Big data in banking

Emirates NBD

Abstract
A look at the improvements possible within Emirates NBD through the implementation of
big data technology

Saeed Iqtaish 22110102

Batool Alarmouti
Table of Contents
1 Introduction.........................................................................................................................................2
2 Organizational Study...........................................................................................................................3
2.1 Identify the organization..............................................................................................................3
2.2 Features and the operational areas of the selected organization................................................4
2.3 Stakeholders................................................................................................................................5
2.4 Challenges to the success of the organization's business............................................................5
2.5 Business Requirements................................................................................................................6
3 Research Study....................................................................................................................................7
3.1 Research Overview......................................................................................................................7
3.2 Analysis of Collected Data and Description of Generated Knowledge.........................................7
3.3 Research Findings......................................................................................................................20
4 References.........................................................................................................................................21

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1 Introduction
With the evolution of technology and the ever-growing amount of data being shared and
distributed every day, the term “Big Data” has come to light in recent years which represents the
massive amount of data, both structured and unstructured, being accumulated day after day
requiring new and advanced approaches to the storage, management, and analysis to keep up with
the fast-changing technological landscape of today. (Oracle, 2023)

Due to these circumstances, many corporations today have begun relying on tools and applications
specifically made for the purpose of working with big data such as Hadoop which is an open-source
software used for storing and processing big data that is widely used by many corporations
nowadays to manage the gigantic amount of data they accumulate. We also have Spark which is
another open-source software used widely for big data and is compatible with Hadoop making it
easy to integrate into existing solutions. (Amazon, 2022, BigDataFlare, 2020, IBM, 2023)

Big data has had a huge impact on operational efficiency in many different sectors, such as the
medical sector where the implementation of big data has streamlined the administration process
and allowed doctors to make much more informed decisions regarding their patients, and give their
patients specialized medication to reduce the possibility of any complication in the recovery
process. Big data has also affected E-Commerce significantly where it has helped vendors better
understand the wants and needs of their customers through the analysis of customer habits such as
their purchasing history and most liked products in turn helping drive sales and customer
satisfaction. (Kornella Batko, 2022)

Big data is also being used by governments today in many ways such as economic analysis to help
governments make better decisions regarding economic projects as well as tailoring government
services to individuals to increase efficiency and citizen satisfaction. It has also had a significant
impact on the banking sector, allowing banks to better handle customer relationships and make
more informed decisions regarding the funding of projects and giving out loans. (Grand View
Research Inc., 2021, Munné, 2016)

Banking is perhaps one of if not the most important service we use daily in our lives, however,
despite it being so important and playing a big role in our lives Banking services still find it difficult
to make informed decisions regarding some transactions such as which offers to give specific clients
whether it be credit cards or loans, whether to approve of loans being given out to clients or not
and so on.

Due to this inconsistency, I have decided to contact the Emirates NBD bank to better understand
how the implementation of big data can help improve the working of the bank, giving the bank the
option to give specific customers specialized offers based on data such as their income, and
spending habits (including places and services they spend the most on), and greatly simplify the
approval process for loans and other forms of funding for different projects and individuals.

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2 Organizational Study
2.1 Identify the organization
As for how I selected Emirates NBD as the company to conduct my research in, when thinking of a
field that could benefit from the implementation of big data, banking immediately came to my
mind as it is one of the biggest sectors in the world today. After deciding on the field I wanted to
conduct my research on, I then started looking for any specific banks that could benefit from, or
are already utilizing big data technology and finally decided on Emirates NBD as it has a very
advanced IT sector when compared to other banks as well as a big data department early in
development.

Here are the communication channels between me and the organization:

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2.2 Features and the operational areas of the selected organization
Emirates NBD operates in the public sector as it is owned by the government of Dubai, which
means that all profits made by the bank are poured back into the state (in this case Dubai) instead
of being split among shareholders helping improve the economy and infostructure of the state,
however, it also limits the banks' decision making as any decision the bank makes has to have the
interests of the community be a main variable and makes the implementation of any change
within the bank more complicated. It also operates in the tertiary industry sector as it provides a
service for people, that being the safekeeping and transferring of currency both in the UAE and
around some parts of the world such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and the UK.

