What Leaders Want | CCO at SBS – Raouf Mhenni

Caroline Béguin: Tell us about your journey and what inspired you to pursue a career path in FinTech. 

Raouf Mhenni: Interesting. I think that I was not inspired to come to the FinTech world. I’ve been my entire career in the software industry, and four years ago, I was offered the opportunity to join SBS. And prior to that, my relationship to banks was only to read my monthly statement, and I don’t believe that I was able to read everything in it and to explain why my bank was charging me so much every month for managing my account. So prior to that, I didn’t know anything about banking, but four years ago, I had the opportunity, jumping in, and since, I’m living a blast. It is an amazing world, so I’m happy being in the FinTech industry since. 

Caroline Béguin: If you had to explain your role as a chief commercial officer in just one sentence that even a child would understand, how would you describe your role? 

Raouf Mhenni: I would say that my role is to help my company sell its products and services to make money and grow. You can think of me as the person who is responsible for making sure that lots of our clients are happy. That’s my role. 

Caroline Béguin: How do you make sure that they are happy? 

Raouf Mhenni: One, listening. Listening to clients. We make a lot of assumptions in our world. We think. In this kind of situation, it’s not about thinking, it’s about asking directly the question. It is like your relationship with your partner. From time to time, you need to ask clearly the question: happy, unhappy, and the client will usually let you know. Once you know if he’s happy, it’s fine, and he can tell you why. If he’s unhappy, he can tell you why, and then you can solve it. But yeah, an intensive relationship and strong relationship with the client will help dramatically to identify the satisfaction or the lack of satisfaction. 

Caroline Béguin: Talking about the clients, what do you enjoy most about working with banks and shaping their digital journeys? 

Raouf Mhenni: Working with banks gives you the opportunity to see the impact on people. By the end of the day, the banks are helping millions of people to do what they do every day, which means to borrow money, to pay for their children’s studies, to build a house. So that is real life, and the banks are allowing that: Allowing every single family to realize their projects, allowing people to progress in their life. So if you see yourself easing that work, if you see yourself making that facilitating that work, making your client who is the bank, offering all those services, and when you read the annual report of your client and you see that they are gaining three thousand new clients, you say, “Hey, I was part of it.” I remember I read an article about KCB in Kenya, it is one of our clients, and the story was, the government decided for a loan for every Kenyan citizen, and there’s two banks who had to offer that, and one of them was our client, and it was KCB. And KCB had to build the system using our technology. But the beautiful thing is, the day they opened, there were more than a million connections. And you say, “Wow! My technology is allowing maybe millions of people to access that service and to borrow money and do their business.” Yeah, having that purpose and that impact on people is the most exciting thing in working with banks. 

Caroline Béguin: In your role, you have to deal a lot with cloud and digital transformation, but practically speaking, what is really changing for banks and their customers? 

Raouf Mhenni: A very complex subject, but I will try to make it simple. Let’s agree first on two definitions. I will talk about innovation and creativity. Innovation is when you use a new way of solving an existing problem. Creativity is when you think out of the box to create a new business model or a new way of doing things. Now, if you put on one side, all the new technologies like cloud computing, artificial intelligence, automation, data science, and all that, and on the other side, all the problems or the impossible improvement in the banking industry, obviously, we’re gonna find a way that the cloud computing and the artificial intelligence and the data science will be perceived as innovation because they’re bringing new ways to solve existing problems. Existing problems like cyber security, existing problems like a bad customer experience, maybe a very slow motion when it comes to carrying services for the client. Time to market. This technology, cloud computing, will solve the problem of cybersecurity. Having a completely isolated environment where the hyperscalers are taking care of the security of your data is something that is coming to solve an existing problem. Problems have existed for years, and new technology will solve it. So we can as well get a better user experience through these digital applications. The problem exists, which is having improved the user experience, and we leverage technology to do it. But by the end of the day, it’s the same. The bank is in the branch, and we’re using a new application. The example that I would give, the parallel, is mobility. You know, the G7 application and the taxi application in Paris?

