As known, the Kingdom is moving towards FinTech, which is clearly restructuring the financial services industry, and Bahrain FinTech Bay will be officially open by the end of this month, making it the largest FinTech hub in the Middle East and Africa.
In efforts to explore disruptive innovation in financial services, Bahrain Economic Development Board (EDB) announced the first Fintastic Bahrain Week from February 19th-21st, and The GCC Financial Forum, co-hosted by Euromoney Conferences and EDB, will be the backbone of the week.
This February, the seventh GCC Financial Forum which will take place on the 20th-21st at the Four Seasons Hotel, this will give financial professionals and startups from across the region an excellent strategic overview of how FinTech and innovation affect businesses.
The forum will discuss blockchain, AI, and big data in the financial context. In addition to, regulatory sandboxes and several innovations such as peer-to-peer, pay tech, regtech and more.
Although not every forum offers you the opportunity to meet your business idols, your chances are higher when you’re sharing the same space, and The GCC Financial Forum in Bahrain will be a must-attend event in the region’s financial calendar, and here is why you shouldn’t miss it:
- This will be your time to take away from high profile speakers, who will discuss the future opportunities for the global financial sector. These speakers include, H.E. Shaikh Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Khalifa, Minister of Finance; H.E. Rasheed Mohammed Al Maraj, Governor at Central Bank of Bahrain; H.E. Khalid Al Rumaihi, Chief Executive at EDB; Mahmood Hashim Al Kooheji, CEO of Bahrain Mumtalakat Holding Company; H.E. Zayed Alzayani, Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism; and Lord Mervyn King, Former Governor of Bank of England.
- The forum will have three different panel discussions with top-notch industry names. The first panel is on innovation and the shape of the financial system of the future, which will see Sael Al Waary, Chairman of AFS and Deputy Group Chief Executive Officer, Bank ABC Group; Hadyah Fathalla, Executive Director at C5 Accelerate; Soo J Lee, Worldwide Public Sector Financial Services at Amazon Web Services; Pawel Stefanski, Financial Services Sector Leader at IBM Global Markets. The second panel will be about payments at the heart of the system, and the third is on creating an environment for innovation, all featuring high-level industry experts.
- We’ve repeated this before, but networking is a key! The GCC Financial Forum will target everyone in the region, thus giving you the opportunity to network, form new relationships, and strengthen the existing ones. Whether it is over coffee or during lunch, you’ll never know who you will run into next.
- Witness the opening of the largest FinTech hub in the Middle East and Africa, which will take place on the last day of the forum in Arcapita Building. The new hub aims to further the development of Bahrain’s FinTech ecosystem, nurture corporate innovation, accelerate indigenous FinTech startups, and foster collaboration between industry stakeholders.
What are you waiting for? The event will take place this week! Register now and guarantee your seat to one of the largest events in the region’s financial calendar.
The world of finance is changing, fast, but how fast are you keeping up?
