Bank ABC has announced that its innovation and digitisation centre, ABC Labs, has been named among the World’s Best Financial Innovation Labs by Global Finance’s 2025 Innovators Awards.
This marks the fourth time ABC Labs has received the recognition, reinforcing the group’s sustained leadership in translating innovation, artificial intelligence, and digitisation into tangible business outcomes across its global operations.
Since its establishment, ABC Labs has served as the engine of the group’s Innovation and Digital Programme, driving enterprise-wide transformation through the design and deployment of high-impact capabilities. These efforts have consistently delivered regional-first digital platforms and AI-driven solutions that improve productivity, accelerate time-to-market, and deliver differentiated customer experiences across Bank ABC’s markets.
Group Chief Digitisation Officer Dr Yousif Almas said the award validates both strategy and execution.
“ABC Labs plays a pivotal role in enabling value creation across the group by translating innovation into scalable, real-world solutions. This recognition reflects the strength of our people, our disciplined approach to innovation and our focus on delivering real impact for clients, employees and communities as we enter the FinAI era and the emerging agentic economy,” he said.
The lab plays a central role in progressing ideas from concept to production, enabling sustainable and scalable value creation. Its initiatives have delivered measurable gains across customer experience, operational efficiency, and product innovation, reinforcing Bank ABC’s positioning as a “Bank of the Future.”
In AI and automation, ABC Labs launched the region’s first bespoke internal and external AI assistants, managing intelligence as a strategic asset. These deployments have accelerated internal workflows, delivering productivity improvements of up to 10 percent. Advanced intelligent automation now saves more than 100,000 work hours annually while materially enhancing operational efficiency.
The bank has also deployed next-generation predictive AI models to enable hyper-personalised customer engagement, with interaction levels projected to rise by 25 percent across targeted segments.
In digitisation, ABC Labs delivered the region’s first fully digital institutional onboarding journey, the 24-Hour Benchmark, enabling client onboarding in under 24 hours. This is supported by a next-generation digital platform that provides frontliners with real-time insights, holistic views, and streamlined workflows.
In digital assets, the lab introduced the region’s first tokenised deposit capability for high-value cross-border transactions, executing instant transactions in production while expanding participation in a regulated digital assets ecosystem.
Global Finance Publisher and Editorial Director Joseph Giarraputo said financial innovation labs play a pivotal role in bridging the gap between theory and real-world application.
“They transform groundbreaking ideas into innovative solutions that reshape industries and redefine financial services. The organisations selected as Global Finance’s World’s Best Financial Innovation Labs 2025 are true pioneers,” he said.
Bank ABC provides wholesale financial services across capital markets, transaction banking, specialised finance, Islamic finance, real estate finance, and financial markets. It also offers retail banking in Jordan, Egypt, Tunisia, and Algeria, alongside its digital-only ila Bank in Bahrain and Jordan.
