Central bank governors to attend FinTech Forum in Bahrain

Manama, Feb. 17 (BNA): A large number of Central Bank Governors from the MENA region will attend the third annual FinTech Forum. The forum will be held in Manama under the patronage of the Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB) on February 21, the Middle East and Africa FinTech Forum has announced. Rasheed Al Maraj, CBB Governor, will inaugurate the FinTech Forum to be attended by senior officials from the central banks of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the UAE, Bahrain, Oman, Jordan, Egypt, Libya and Tunisia. The forum is hosted by Bank ABC and Arab Financial Services, brings together internationally renowned thought leaders, practitioners and innovators from the FinTech and artificial intelligence (AI) arenas. They will discuss a wide range of issues including the future of banking, the potential impact of AI and how it will transform the future, open banking, crowdsourcing and financial inclusion. “Across the region, banks and other financial institutions are facing enormous disruption from technology. But change should be embraced, not feared. Technology will revolutionise the way we do business. More importantly, it will empower people across the region, and be a force for true inclusion. This Forum will show us how,” ABC Bank’s Deputy Group CEO and AFS Chairman, Sael Al Waary, said. Speakers at the FinTech Forum include Anthony Thompson (Founder of Atom Bank, Metro Bank and 86400), Brett King (Founder of Moven, the mobile financial services provider), Henri Arslanian, Chairman of the FinTech Association of Hong Kong, Dr. Ayesha Khanna, Co-Founder and CEO of ADDO AI, and Pippa Malmgren, Co-founder of H-Robotics. David Smith, Chief Executive of Global Futures and Foresight, Rohit Talwar, Chief Executive of Fast Future, and leading business innovators Dan Cobley, Managing Partner of Fintech at Blenheim Chalcot, Qamar Saleem, Global Lead for SME and Supply Chain Finance Practice at IFC (World Bank Group), Alastair Lukies, Chairman of Innovate Finance, Thomas Blood from Amazon Web Services, and Steve Kirsch, CEO of Token, will also speak. The last MEA FinTech Forum in 2018 brought together leading and well-regarded global experts and industry leaders in a highly engaging format of talks and discussions addressing the most pressing issues in the fast evolving FinTech landscape. More than 450 delegates attended the Forum, including representatives from the central banks of Jordan, Egypt and Bahrain and 40 banks and financial institutions from the MENA region.