Caroline Béguin: Yeah. 

Raouf Mhenni: The taxi network exists, which is the same, which is a car, a driver, and, you know, you can catch that taxi in the street, then you pay. One that they did, when the technology came, they built an application. We used to book the taxi. I’ve been one of those who used to book a taxi by phone, and I was calling somebody and asking for a taxi, giving my address, and the taxi would come. That was in, in the ’90s. Today, there is an application. So what we did, we used the technology to improve an existing user experience. Uber was a completely different thing. Uber reinvented the way we do it. So those are the two : Uber being creative and the digital app for G7, it is innovating. Solving the problem using the technology or reinventing, recreating completely the business using the technology. So we have both of them, and I think that the banking industry is taking advantage of both. Today, more innovations means that maybe the banking industry is regulated, because we cannot completely reinvent the banking business, but the banking industry is taking huge advantage of these new technologies. Are we seeing or foreseeing a new banking? We don’t know. The new neobanks or the digital banks are maybe a creation, a new way of banking for people. Means that I don’t have a branch, I don’t go to the bank, I don’t have a person to talk to. Is it working? Yes, for maybe digital-native people. Is it making money? Not yet. So I think we’re in the middle of it. So summary: innovation works pretty well; creativity, well, we’re still waiting to reinvent the new banking model. 

Caroline Béguin: Okay. The new way to make the client happy. 

Raouf Mhenni: Yeah. But clients can be happy with the innovation as well. My parents and yours used to go to the branch of the bank and say hello to the person in there, and then ask about the products, and then asking… buying services, and signing papers, and saying goodbye, and saying… Today, the same people can interact and get all those services using the app. 

Caroline Béguin: Sure, with chatbot, with fake voice. 

Raouf Mhenni: But it still works. I don’t believe, and I don’t know, if people used to go to the bank to say hello to the banker or to get the service. If they used to go to say hello to the banker, yeah, they will be disappointed with the app. Now, if they used to go to the bank to get the service and buy the product, they’ll be happy. They can get it through the app. So by the end of the day, the users are the one who will make the decision. So far, digital native are happy with neobanks. The old users are still happy to go and say hello to the banker.

Caroline Béguin: In your opinion, which technology will truly revolutionise how we engage with financial services in the coming years? 

Raouf Mhenni: It’s definitely AI. Definitely. AI will be able to propose new models that will make the experience completely different, reinvent the experience of the users with the banks. AI will as well change the way we perceive our expectations from the banks. In my mind, AI, once it will move from the bank side to the consumer side, will do the revolution. It is like social networking. What happened with Facebook and others? It changed the world because we, the consumers, are using it, it’s not the companies who are using it. So getting AI for every single individual of the world, I’m curious to see how that will change the world, because it is not the bank or the institution or the company who’s using AI to propose services to you, it is you who is going throughout the market to pick the right service. So yeah, it’s AI. Now, I don’t believe that AI will be only on one side. I think that AI will end like social networking. Every one of us will have his own AI to navigate through the world, to consume, to compare, to benchmark. That will change the way we bank and our relationship with banks. 

Caroline Béguin: We use AI in our products, but how do you use AI in your daily work? 

Raouf Mhenni: I am a user of ChatGPT. I am a user of Copilot. I started using ChatGPT back in November last year when it was a beta product. I’m using ChatGPT for the first nine months of the year, and then I moved to Copilot because it’s part of the suite that we’re having. So I’m using it to summarise documents. I’m also using it to transcript team meetings when I don’t have time to listen to a two hour meeting so I can get a summary. Yeah, it’s helping me be more productive. It’s also helping me to do smart searches on the internet, so I can ask complex questions. It is not the final thing all the time. I need to rework and reread, but it helps in my daily productivity, big time.

Caroline Béguin: Looking forward, in 10 years, how would you imagine a typical customer journey with this bank? 

