Bahrain FinTech Bay, operated by Singapore-based FinTech incubator Fintech Consortium, will be the largest FinTech hub in the Middle East and Africa.
The hub would be used as a platform to create an ecosystem where innovators and entrepreneurs can connect and collaborate with corporates, investors, regulators and other stakeholders to develop, test, scale and grow new financial technologies and successful enterprises.
Maissan Al Maskati Consortium’s Bahrain chairman said “Through this initiative, we will continue to work closely with the Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB), Economic Development Board (EDB) and other governmental bodies to develop the regulatory framework required to foster a thriving FinTech sector.
Currently, Bahrain’s FinTech ecosystem is growing, and with future developments, it is set to turn the Kingdom into a leading FinTech ecosystem in the region. Especially after introducing recent developments such as the FinTech regulatory sandbox- where new technologies and innovations can be tested, crowdfunding regulations and cloud policy.
The CBB has also established a dedicated FinTech unit to help drive the development of the ecosystem, encourage innovation within the financial services sector and look at developing new regulations.
FinTech will definitely change the way businesses operate and will reshape the products and services offered to consumers. As it will help in the development of cyrptocurrency exchanges, crowdfunding and peer-to-peer lending platforms, in addition to the deployment of regulatory technology solutions.
In addition to that, all sectors will benefit from FinTech and this is not only restricted to the financial services sector. “Increased digitalization of financial services will facilitate access to innovative and bespoke products suited to customers’ needs, provide access to real-time consumer data, increase transactional transparency and reduce risk.” said Al Maskati.
[Source]
