As part of its ongoing efforts to develop its human capital, while preemptively addressing the latest digitization developments in the banking industry, Kuwait Finance House – Bahrain (KFH – Bahrain), a leading Islamic bank in the Kingdom, in collaboration with the Bahrain Fintech Bay, recently partnered with SettleMint  Blockchain Academy to organize a specialized three-day Blockchain Training Program. The training program held between July 9th and July 11th 2019 was attended by members of the Bank’s management team in addition to employees from various departments.

Mr. Matthew Van Niekerk, the Chief Executive Officer and Founder of SettleMint, with extensive experience in the financial services industry globally and in the blockchain technology space, led the training session; the program featured theoretical sessions as well as practical use-case application sessions.

Key theoretical concepts covered under the theoretical sessions included the history of blockchain and its impact on the industry, hashing and ledgers, distinctions between blockchain technology and traditional storage methods, types of blockchain, smart contracts and their uses for business, as well as examples the applicability of blockchain for different business models. During the practical sessions of the program, the participants divided into groups to brainstorm and develop a number of innovative use-cases potentially that can be applied within the Islamic banking industry. At the end of the program, each of the groups presented and discussed their use-cases in terms of applicability and the requisites for real-life implementation.

On this occasion, Mr. Abdulhakeem Alkhayyat, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of KFH – Bahrain, commented, “Financial Technology is shaping the direction of the financial sector and global banking, and as banking professionals it is increasingly important be aware of the latest technological advancements and to incorporate innovative state-of-the-art financial technology into our business models. Blockchain technology space is one of these advancements impacting the business world, and we focus on being proactive in this area with the aim of continuously enhancing our products and service offerings and automating our processes with the ultimate goal of better serving our clients.”

Ms. Sara Zainalabedin, Head of Human Resources commented, “We are pleased to have partnered with Bahrain Fintech Bay and SettleMint  Blockchain Academy to organize this training program; specifically designed to help business leaders keep abreast of the blockchain technology space and its applications, while applying latest state-of-the-art technologies into the business models within the various business areas at KFH-Bahrain. A number of innovative use-cases have been developed by the participants and we aim to implement these ideas into actual viable business solutions through more advanced technical tracks of the training program.”

Mr. Khalid Saad, Chief Executive Officer of Bahrain FinTech Bay revealed, “Blockchain is revolutionizing how business is being conducted around the world, and we are glad to have worked with our banking partners at KFH-Bahrain for the delivery of this program through our educational partnership with SettleMint  Blockchain Academy. The program was designed to further assist innovation leaders at the Bank to harness the power of blockchain, both now and in the future, as it continues to grow and transform the way business is transacted.”