The Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) announced the licensing of three new companies specialized in finance and electronic payments, during the Global Entrepreneurship Congress sponsored by His Royal Highness Mohammad bin Salman, the Crown Prince, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense. The conference held from 27-30 March 2022 AD in Riyadh, under the slogan “Reboot, Rethink and Regenerate.” was organized by the Small and Medium Enterprises General Authority (Monshaat) in cooperation with the Global Entrepreneurship Network (GEN). SAMA stated that the license was granted to a new financial technology company specialized in electronic payments named Etihad Fintech Company “Mobily Pay”.…

Investopia and Crypto.com hosted the inaugural press conference to formally launch Crypto.com’s Founding Partnership. Following a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signing between Investopia and Crypto.com last week, the two organizations gathered to discuss how they will collaborate on meaningful projects that will accelerate the development of future economies and financial innovation. Launched by the UAE Government in September 2021, Investopia brings together stakeholders from throughout global finance, technology and sustainability sectors to formulate innovative new platforms for economic progress, inclusion and diversity. As the exclusive global Cryptocurrency Trading Platform Founding Partner of the Investopia Summit, Crypto.com will play a prominent…

Cryptocurrency exchange business Bybit has received in-principle approval to conduct a full spectrum of virtual assets business in Dubai, the firm announced today at a joint press conference with the UAE Ministry of Economy at the World Government Summit 2022. Bybit also announced that it plans to set up its global headquarters in Dubai, offering a full suite of products and services globally, under the Emirate’s “test-adapt-scale” virtual assets market model. Bybit stressed it was fully committed to supporting the regulatory efforts of the UAE government and is looking to share its in-depth industry knowledge, experience and insights with all…

2021 was a blockbuster year for Israeli-founded fintech startups, which continued to grow, mature and attract investors’ interest. In 2021, Israeli-founded fintech companies raised a new record of US$4.5 billion in 2021, surpassing the three previous years combined, a new report by Viola Group, a leading tech-focused investment firm headquartered in Israel, shows. Mega-rounds of US$100 million and over drove much of the year’s fintech funding activity, totaling US$2.9 billion in combined funding through 13 deals. Mega-rounds not only increased in number in 2021, but also in size, with the median mega-round deal size rising from US$150 million in 2020…

2021 was a blockbuster year for Pakistani startups, which raised a total of US$352 million, data from Invest2Innovate, a local consultancy firm, shows. Out of that sum, 27% was raised by fintech startups, or US$95 million (excluding Bazaar’s combined US$36.5 million raised in 2021), showcasing investors’ growing appetite for the country’s nascent fintech sector. So far in 2022, it appears that the momentum will likely continue, with several considerable rounds announced in Q1. These include Taro Technologies’ US$3.5 million pre-seed funding, NayaPay’s US$13 million seed round, and Bazaar’s US$70 million Series B. Bazaar is a B2B e-commerce platform founded in…

The latest IBS Intelligence report, in partnership with CR2, looks at how critical digital onboarding is for banks and other financial institutions to retain their current customers while also attracting new ones. As a result, banks are attempting to create an easy, tailored, and frictionless end-to-end digital buying and contracting experience. Having the capability to digitally onboard customers simplifies and streamlines the very first user experience that a customer has with the bank as well as significantly reducing the cost of customer onboarding. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, banks and financial services providers have faced unanticipated challenges. As clients shift…

Binance, a global blockchain ecosystem and cryptocurrency infrastructure provider, has been granted a Virtual Asset License from Dubai’s Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority (VARA). Under the VARA initial regulatory phase, which includes rigorous regulatory oversight and mandatory FATF compliance controls, Binance will be permitted to extend limited exchange products and services to pre-qualified investors and professional financial service providers. Binance will be able to operate within Dubai’s ‘test-adapt-scale’ virtual asset market model as a base for expansion into the region. All licensed VARA service providers will be monitored progressively to open access to the retail market. In addition to exchange operations,…

Leading Irish Fintech companies will be in Dubai to take part in the Irish Fintech Innovation Showcase event organised by Enterprise Ireland, the Irish Government’s trade and innovation agency in collaboration with the Commercial Bank of Dubai (CBD) and Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC). With a line-up of senior speakers from the UAE’s financial sector including Dr. Bernd van Linder, CEO of Commercial Bank of Dubai, F. Christopher Calabia, CEO of Dubai Financial Services Authority, Salmaan Jaffery, Chief Business Development Officer at DIFC, the event will also include keynote addresses by Irish Minister Darragh O’Brien T.D., Minister of Housing, Local…

Over the past few years, Egypt’s fintech sector has grown at a rapid pace as the startup ecosystem thrives and investment surges. In its first industry report, Fintech Egypt, an initiative of the Central Bank of Egypt, delves into that growth, sharing key growth metrics and emerging trends. According to the inaugural Egypt Fintech: Landscape Report 2021, Egyptian fintech companies are increasingly catching the eye of the investors community, which poured a new record of US$159 million in 2021, up X4 from just US$37.1 million in 2020. The figure makes Egypt the fourth largest country in fintech investments in Africa…