There are many important fields with specific operational areas within any business that help it to
define and describe the processes and resources it uses to provide its products or services for
customers, some of the key operational areas within Emirates NBD are:

Customer service: customer service might be the most important operational area not just in
Emirates NBD, but in any bank as banks are solely reliable on their clients for business, so the
satisfaction of clients is always the banks’ top priority to ensure that client retention is as high as
possible, its operations include handling inquiries, resolving issues, and maintaining client
satisfaction.

Advertisement: Advertisement is also a very important function in Emirates NBD as it is the main
contributor to increasing the number of clients using the banks' services, in turn increasing the
banks’ profits, it mainly operates by providing possible clients with promotions that might entice
them to use the banks' services.

I.T (Information Technology): the I.T department could be considered the backbone of Emirates
NBD, as today with the explosion of digital banking and digital currency, and physical money
slowly disappearing, the IT department operations are responsible for building, maintaining, and
improving all the services the bank provides for its clients, ensuring that the operations of the
bank always run smoothly. I.T is mainly responsible for the implementation of new services the
bank wants to provide for its customers, as well as maintaining the operation of the services
already implemented by the bank.

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2.3 Stakeholders
Stakeholders, both internal and external, play a big role in the success of any organization, and
Emirates NBD is no exception to this, some of the internal stakeholders in this organization are:

 Managers, who are responsible for the implementation of any new services by the bank
for clients through strategic planning and decision-making.
 Employees, which contribute to the daily operation of the bank and the implementation
of new projects while ensuring all the banks' operations keep running at all times.
 Shareholders, which contribute to the top-level decision-making in the bank such as
merging with other organizations and provide the overall direction for the bank.

Some of the external stakeholders are:

 Clients, which are the lifeblood of the bank as without clients using the bank’s services it
has no way of making a profit.
 Community, as Emirates NBD is a government-owned bank, the community always has to
be a central part of the reasons the bank plans or implements any changes.

2.4 Challenges to the success of the organization's business

Any organization is bound to face some challenges in its operations, some of the challenges
Emirates NBD could face are:

 Legislation and industry standards, as Emirates NBD is a government-owned bank it

undergoes heavy regulation in all aspects of its operations since any decision it makes
must have the community of the state it follows in mind when making any decision that
could impact the bank's operations in a small or big way, this makes it so that the bank
cannot change its interest rates for loans or credit cards significantly which could make
getting any profits harder on the organization.
 The implementation of change in the organization, as any change in the bank could affect
the economy of Dubai, any changes that need to be implemented within the organization
must be approved by the government and go under a lot of regulations, making the
implementation of change within Emirates NBD very complicated with a lot of variables
that could hinder the implementation of any new projects in the organization which could
make the bank fall behind competition in terms of new and exclusive services.
 Implementation in different regions, as Emirates NBD operates in different parts of the
world, it could face some challenges with the implementation of different services while
trying to adhere to the rules and regulations of each country it has branches in as well as
meeting the local standards, making the range of possible new services the bank provides
very limited, which could hurt the chances of expanding into new markets for Emirates
NBD.
 Loan approval, as the process for approving a loan for an individual or organization,
undergoes a lot of regulations and has a lot of criteria that have to be met, making it

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 something Emirates NBD struggles with on a daily basis heavily affecting the efficiency of
operation within different sectors of the bank as it requires a lot of interviews and menial
labor while slowing down the rate at which the bank gets income, it can also cause the
bank losses if a loan were to be approved for someone who can’t pay it back to the bank,
resulting in a lot of trouble for the organization both from an economic and legal
perspective as the bank would have to press charges against the client for not paying
what they owe.
 Advertisement, as Emirates NBD always struggles with implementing effective
advertisement methods that draw more clients to use its services or entice current clients
to use new services and offers available to them such as credit cards. The advertising
department at Emirates NBD has a hard time figuring out what the specific wants and
needs of their clients are, this could be mitigated by analyzing the data of each customer
to better understand what advertisements could best fit their desires, however, the
process of doing such a task with the technologies currently available at Emirates NBD is
unrealistic as it would take a lot of time, labor, and cost.

