Fintech in Qatar—If you’re in the financial technology (Fintech) industry, you have a lot of room to grow in Qatar. Fintech businesses worldwide are interested in entering Qatar because of its good outlook, an expert said during a conference on the latest trends in the field.
‘Fintech Trends in 2022 and What’s in it for Qatar’ was a QFC-sponsored webinar that discussed the latest trends and advancements in the fintech industry and its impact on Qatar’s financial sector. Hoogendoorn and Jiazhong Wang, QFC’s Vice President of the Financial Sector Office, opened up the panel discussion with their remarks.
Founder and co-founder of Doha Tech Angels, a renowned angel investment firm in Qatar and the GCC, Dr. Shaikha Al Jabir. Technology startups have been supported and mentored by the Doha Tech Angels in Qatar and regionally in Mena and abroad. Fintech is a robust platform for development and transformation, and there is a massive possibility in Qatar since we have the necessary pieces for success,” she said, referring to Qatar’s active ecosystem. With the establishment of the Fintech Hub, QFC license, QDB venture capital investment, announcements of fintech licensure, and formation of a sandbox, we’ve witnessed a coordinated push by several stakeholders in Qatar to help the fintech sector.
“We have a robust technology infrastructure through high Internet penetration, smart mobile, and also the government has been active when it comes to digital transformation as they have assigned a budget to make sure the country is on track for digital transformation and building smart cities,” Al Jabir said when discussing technology in the country. According to the country’s financial industry, Qatar is home to the largest financial institution in Mena and Africa, the QNB. There is adequate room for new entrants in the financial sector because profit margins are so high.”
This means that a fintech needs the right people to bring in new customers. Even while significant work has been done in transforming the financial markets in Qatar, she goes on to say that “we must integrate the viewpoints of important ecosystem actors, analyze progress, and fix difficulties” for the market to flourish truly.
This year’s keynote speakers were Finch Capital Europe managing partner Radboud Vlaar and Professor Douglas Arner, University of Hong Kong.
As a result of the rise of the digital regulator and digital enabler in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), the regulatory landscape in the region is expected to undergo a significant shift. A new perspective is taking hold across the Middle East and Qatar when it comes to the safe establishment of a digital financial services ecosystem.
There is growing regulatory momentum, and the outlook is encouraging, as well as interest from corporations and fintechs to establish operations in Qatar and a resurgence of the ecosystem.
The Qatar FinTech Hub has been a great success in Qatar because of various initiatives, including the national fintech strategy and several other industries. Throughout the four waves of the fintech hub, 2,100 people have expressed an interest in applying. Our ability to incubate and grow approximately 60 fintechs has been a success, and the bulk of them have come from outside Qatar, which is a positive sign. We started with payments and then moved on to developing financial services technology, embedded finance, and now next-generation banking.”
As the founder and chairman of MBK Holding, Sheikh Mansour Al Thani has invested in numerous fintech companies both domestically and internationally and kept a close eye on Qatar’s developing fintech ecosystem. “The ecosystem in Qatar has advanced in the last few years, and QDB has played a major role, and the Qatar Fintech Hub has created a boost,” he says. There is a need to encourage the ecosystem to progress, and I believe that regulation and licensing will improve significantly by the year 2022.”
As part of the Qatar FinTech Hub’s fourth wave of innovation, Lars Gehrmann of Qatar Insurance and Hilal Al Kuwari of QDB delivered a brief introduction.
The Future of Fintech in Qatar
As the director of Capital Markets Supervision at the ADGM Financial Services Regulatory Authority, Hobeng Lim describes where he thinks the expanding fintech business will go.
Fintech will be used by all or almost all financial services firms in the future.
This means that soon, there will be no financial services companies that do not use some financial technology.
Financial technology (fintech) and the economy are evolving together, offering new opportunities that may not have been possible a few years ago.
As reported by Arabian Business, ADGM’s head of capital markets supervision, Hobeng Lim, discusses his predictions for the future of financial technology in an interview.
Digital money is already getting more mainstream, so the craze for cryptocurrencies will only grow.
Because crypto-currencies are becoming more regulated and compliant, governments and regulators are partially responsible for this.
Investors and customers want to work with regulated crypto-companies. Because we have an excellent crypto framework that offers trust to firms, investors, and customers, many of these businesses are interested in working with ADGM.
There are, of course, anti-regulation advocates in the crypto community, but I believe they represent only a tiny portion of the conversation. In addition, many more want to see crypto become mainstream and want it regulated since it provides market confidence and security. Open APIs and open finance will be used more and more by the fintech industry to produce innovative products in the future. Buy-now-pay-later and embedded finance are two recent examples of this trend. We should expect to see a lot more innovation in the field of financial technology shortly.
As RPAs are adopted in financial services, they’ll help boost productivity and eliminate costly human errors.
Client onboarding, KYC, data entry, report generation, and addressing customer complaints and queries will all benefit from RPA’s use of specialized software tools and RPA as a whole in the future.
Fintech will cease to be a discrete specialty in financial services as it becomes more intertwined.
No or very few financial services firms will remain untouched by fintech in the future.
