The Dominican Republic's Multiple Banking Association (ABA) won the Gold award in the Disruptive Innovation in Financial Services category at the 2024 Fintech Americas Awards, in recognition of its cutting-edge and proactive vision in digital matters, with initiatives that directly impact its members and users and that have repercussions in the financial environment.
The award took into account the initiatives promoted by the ABA for the adoption of emerging technologies in the provision of financial services in the banking sector, aimed at making processes more efficient and creating products better adapted to the needs of users, in partnership with financial technology companies (fintech) and other actors.
After receiving the award, ABA President Rosanna Ruiz stated that "the Dominican banking sector will continue to invest in digital banking, with legal and technological security, mitigating cybersecurity risks and guaranteeing data and privacy protection," as a way to optimize financial services and bring them closer to the public.
In a press release, the ABA specified that among the initiatives considered for the award was the provision of trusted services in digital environments through qualified digital signatures. It stated that the ABA promotes this tool because of its potential to reduce costs, foster financial inclusion, and offer a streamlined user experience, which is particularly useful for residents in the diaspora and in areas far from the capital.
Similarly, he indicated that the Banking Association promotes the adoption of tokenization and DLT (Distributed Ledger Technologies) in the banking sector, as a different way of structuring information and sharing it among different participants within a network, under the understanding that they contribute to lowering costs, generating more efficiency, reducing the financial gap and offering solutions to the particular needs of users.
He also explained that, together with financial entities, the ABA is testing use cases of Open Finance, a technology that allows for more efficient financial services, reduces costs for users, and provides new financial products and services, taking advantage of the power of data and the collaborative economy between banks and fintechs.
At the Fintech Americas awards ceremony, Ruiz was accompanied by Sovieski Naut, manager of Digital Banking and SMEs at the ABA.