2.5 Business Requirements

This research shows a correlation between the implementation of big data technologies and the
business requirements at Emirates NBD, specifically in the I.T, advertisement, and customer
service sectors where the implementation of big data could bring significant improvement to the
efficiency of operations.

The research shows that the aspects Emirates NBD struggles with the most are the approval
process for loans and advertisement, affecting customer satisfaction, and the operational
efficiency within the I.T sector in the organization. The approval process for loans faces a lot of
challenges as it requires a lot of complex work with a lot of different variables affecting the final
outcome where the approval or disapproval of a loan for a client depends on factors such as the
client's income and spending habits, after studying all these variables an employee has to make
the decision of whether to give the client the loan or not, requiring a lot of time and labor which
could be better spent in other operations within the bank, and failing to go through the process
properly and approving a loan for a client that is unable to pay it back results in a lot of trouble for
the bank, this could be mitigated by simplifying the approval process and reducing the amount of
work required of employees in the process as much as possible.

Much like loan approvals, advertisement within Emirates NBD struggles due to the complexity and
number of variables that could affect the process, where the advertisement department has to
pin down the wants and needs of their clients and base the advertisements they show them on
those needs. Identifying the needs of clients happens by taking all the available data on these
clients and studying it to determine what could entice them most to use the bank's services,
which takes a lot of time and effort which could result in the clients losing interest and moving on
to different wants and needs before the advertisement department can roll out the
advertisements targeting those clients, resulting in the loss of all the work done by the
department, in turn costing the bank much time and money without anything in return, this could

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 be addressed by making the process as easy as possible by providing certain classification for
clients based on their habits and making advertisements targeting set demographics.

3 Research Study
3.1 Research Overview
For the research I conducted in Emirates NBD, I decided to conduct mixed research with both
quantitative and qualitative methodologies with a focus on quantitative research by making a
survey for the employees within the bank focused on the main topic of this project, the
implementation of big data in banking. I decided on this style of research as for most of it I only
require quantitative research to try to set a hypothesis of whether it is possible to use big data in
Emirates NBD to improve advertising and the approval process for loans, while still needing some
qualitative research to explore the possible challenges such a project could face within the
organization.

As for the sampling method I employed for this research after some thought I decided to use
snowball sampling where after getting in contact with a manager at Emirates NBD, I asked them
to give the survey to other employees within the organization since getting in contact with many
employees and convincing them to take the survey would be close to impossible. It is worth
noting that my contact in the organization works in the IT department, which resulted in almost
all the participants in this research being employees or managers within the IT department as
well. I also made sure that all research was conducted in an ethical way where the survey the
employees filled out was completely anonymous with no way of being able to track any response
to the person who filled it out, and all employees that filled out the survey were not forced to and
did it with consent, I also made sure that none of the data collected was fabricated or tampered
with in any way with as little bias as possible.

Here is a link to the survey that was used for this research:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/
1FAIpQLSfBfmSX8aK9hvyVS5yl88JTFyTHH1gtPb6P0gH7m_59GqUyJQ/viewform?usp=sf_link

3.2 Analysis of Collected Data and Description of Generated Knowledge

In this section, I will highlight all findings of this research depending on the data collected through
the survey. First, it should be of note that the survey is split into two sections; one for
management and one for non-management to see the contrasting viewpoints (if such contrasts
exist) between the two sections within the organization. It is also worth noting that most of the
questions in the survey are close-ended, following quantitative research methodologies, while a
few questions are open-ended, following qualitative research methodologies to generate the best
possible data in order to build a strong hypothesis regarding the main subject of this project.

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The first question of the survey simply asks the participants if they work in management or not.

As the pie chart shows, out of 17 participants 41%, or 7 people who took the survey work in
management, let’s look at the data management section first.

