GEC NEWS WIREThe Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s financial sector is likely to encounter significant disruption from new financial technologies in the coming years, but could emerge stronger and more streamlined, according to experts gathering for the Euromoney Saudi Arabia Conference this May. Financial technology – or “FinTech” – is generating huge opportunities for banks, investors and new start-up companies around the world, but is also generating a new range of risks for central banks and financial institutions.
Progress on implementing FinTech in the Kingdom has been relatively slow until recently, but new initiatives designed to enhance the business environment, reform regulatory support and provide access to capital are helping to create a positive ecosystem for FinTech deployment in Saudi Arabia.
Mamdooh Al Sedairy, Chief Information Officer of Tadawul, will bring his experience in implementing and managing one of the world’s most sophisticated trading systems for the Saudi Stock Exchange.
“The financial service industry is reaching its ‘Uber moment’. The wide acceptance of smartphones, cloud-computing and technologies like blockchain are fundamentally changing the way financial services will be delivered. The disruptive nature of technology that we have already seen in so many industries is now reaching the financial service industry and is set to have a major impact. Banking as we know it today will never be the same again,” said Frans van Eersel, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Dopay International.