Raouf Mhenni: My thinking is, I don’t believe that there will be a customer journey with a bank. I think that banking as a service will be embedded in our entire life. Means that we go to the bank to borrow money, and then we use the money to buy something. I think that tomorrow, it will be 100%: you buy something, and the money, whether it is borrowed or yours, will be embedded. It will be so integrated into our life. Means that the bank as we see it today, will disappear. Banking is like: I will talk about retail banking, it’s like three things. It is deposit, it is lending, and payments. We go to the bank for one of these three: either to borrow money, or to withdraw cash, or to deposit money for the bank. But we do all this to live, to go to school, to pay our utilities, to pay our rent, to buy a car, and so on. I do believe that the financial services will be embedded into the real business, integrated to the real business, meaning that when you go to buy a car, the financials will happen behind the scenes. You won’t see it, because there are the services that are delivered either by banks and financial institutions or, like, Amazon would do it, or Apple would do it, or Ford, or GM would do it. We won’t see the banks as we see it today. That is one. Second, I think that the AI helping every one of us will make it real sooner than what we think, because that would allow you to bank, not with your traditional bank, but with whoever will provide you with the appropriate service, the right one, the fastest one, the safest one. And this will be changing. We will never bank… I don’t believe that we’re gonna continue to bank for ten years. I kept my bank for twenty-five years. I think tomorrow we can bank with ten banks at the same time. One, because it’s offering the best payment, the other one because of the best loans, and so on and so forth. So I think that would be helped and made easy with technology and AI. We’ll meet in ten years and see.

Caroline Béguin: We’re talking today about banking is local, since the closer you are with your clients, the better for your bank. So if I follow what you’re saying, that won’t exist in ten years, this proximity with the- with clients, since the client won’t have only one bank, but just providers for whatever services they want to deal with. 

Raouf Mhenni: It happened. It happened for shoes. We used to buy shoes from one boutique in your city. Then we went to the retailers’ stores, and now we’re buying from Amazon. God knows from whom we’re buying the thing. We’ve seen it on the internet. We don’t know who, who made it, where it is, but we’re buying from people we don’t know. But there is trust on the platform. If tomorrow there’s a trust, you’re gonna lend money from whoever, and you can get payment from whoever. The thing that is preventing today is the regulation, because the banks are part of the state organization and governance. But it is a product like another. Like you’re connecting on your Amazon and you’re buying a shirt. Tomorrow you can borrow money from whoever or paying, and get a payment method. I do believe that we’re going there.

Caroline Béguin: How do you stay ahead of market trends and anticipate what’s next in your role? 

Raouf Mhenni: It’s difficult to keep ahead of the market. I would say keeping up with the market is a big thing to do. I’m reading a lot. I’m a good reader of a lot of articles. I watch a lot of videos on different subjects, but again, my motivation is to keep up, not with the market, but with the industry itself. That is the thing that helps me. So I have a routine: every weekend I have to have my weekend reading and so far I’m keeping up.

Caroline Béguin: Is there a recent innovation at SBS that you’re particularly proud of? 

Raouf Mhenni: Yes. Recently, we introduced to the market the daily banking suite which is one of the products of the digital engagement business unit. And yeah, I’m proud of it because it confirms to the market our ability to deliver  cutting-edge technology. Being at SBS with a long history and long relationship with our client may make people think that we’re an old company. So bringing to the market the cutting-edge technology with this digital engagement layer that would allow our client to use the best technology ever to engage their client, to onboard them, and to offer them the best services. I’m proud of it, because that will help renew the trust with our client of ten, fifteen and twenty years. They will have that feeling of: Yes, I can continue working with SBS, because not only SBS is delivering a great service so far, but they’re innovating to allow me, as a banker, to keep up with the competition. So yeah, very proud of it. 

Caroline Béguin: And on another note, what makes you proud in your daily work? 