The first question simply asks the participants if they are familiar with the focus of this research,
big data. Out of the managers who took the survey, 85% are familiar with the term while only 14%
are not, this is not surprising as almost all participants in this research work in the IT department.
However, it shows that despite most management positions not requiring much technical
knowledge, most managers within Emirates NBD are technically knowledgeable even when it
comes to relatively new subjects such as big data.

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The second question simply asks how familiar the managers are with big data technologies to get
a better understanding of the manager's technical knowledge, as the pie chart shows, most of the
managers are somewhat familiar with the subject which could help us conclude that if the
organizations were to incorporate big data technologies into its work, the managers should be
able to adapt to any changes to the operations of the organization.

The next question asks the managers if they ever managed a project related to big data to get a
better idea of whether the managers would be able to handle a project centered around the
subject, although the results are close, most of them at 57% stated that they never managed a
project related to the subject to get, this suggests that if the bank were to implement new big
data technologies, it would need to send the managers on training focused on the subject or hire
new one already familiar with the implementation of big data.

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This question asks managers if they think it would be possible to implement big data technologies
in Emirates NBD in an effective way with most managers saying that it would be very possible
while only 28% stated that it is somewhat unlikely to happen indicating that such a project would
not face many problems in Emirates NBD.

Here we asked the managers how they think the implementation of big data could affect the
operational efficiency within Emirates NBD where 1 is significantly worse and 5 is significantly
better, as we can see most of the managers say that it would improve the operational efficiency
within the organization and none of them picked it would make it worse signifying that the bank
would benefit from the implementation of big data with no clear downsides.

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Here we get the manager's opinion as to what is the best way to teach the employees in the bank
new big data technologies most of the managers at 42% picked that sending employees on
training specifically for big data technologies would be the best method, the organization could
utilize this data by improving its CPD program to allow employees to go on better more rewarding
training programs.

This is the first of two open-ended questions within this section where as you can see I asked the
managers if they think the implementation of a system that gives specialized offers to clients with
the use of big data is possible, and what would be the best way to implement such a system. Out
of the 7 responses, only two said that it is not possible, some of the other answers are:

 Yes, by training an A.I model that classifies clients based on their data.
 Yes. Start with a small set of customers to minimize risk and improve solution and
increase customer base with time as we feel more confident about it.
 Of course, it is possible, as such AI technology is used in social media, you can also
implement such a system that will send specified offers to custom customers based on
their activities regarding the bank transactions. The best way is to implement a
professional AI system, mostly international IT companies could offer this technology,
such as IBM, Dynamic Yield.

The managers who said it was possible gave slightly differing answers with some of them being
more technical while others were more concerned with the implementation phase and releasing
the service to customers. The managers looking at the technical side stated that such a system is
possible with an A.I model similar to what social media platforms use to provide users with
content catered to their preferences, while the manager concerned with the implementation and
launch stated that it would be best to launch it to a small set of clients and making sure it works
properly before making it available to all.

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This question asks managers how possible they think it is to use a big data system to automate
the approval process for loans with 1 being not possible and 5 being very possible, generally, the
managers lean towards it being possible to implement such a system with some of them being
neutral on the subject.

Here in the second open-ended question of this survey, I asked the managers what the biggest
challenges to an automated approval system would be and their answers were as follows:

 Data Privacy and Security, it is risky to give an AI program or system some sensitive details
of the customer, at least today, maybe later on circumstances might change.
 The amount of time and cost such a project would require.
 Lack of all needed customer data and cultural resistance by compliance, risk, and legal
teams.

Each manager provided a different challenge that could hold such a project back ranging from
technical problems like time, cost, and data security, to legal problems that could negatively affect
the bank if not handled properly when implementing this new system, Emirates NBD could use
this as a sign to make any projects regarding big data have a long term plan over 5 years or so to
insure that all these different problems are handled appropriately.

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The final question I asked managers was if they had any additional insights into what the
requirements might be to implement big data into Emirates NBD, sadly I did not get any
responses to this question.

That concludes the data gathered from the management section of the organization, now we will
look at the non-management section within the bank:

For the first question, I simply ask the employees in which sector of the bank they work, the vast
majority of the participants in this research, 90%, worked in the I.T department of the bank, which
is expected due to the sampling method used for this project which was discussed above.

