategy aimed at being a “World Leading Omani Service Company that helps people, customers, and communities to grow and prosper.” The bank has emerged with greater confidence and renewed purpose continuing to redefine banking within the country, building better financial security for customers. 

With a highly skilled and experienced team of professionals, the Bank was able to guide companies on services that most efficiently meet their desired financial requirements. With service excellence at the core of the bank’s daily operations and considering the challenging economic environment, a dedicated Special Assets Group was created with specialised staff that can address and consult corporate clients in a timely and exhaustive manner. 

During the year, the bank also improved many business processes and reinvigorated the organisation structure of the Wholesale Banking Group with an objective to align the strategic business imperatives of the bank with the present operating business environment. This has allowed the Group to have pre-defined roles and responsibilities across various customer segments with a razor-sharp focus on effective & efficient service delivery. 

Nurturing and scaling up SMEs in Oman remains a key priority of the bank. SME business of the Wholesale Banking Group unit plays a vital role to nurture nascent industrial clusters in Oman. It continues to focus on following the government’s directives in diversifying from an oil-dependent economy and helping unlock the potential of the SME sector. In view of COVID-19 and its adverse impact on businesses – in particular, SMEs, which are a vital constituent of the economy, the bank, based on the spirit & guidance of the economic stimulus measures taken by the government through the Central Bank of Oman, had waived the interest and fees, and defer the due instalments appropriately. 

The SME unit is positioned as a knowledge partner, providing total business solutions to budding entrepreneurs, and introduce SMEs to entry-level risk management by educating them on early warning signs. Promoting the ‘Ecosystem Financing” to ensure cross-selling of products has been another key aspect to further assist them financially

A suite of services specially designed to meet the needs of the exclusive customer, the bank’s Wealth Management offering has been curated to provide fiduciary advice and highly customised financial and related facilities, that include a bouquet of exclusive products, services and features; all delivered with commitment and personalized attention. 

Sohar International has taken the economic challenges of the crisis in its stride and planned to help mitigate loss and increase probability. The bank aims to strike a balance between continuity and change. Taking into consideration the operational level, the bank works towards simple and faster service, staying connected to customers by offering them relevant products and services for their needs. Sohar International will set new benchmarks as a thought leader and an institution with a social conscience by promoting growth opportunities.