Doha: Qatar has huge opportunities for Financial Technology (Fintech) firms and has basic elements for their success. Attracted by the positive outlook of Qatar’s fintech sector, companies across the world are interested to enter in local market, said an expert during an event on trends in fintech industry.
The webinar organised by Qatar Financial Centre (QFC) entitled ‘Fintech Trends in 2022 and What is in it for Qatar’ explored the latest trends and developments in the fintech industry and its impact on Qatar’s financial services market. Henk J Hoogendoorn, Chief Financial Sector Officer, QFC delivered the opening remarks and Jiazhong Wang Vice President, Financial Sector Office, QFC introduced the panellists.
Dr Shaikha Al Jabir, Co-founder, Doha Tech Angels which is one of the leading angel investments in Qatar and the GCC. Doha Tech Angels has been active funding, mentoring technology startups locally in Qatar and also regionally in Mena and internationally. Elaborating about the opportunities and challenges in the development of active ecosystem in Qatar, she said, “Fintech sector is an important platform in development and transformation and for the fintech business, there is great opportunity in Qatar as we have the basic elements for success. We have seen stringent government efforts to support the fintech sector in Qatar whether it is through creating the fintech hub, licensing in QFC, venture funding in QDB, through announcing fintech licensing in Qatar Central Bank and the creation of sandbox and there has been a concerted effort between different stakeholders in the country.”
Speaking about technology in the country, Al Jabir said, “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. If you look at Qatar’s financial market, Qatar is the host for largest financial institution in the Mena and Africa – the QNB. The profit margins for the financial sector are high and this is large enough to attract the new players into the market.”
“A fintech needs to have the right talent to attract from outside. There have been some efforts which have been contributed to the transformation of Qatar financial markets but for the market to flourish we need to integrate the viewpoints of the key players in the ecosystem, review progress and address the issues,” she added.
Radboud Vlaar, Managing Partner, Finch Capital in Europe and Professor Douglas Arner, University of Hong Kong delivered the keynote address and discussed the global trends and what can Qatar learn from the leading jurisdictions in the area of fintech.
Houssam Itani, Partner, MENA Banking & Capital Markets Leader, EY said, “Looking forward there is a change across all the regulatory landscape specifically in the region with the rise of digital regulator and digital enabler. The mindset is shifting across the region and also in Qatar, around how to enable the safe growth of a digital banking and digital financial services ecosystem.
"The momentum is building up on the regulatory agenda and the outlook continues to be positive and companies and fintech’s are interested to come to Qatar and the ecosystem has been reignited and remobilised across the board," he added.
“We started the fintech journey four to five years ago, we did the national fintech strategy as a result a number of initiatives and the Qatar FinTech Hub which is a success in Qatar. Across four waves of the fintech hub there has been an interest registered around 2,100 applications to apply for the fintech hub. We have been able to incubate and accelerate almost 60 fintech’s and the majority of them are coming from outside Qatar which is good in term of attractiveness. The cohorts have varied from initially payments and we have pushed the boundaries to emerging tech in financial services, embedded finance and now moving to next gen banking.”
Sheikh Mansour Al Thani, Founder and Chairman of MBK Holding who has invested in various fintech companies both in Qatar and internationally and has actively followed the development of the fintech ecosystem in Qatar said, “The ecosystem in Qatar has advanced in the last few years and QDB has played major role and the Qatar Fintech Hub has created boost in the ecosystem in Qatar. We need to encourage the ecosystem to move forward, and I see 2022 will see a lot of improvement in regulation and licensing.”
Lars Gehrmann, Group Chief Digital Officer at Qatar Insurance and Hilal Al Kuwari Incubation Specialist, QDB gave an introduction about the fourth wave of the Qatar FinTech Hub.
