CBFS: Innovating a seamless banking experience

Commercial Bank Finance Services (CBFS) is one of Qatar’s top three licensed brokerage houses, regulated by the Qatar Financial Markets Authority (QFMA). Established in 2011, CBFS is a wholly owned subsidiary of Commercial Bank with paid-up capital of QAR 700 million. Their business mission is to become a "Brokerage House of Choice" for domestic and international clients by offering them first-to-market and best-in-class products and services leveraging digital technology to help them meet their financial goals.

CBFS provides customers with secure platforms to trade on Qatar Stock Exchange listed stocks, bonds and Treasury bills. Customers can trade directly through numerous channels during trading hours, i.e. online and mobile trading applications from anywhere during market trading hours. Clients can also call their dealing room phone lines to place their trades. CBFS also provides periodic local and global market economy and company research for clients to help them make informed investment decisions.

The long-term strategy with which CBFS operates is by providing clients with the services and products that are important to their financial needs. Concrete steps have been taken to educate the public about the Qatari stock market and give these members the tools to facilitate their trade. This entails creating competitive market products that are up-to-date and attractive to create these long-life relationships.

CBFS dedicated brokers have years of experience and are constantly in touch with customers to provide instant service. It also helps improve the company's satisfaction scores. All this experience and up-to-date customer requirements are crucial when developing online services. CB Waseet is CBFS's flagship app, designed to give customers a secure connection. It is a multifunctional app to satisfy their trading needs during market hours. The latest interaction design principles and the upgrade of the underlying technology provide customers with continual improvement enabling them to trade more straightforwardly and faster.

Compared to 2021, there has been a multifold increase in the usage of digital trading channels. Most trade transactions now come from mobile and online channels and are constantly changing customer usage. The COVID-19 pandemic reaffirmed their investments in technology platforms, products, and people as part of a strategic plan, as it has given them greater resilience and the ability to adapt quickly to capture changes in

customer behaviors. Due to these digital investments, CBFS has been able to meet and deliver the services customers demand in the new normal. COVID-19 fundamentally shifted how CBFS interacted with their clients with more and more financial transactions executed through mobile, online and other self-serve channels. CBFS are steadily heading towards its goal to enable clients to perform 100% of their transactions from anywhere using bestin-class self-serve platforms.

Moreover, CBFS awards are a testament to innovation and excellence. Recently, CBFS has launched a new website with an ultrafast market feed which is among the fastest in the market. The new website also includes unique market analysis to help customers understand the market behavior. CBFS excel in bringing the best practices, new technology and products relevant to clients' changing needs. Their Margin Product continues to enjoy excellent take-up by customers as it offers unmatched flexibility when it comes to holding positions while enhancing the purchasing power of the customers.

CBFS has added Asset Management to its repertoire of services and will soon launch Liquidity Provisioning and Market Making functions which will further strengthen the market standing and provide us with an insurmountable lead to becoming the brokerage of choice. Our dedication to fulfilling and complying with regulations allows us to build trust with the community and regulators to build mutually favorable market conditions in which clients feel enabled to trade and diversify their portfolios with CBFS.

Rashid, Director, Commercial Bank Financial Services, where he discussed how CBFS intends to stay on top with core enhancements and future updates. Shahnawaz Rashid thanked International Finance for recognizing the innovation and awarding them with the Most Innovative Mobile Trading App for the second consecutive year.

Shahnawaz Rashid explains, “Despite the recent success, CBFS is keen to maintain its innovation culture since it is a strategic goal. The next step for innovation is to bring smarter utilization by customers through the usage of data science and machine learning to deliver a seamless reallocation of customer limits that will further personalize users’ trading and investment experiences. It will understand your behavior and trading patterns to ascertain customer limit requirements”.

Data is the most crucial element of today’s trading infrastructure. This element allows the provider to establish a one-to-one relationship with its clients and ensures that all operations remain relevant to the market needs. With this in mind, he says that CBFS is willing to take the use of data to the next level. He said, “One of the things that we’re trying to do with big data is to say that we can predict things, for example, by identifying previous patterns and explaining to clients the results of these patterns and then we can propose potential solutions to them".

Shahnawaz Rashid is aware that all these new technologies have one thing in common. They have the potential to disrupt the financial services industry in a meaningful way, where simplicity and functionality will be the core and driving forces behind financial operations.

“Through continuously investing heavily in our mobile application, CB Waseet, we want to stay up-to-date with technological trends and adapt it to make it easier for everyone, from seasoned investors and beginners to trade on. The iterations and tweaks are released regularly and at off-peak times to ensure that we have a robust, stable platform for our clients during trading hours and no disruption is faced by the users. CBFS, works with the agility of a start-up and is, therefore, able to bring first-to-market services," he added.

Shahnawaz Rashid wants the CBFS product offering to remain ahead of the industry. “I believe we are at a tipping point because the world is transforming with globalization, regulations, etc. Many things are changing, and, with the Football World Cup 2022 in Qatar, the attention is for everyone including ourselves to provide world-class services,” he concluded.