Retail banking seminar calls for blend of skills, technology to meet consumer needs

Attendees at a retail banking seminar on Monday said a strong blend of skilled human resources and modern technology could better meet changing customer needs while making banking services more efficient, faster and more accessible.

The suggestions came at Green Peak International's "Reset Seminar 2026" at Pearl Continental. 

They said attracting new talent was becoming a major challenge for the banking sector, and addressing it would require investment in workforce development and upskilling. They added that the growth of AI and digital services had significantly changed customer behaviour and needs, meaning banks will have to redesign their models.

"Most customers in the banking industry are in retail and small businesses," Green Peak International CEO Salman Sarwar Butt said. "We must discuss how to better serve these people and what steps the banking industry would need to take to make this possible."

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Butt said it was crucial for the banking industry to correctly identify the needs of individual customers so that effective banking solutions could be delivered according to people’s real requirements.

"In the era of digital and AI, how do we take our industry forward? With our customers' changing needs, how does our industry help address these changing needs?"

He said that while banks were currently meeting the needs of large corporate clients well, small retail customers and SMEs were still not among banks’ top priorities.

Butt said that the key purpose of the conference was to promote industry-level dialogue to better understand the needs of retail customers and SMEs, so Pakistan’s economy could be stabilised through the sustainable growth of the banking industry.

Bank of Punjab President and CEO Zafar Masud attended as the chief guest, while the opening keynote address was delivered by Bank Alfalah President and CEO Atif Bajwa.

In the first session, “Winning Customers 2026–2030”, the keynote was delivered by Jim Brown, non-executive chairman of Secure Trust Bank.

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