Raouf Mhenni: Ah, that is a tough question. I’m passionate about what I’m doing, so I won’t exaggerate. I like what I’m doing, and it is exciting when you have customer feedback or employee feedback. One of your team will tell you that he’s happy and he’s proud of what he’s doing, make you even prouder. A client will tell you, “Thank you very much for what you did. Ah, you made my day.” So yeah, my happiness and satisfaction are my team members or a client who is recognizing the good work we’re doing.

Caroline Béguin: Is there a bold idea or dream technology you’d love to see come to life in the industry? 

Raouf Mhenni: Yeah, there is one. I don’t know if it is a bold technology, but it’s a solution. I would love for all the people that are not banked today to have the opportunity, the equal opportunity, to access money. People in Africa, millions are not banked, so financial inclusion is something that should be pursued. So I would love to see a system that would allow people to get maybe minimum money, but equal to all of us, means that they can realize their project, they can work, they can fund their small project. Maybe that will come through crowdfunding. Maybe all of us would work together to put the money for all of us and I don’t underestimate the force of all of us. So yeah, I dream to see all of us crowdfunding, so that the people who have no access today to banks, because banks are for rich people, and the poor people, they don’t have access to credit cards, and Visa, MasterCard, and others. But if we want to have a better world, I think that we need to give access to those guys, and maybe if every one of us would contribute to that system, that would allow others to take advantage of it would be a better world. 

Caroline Béguin: What would it take to get that dream come true? 

Raouf Mhenni: Technology would help. I think that we’re coming to a level of technology that would allow that to happen. Now I think that it should be an initiative, people’s initiative by the end of the day, and the regulators to let it go. Because today, the regulators will never let other than banks borrow money, so there’s a lot of constraints by the regulation. But things will evolve. 

Caroline Béguin: I hope your dream will come true.

Raouf Mhenni: I hope, too.

Caroline Béguin: If you could sum up the future of financial services in one word or one sentence, I know it’s tricky, but what would it be? 

Raouf Mhenni: Financial services in the future should enable better lives for people. The financial services and the banks used to be an economic enabler. It should become more towards consumers to make their lives easier, and to live better, to do things faster and easier. 

Caroline Béguin: If you could give a piece of advice to someone starting out in the fintech industry, what would it be? 

Raouf Mhenni: The space is so large that there’s a lot to discover, and then focus on what you like to do. By the end of the day, whether it is the fintech industry or any other industry, the passion and the excitement about what we are doing, what we’d like to do, will make a difference. So yeah, this is the advice I would give to my own children: be curious, but focus on what you love to do. French people say, “If you do what you like, you will never work a day.” Literally I’m translating it, but that is what I would wish for everyone. 

Caroline Béguin: And as you were saying earlier, as a commercial, you have to be passionate, otherwise people won’t buy it. 

Raouf Mhenni: Passion is part of it. I mean, again, if you like what you do, you don’t have to say it. I mean, you can feel it. You can see it. The people around you will notice that you have that passion for the work you’re doing, for the field you’re working on. 

Caroline Béguin: Good to know. 

Caroline Béguin: And last, but not least, and I’m asking you this question since you’re a leader yourself: What do you think leaders truly want? 

Raouf Mhenni: Purpose and impact. I think all the leaders would like to impact and to give a purpose to what they’re doing. So by what they’re doing themselves or what they’re making their teams doing, every one of us is trying to impact others positively, do better in the societies, in the countries, in the community where we live, in the companies, and give a purpose to what we’re doing. Means that coming in the morning and being excited about the day because you know you’re gonna do something worth it. 

Caroline Béguin: What impact do you wanna have? 

Raouf Mhenni: Better life for poor people, big time. Listen, I’m coming from Africa. I know pretty well what is making the difference and today we cannot have a safer and better world without helping all who need it. They don’t need charity; they need opportunities. We need to give opportunities to all the world. 

Caroline Béguin: Thank you, Raouf, for sharing your time and being with us. 

Raouf Mhenni: Thank you for having me, and thank you for the good discussion.