In the second question, I asked the employees if they were familiar with big data or not where
most of them at 60% said that they were familiar with the term, however, 40% of them were
familiar with the concept is surprising considering that most of them work in the I.T department,
this should incentivize the bank to provide more robust training programs for its I.T sector, and

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possibly collaborate with some organization like Coursera to provide their employees with
courses that could improve their knowledge on similar subjects.

Here I asked the employees if they had ever worked on a project related to big data to get a
better idea of how familiar they were with the concept, at 80%, the majority of the participants
had not worked on any projects related to the subject implying that they have limited knowledge
on the subject, which is natural as most of the answers for the previous question stated that they
are not familiar with big data.

Here I asked the participants what aspects banking struggles with the most and almost all of them
at 90% said that client relations and satisfaction were a problem, with the approval process for
loans being a close second at 80%, this indicates that Emirates NBD should look at ways to
improve its customer service sector.

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Here I just asked the employees if they are willing to learn new technologies related to big data.

Here I asked the employees what the best way would be to learn new technologies related to big
data in their opinion, and they almost all chose to go on specialized training on the subject while
only one of them chose online courses and learning from home, Emirates NBD should use this as
an indication to improve its training and CPD programs for the I.T department.

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Here I asked the employees how much they think banking could improve from using big data
technologies with 1 signifying that it would be significantly worse while 5 signifies it being
significantly better, as the bar chart above shows, most employees believe it would somewhat
improve the sector.

Here I asked the employees what aspects could benefit most from big data technologies in
Emirates NBD, by far the two most agreed upon aspects were the approval process for loans and
advertisement implying that these two specific sectors have aspects that would greatly benefit
from big data technology.

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In this question, I just asked the employees how possible they think it is for a big data system to
be implemented in Emirates NBD in an effective way, and most of them said that it is very
possible.

For this question, I asked the employees what they think would be the biggest limitation
hindering the implementation of a big data system in Emirates NBD, by far the most picked option
was the lack of skilled or specialized personnel in the field of big data, with the only other option
coming close to it being the complexity of integrating such a system into the systems the bank
already has. This signifies that for Emirate NBD to implement any big data technologies into its
work, it first must build a robust big data department in its I.T sector with many employees skilled
in its implementation.

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This is the first open-ended question in the non-management section of the survey where I asked
the employees if they think it is possible to use big data for a system that gives clients of the bank
specialized offers and what would be the best way to implement it, almost all the employees said
that it is possible with only one of them saying that it is not, some of the employees responses
are:

 Yes, through the analysis of all the data regarding the specific customer and giving them
specialized offers based on the conclusion of that analysis.
 Yes, by tracking the payment amount and frequency to certain places and to classify
these places so we can know the customer's interest. Then we can specialize the offers
based on his interest and his spending.
 Yes, I think it could work through the development of an A.I model that analysis of the
clients data and classifies their wants and needs.

All the employees gave very technical answers as to how to implement such a system within the
bank, suggesting that it is possible by making a tool that analyzes the client's information such as
spending habits, and providing specialized offers to them based on that data.

This question asks the employees how much they think using big data to make a system that gives
clients specialized offers would improve client satisfaction within Emirates NBD, most of the
employees picked that it would improve it while others thought that it would have no effect
indicating that that the implementation of such a system would be a low risk investment.

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Here I asked the employees how possible they think it is to develop a system that automates the
approval process of loans through the use of big data, and most of them picked that it is possible
to make such a system.

For the second open-ended question of the survey I asked the employees what the biggest factors
hindering an automated system for loan approvals from being developed some of their responses
were as follows:

 The sheer complexity and scale such a system would require to work effectively.
 Complexity and lack of skilled personnel.
 The starting price of the project.
 Such a system has never been made so it would require a lot of innovation and R&D.
 Complexity of the system needed to do such a task.

