Not quite two years into her current role, Yasaman Hadjibashi, chief data officer (CDO) at Barclays Africa Group, is shaking things up. She is leading a data transformation initiative for the continent, focusing on “intelligent banking” and hyper-personalised customer experiences. “We are using big data and machine-learning capabilities to solve problems for our clients across different business units, from retail through to corporate and investment banking,” she says.
Ms Hadjibashi believes that the bank’s approach to data is fundamentally different from other financial institutions. “When I read about data projects in the financial services industry, especially large banks, they refer to traditional data management in payments, governance, compliance and regulatory reporting,” she says. “Instead, I decided to start with the customer and identify specific areas that will make a difference to them.”