The banking sector has been impacted in its earnings due to the global pandemic. Coupled with increased competition from financial technology companies who are increasingly expanding products and financial services to banking customers in ways traditional banks are not able to due to regulations.

This has made the adoption of open banking a very important strategy for banks to venture in and leverage its potentials in this new normal as the future of banking and payments post pandemic has to be open for the sector to survive and compete. With open banking, banks will be able to increase revenues, attract new customers, open themselves up to new collaborations and stand out from competition. To ensure they will be disruptors rather than disrupted, banks must act now.

Many countries in the world have gone ahead with open banking initiatives. An estimated global revenue opportunity of $9.3 billion is expected to be created by Open Banking by 2022. A study recently conducted by Finastra revealed that 86% of banks surveyed are looking to use open APIs and enable Open Banking capabilities in the next 12 months. In the Middle East, Bahrain is leading the way where the draft regulations were issued in November 2018, and the first set of solutions were launched by December 2019. Saudi Arabia is also progressing fast on the adoption of Open Banking. In the near future, the Middle East will soon have a matured Open Banking ecosystem where financial institutions and Fintech companies will come together to create superior banking experiences.

To discuss this and more, the Open Banking MENA Digi-Conference will bring together senior decision makers from central banks, leading banking and financial institutions in the MENA region to discuss the potentials of Open Banking in the region’s financial services market as well as the opportunities it creates for the banking industry in the MENA region.