Almost all the employees stated that such a system would be very complex making its
implementation very difficult and requiring a lot of innovation and research, as well as the lack of
personnel skilled in the field of big data, while some stated less technical obstacles such as the
cost and time it would take to develop such a system and integrate it into the organization,
Emirate NBD need to address all these issues before being able to implement a big data system
into its work.

All the data above suggests that the integration of big data into Emirates NBD would result in an
improvement in the operational efficiency of various sectors of the bank, specifically in the
customer service sector by utilizing the technology to provide clients with a tailored experience
and be able to better handle any problems a specific customer faces, increasing the overall
customer satisfaction. All these facts are supported by many studies and articles on the subject of
big data in banking, these studies claim that the implementation of big data into the banking
sector has a significant positive impact on the operational efficiency of almost all sectors of the
bank, such as the customer service sector by enabling the bank to give every client an experience

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 tailored to their specific wants and needs, as well as provide customers with specialized offers
using the same big data systems, it also enables the bank to make much more informed decisions
for lending and all other operations within the bank, decreasing the chance of wrong decisions
being made and costing the bank sever losses. (Le, 2021, Mishkovski, 2019)

3.3 Research Findings

The research above suggests that the implementation of big data technologies in Emirates NBD
would help many of the business requirements within the organization as it would solve many of
the problems the bank faces in specific sectors.

Most of the employees from both management and non-management stated that the biggest
problems the bank faces are the approval of loans and client satisfaction at 80% and 90%
respectively. However, according to the research, these are also the same fields that could benefit
the most from the implementation of big data technologies in the organization through the use of
a system that does the approval of loans automatically or automates most of the approval
process, and a system that gives clients specific offers and advertisements with the use of big
data, all relying on the customer's information such as income and spending habits, the
implementation of such a system would greatly reduce the work required of employees in the
advertisement and client handling sectors while improving the efficiency of operations in these
sectors. The implementation of such a system in these sectors would also provide the bank with a
better understanding of each and every client allowing the bank to better handle any problems
that face any customer, as well as provide services and experiences tailored to each customer's
needs, greatly improving the customer experience and satisfaction.

Many of the employees at 86% of management and 90% of non-management agreed that the
implementation of such a system would benefit the operational efficiency within the organization,
mostly within the advertisement and customer service sectors by greatly simplifying the work
required of each sector, however, the research also suggests that some obstacles hinder the
implementation of such a system into Emirates NBD, the most prominent of which is the
complexity of integrating such a system into the bank, and the lack of personnel specialized and
informed in the field of big data, the bank would have to first address these issues before
beginning to implement big data technologies into its work by hiring employees in both
management and non-management roles that are familiar with projects such as this one, as well
as sending current employees on specialized training for this subject, doing this would allow the
bank to implement the technologies into its work effectively, as well as improve the operational
efficiency within the I.T sector of the organization as all these additions would help expand and
diversify the I.T sector enabling it to perform its operation more efficiently, and expand the
possible projects the sector could work on in the future.

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BigDataFlare, 2020. What is Apache Spark and how is it used in Big Data. [Online]
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Grand View Research Inc., 2021. Big Data: Revolution To Transform Business Models. [Online]
Available at: https://indatalabs.com/blog/impact-of-big-data-on-business
[Accessed 27 November 2023].

IBM, 2023. What is Hadoop?. [Online]

Available at: https://www.ibm.com/topics/hadoop
[Accessed 18 November 2023].

Kornella Batko, A. Ś., 2022. The use of Big Data Analytics in healthcare. [Online]
Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8733917/
[Accessed 19 November 2023].

Le, T. N. Q., 2021. The Impact of Big Data on Banking Operations, Perth: Murdoch University.

Mishkovski, I., 2019. An Overview of Big Data Analytics in Banking: Approaches, Challenges and Issues,
Skopje: Cyril and Methodius University.

Munné, R., 2016. Big Data in the Public Sector. In: E. C. W. W. José María Cavanillas, ed. New Horizons
for a Data-Driven Economy. Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 195 - 196.

Oracle, 2023. What is Big Data?. [Online]

Available at: https://www.oracle.com/big-data/what-is-big-data/
[Accessed 18 November 2023].

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