Binance, a global blockchain ecosystem and cryptocurrency infrastructure provider, announced that it has been granted a crypto-asset service provider license from the Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB). The license will allow Binance to provide crypto-asset trading, custodial services and portfolio management to customers under the supervision of the Bahrain regulators. Binance said that this is its first license as a crypto-asset provider in The Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (GCC) and “demonstrates its commitment to being in regulatory compliance as the first of its group of companies in the region”. The firm will be setting up…

The COVID-19 pandemic has increased the prioritization of fintech among regulators in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. These have moved fintech up the regulatory agency and introduced a number of measures to harness the opportunities introduced by technology-enabled financial services all the while mitigating the new risks brought about by these novel solutions, a new report by the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF) at the University of Cambridge Judge Business School says. A report titled Fintech Regulation in the Middle East and North Africa shares findings from a study that sought to review how MENA jurisdictions…

In his capacity as the Ruler of Dubai, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister, issued the Dubai Virtual Asset Regulation Law aimed at creating an advanced legal framework to protect investors and designing much-warranted international standards for virtual asset (VA) industry governance that will promote responsible business growth, under prudential regulations. Under the law, the provisions of which are applicable throughout the Emirate, including special development zones and free zones, except for the Dubai International Financial Centre, the Dubai Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority (VARA) shall be established. The authority has legal personality and…

Mashreq has announced an investment in the FinTech Touché, which is revolutionizing the F&B and hospitality industries with its streamlined payment system. The partnership re-enforces Mashreq’s commitment to support the burgeoning FinTech ecosystem across the UAE, working with innovators and entrepreneurs to improve the overall customer experience from every touchpoint. Touché enables the F&B and hospitality world to service clients through a single certified device, which links to their infrastructure and acquirer. Fernando Morillo, Global Head of Retail Banking, Mashreq Bank, said: “We are constantly looking to collaborate with innovative FinTech operators who offer solutions to help transform life for…

Bahrain Fintech Bay, a fintech hub spearheaded by the government, has identified open banking APIs, artificial intelligence (AI), customer-centric models, and fintech as infrastructure as the four key trends in the domestic fintech ecosystem expected to boom this year on the back of regulatory initiatives and market developments. These predictions were shared in the newly released Bahrain Fintech Ecosystem 2022 report, which looks at the evolution of the local fintech landscape since the release of the previous edition of the report back in 2018, and shares findings from an industry survey. A pool of 230 industry stakeholders, including startup executives,…

Amazon Payment Services is collaborating with Princess Sumaya University for Technology (PSUT) in Jordan to nurture and invest in cybersecurity talent. Aiming to develop forward-thinking security innovation and information security leadership in the region, the collaboration will offer students attending PSUT in Jordan the chance to take on exciting internship opportunities in cybersecurity, while top cybersecurity talent will also get the chance to enjoy scholarships. A natural next step in the long-standing relationship between Amazon Payment Services and Jordan’s leading center of excellence in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) education and research, this collaboration is testament to both parties’ commitment…

The United Arab Emirates (UAE)’s real estate industry is witnessing a major digital shift, fueled by so-called proptech innovation that are using digital platforms and applying artificial intelligence (AI), big data analytics, cloud computing and other technologies to optimize operations and improve customer experience. In this nascent yet burgeoning ecosystem, we’ve selected a list of six proptech startups from the UAE to watch closely. These ventures have witnessed strong traction over the past year, have attracted global investors’ interest and are poised for further growth this year. Property Finder Founded in 2007 and headquartered in Dubai, Property Finder owns and…

As investment and trading activity in virtual and digital assets continue to grow in the Middle East, economic zone financial regulator, the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA), is looking to introduce new regulation for the asset class as well as a licensing regime for virtual asset services providers in the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), the regulator said in a new report. The DFSA introduced its Investment Token regime back in October 2021, allowing for authorized financial institutions to provide financial services using tokenized digital representations of assets such as securities or derivative products. It’s now drawing up proposals for…

In March 2021, Capital Bank of Jordan partnered with Codebase Technologies to build Blink, the first digital-only neobank in Jordan. The project officially commenced in late 2021 and in February 2022, Blink went live for Jordanian customers. Blink was born out of a simple belief: money is meant to be easy; it’s meant to work for people, and not the other way around. Jordanians can open a Blink account directly from their smartphone with their Jordanian ID, in just 15 minutes, gaining access to an instantly issued virtual debit card and account. A physical card will be delivered directly to…

Buy now, pay later (BNPL) arrangements are becoming increasingly popular in Saudi Arabia, a trend that has been fueled by the e-commerce boom and embraced by the country’s youth, tech-savvy population eager to adopt what they feel is a more convenient and transparent way to finance purchases. During the LEAP tech conference held earlier this month in Riyadh, global payment solutions provider Checkout.com shared findings from a survey of Saudi consumers it conducted in partnership with YouGov, and shared key growth metrics, outlining the rapid expansion of Saudi Arabia’s e-commerce market, and rising eagerness from the public to use BNPL…

SEBA Bank, a fully integrated, Swiss FINMA licensed digital assets banking platform, announced that it has secured a Financial Services Permission (FSP) from Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM)’s Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) effective as of 07 February 2022. Following receipt of this FSP, SEBA Bank has opened an office in Abu Dhabi ADGM to strengthen support for its regional partners in the provision of regulated digital asset services. The FSP authorises SEBA Bank to conduct regulated activities in the ADGM, including advising on investments or credit, arranging credit and custody, and arranging deals in investments; pursuant to the Financial…