Assalam Alaikum, Good Morning
Your Excellency Abdullah Al Salmi, Excellencies, distinguished colleagues from the Union of Arab Securities Authorities and GCC authorities, and dear attendees
I welcome you all to this excellent and very timely event on such a relevant subject, while extending my sincere gratitude to the Union of Arab Securities Authorities and the Capital Market Authority of the Sultanate of Oman for their efforts in organizing this webinar.
There cannot be a better time than now to hold this webinar and gain valuable insights into the ever growing and overarching fintech ecosystem.
In simple words, Fintech is the application of technology to finance. Until recently, Fintech was mainly associated with payments and remittance in terms of financial services, mostly related to banking, apart from applications in automating and digitalizing back office processes of financial institutions. But now, fintech is applied more and more to capital markets involving raising capital through peer-to-peer lending and crowdfunding, applications in automating trading systems – through straight processing, near instant settlement of transactions, real time accounting and reconciliations as well as in our regulatory work, through what is known as Regtech.
In recent years, fintech has expanded to include artificial intelligence, data analysis and self-learning algorithms through machine learning. The fintech horizons have gone further now to include block chain, distributed ledger technology and crypto currencies.
It is due to such overarching application of fintech that I prefer to address it as a whole new ecosystem which is bringing about a paradigm shift in our understanding, utilization and delivery of financial services. The needs of market participants who want to gain deep insight into technologies and alter their business models, obtain funding and creating an efficient service delivery is driving this change.
This webinar aims to discuss wide-ranging opportunities and challenges involved in technological innovations in the capital markets, Considerations related to legal and regulatory frameworks shall also be dwelt upon, as would be the concerns revolving around financial crime and anti-money laundering.
The Corona pandemic has now forced markets to enhance infrastructure, develop systems and mechanisms, and use the facilities using modern communication technologies to disseminate information and data, raise levels of disclosure, transparency and governance, and improve the performance of services provided by financial services companies.
A study by Ernst and Young states that emerging markets are more innovative and they are paving the way for innovation in Fintech, Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT). As per Arab Monetary Fund, over 330 Fintech solutions are operating across 22 Arab countries.
At the same time, studies have shown that there is a significant role for financial technology in achieving the idea of financial inclusion. Efficient service delivery is at the core of financial inclusion.
Investments in this field have witnessed rapid growth in recent years. The applications of financial technology in financial and banking services has provided many advantages such as accuracy, speed, cost reduction and increased efficiency with a higher level of security. Applications related to capital markets are trading using innovative electronic trading platforms, facilitating online trading in real time, data security, cloud computing, robo-advisors. All this has enhanced financial inclusion in the Arab countries.
In light of such rapid advances, it is necessary to make room for regulators, professionals and experts to study the potential of financial technology in the region to be able to deal with the situation successfully, take into account and use new tools such as supervisory technology and to better address emerging risks, balancing the promotion of financial technology with financial inclusion, stability and integrity.
There is no doubt that the existence of a framework for cooperation between Arab securities authorities on issues related to innovation and financial technology would help build institutional capacities and strengthen the regionally integrated framework for the expansion of cross-border financing technology..
In order for there to be a common platform in the Arab capital markets, there is a need for more cooperation and exchange of experiences specially related to technology solutions, exchange of supervisory information, cooperation in solving emerging financial crimes and the creation of smart regulations, as well as learning and building institutional capabilities.
In the end, I would like to conclude my speech with the words of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai “ Innovation today is not an option but a necessity, not a culture but a work method, and governments and companies that do not renew or innovate lose their competitiveness and control, are forced to retreat .”
Therefore, this webinar is a great opportunity for all of you present here to gain practical knowledge of Fintech applications and understand the rapidly changing landscape and how your organizations can make the most out of it.
I wish you all a very informative and successful event.
Thank you.
