March 20189ultimate focus is on protecting the customer assets as well as our assets, the inevitable point is that customer's mobile devices and PCs could be compromised. Each day, there are cases of identity theft, social engineering, and so on. Beyond just merely creating awareness for customers, we believe there is ample scope for improvement in the area of security. Security being a primary challenge for us, we have to also contend with the technological side that still relies on the continued use of old architecture on the backend, which is a core environment for banking. Legacy systems have been in use for close to three decades and we constantly work with our partners to evolve out of legacy systems, failing which our ability to integrate with mobile devices and other functionality is heavily hampered. As we try to bolt newer capabilities on older architecture, we are faced with great complexities, which greatly slow down the developmental process. For the road ahead, we see a huge potential in the idea of voice banking. In the evolving mobile arena, we can foresee the use of bots to provide instant services to customers while proving to be cost efficient in an automated fashion. The impact of artificial intelligence throws light on the emergence of new products and services that can be integrated into mobile products in the lending and investment arena besides traditional banking. Among our endeavors is to find new banking technologies, for example, being able to activate and deactivate debit or credit cards, or alter settings based on who uses the card, the purpose of usage and the days of usage, particularly while sharing the card with family members. Card providers have built these capabilities with API, but the integration into our overall environment takes a lot of time behind the scenes. Among all the possible initiatives, we would like to have a lot more plug and play capabilities in order to leverage all the innovation that is going on in the industry.It is important that technology leaders should not just play a technology leadership role but a business leadership role as wellZahid AfzalThe Rungs on the Success Ladder It is important that technology leaders do not just play a technology leadership role but a business leadership role as well. A technology leadership role could lead to significant advancements in technology but if it does not connect the dots with the rest of the company and its mission, then it becomes technology for the sake of it. My advice to my technology counterparts is they have to understand the business they are in. They do not need to be an expert; however, it would be important to know what banking is, how customers are served and how shareholder values are created. Also, nurturing and training talent is important as it is difficult to acquire and retain talent especially on the technology side. Money is usually not the deciding factor in an employee's decision to leave an organization; the deciding factor could be the unavailability of opportunities or challenges within the organization. It is important to have an environment where people know that they have a continued career growth and an assurance that they are continually learning and growing.
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