Summit discusses development of ‘Open Banking’ in Middle East

Sajjad Ahmad, Staff Reporter

The 10th Annual Middle East Banking Innovation Summit held in Dubai explored the latest advancements in financial technology (fintech) and banking technology.

The summit was the first of its kind event of the year in Dubai, which highlighted the post-COVID-19 challenges and new opportunities for the industry.

The developments of Open Banking platform and new collaborative business models were discussed during the summit.

Open Banking is a regulatory framework that allows Fintech and other companies to offer innovative payment and other product services to end customers.

The framework allows registered fintechs to access your bank account details based on your consent to do so.

Banks have to comply with an 'individual’ request / consent to share their bank account details.

Tata Consultancy Services, Abu Dhabi Global Markets, Commercial Bank of Dubai and Gulf International Bank, Bahrain participated at event.

Sumanta Roy, VP & Head of Middle East, Africa, Mediterranean, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) moderated a panel discussion around Open Banking and the innovations in the current banking ecosystem.

The panel discussion saw participation of the key banking industry leaders such as Stefan Kimmel, Chief Operating Officer, Commercial Bank of Dubai (CBD), Vikas Sethi, Group Chief Digital Officer, Gulf International Bank, Bahrain (GIB) & Dr. Bhaskar Dasgupta, Associate Director, Market Development, Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM).

Sumanta Roy said, “Conceptually, the combination of the strength of fintech market of a country and the framework which helps in the integration and collaboration are the keys for the application of open banking in any country.”

Tata Consultancy Services’ Open Banking API Framework has been built to help banks, fintech and gateways to accelerate their digital transformation journey by securely abstracting and carefully sharing customer data for internal and external consumption.

The framework assists these industries to comply with government regulation and promotes collaboration in interest of the overall customer.

The event also shed light on the state of the Open Banking platform in the Middle East.

According to a 2020 survey by fintech firm Finastra, Bahrain is leading the way for Open Banking in the Middle East region, with the country being the first to draft regulations around the platform in November 2018.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia closely follows Bahrain, in terms of acceptance towards the platform and is currently aiming to reach overall market implementation by the end of 2021.

Furthermore, 88% of UAE banks said they were looking to open their APIs (Application Programming Interface) to enable Open Banking within the next year.

It was revealed during the summit that the development of new collaborative business models can help the industry grow and transform in the coming years and Open Banking is a step towards massive growth and transformation.

Central Banks in the GCC region are coming up with open banking regulations to foster competition and innovation.