Newsletter #09
Mohammed Azim Ansari
Ex-IDC, BCG, e& | FinTech | Digital | Tech | Strategy | Consulting | Advisory | Analytics | Growth | Market Research | KSA Vision2030 | Startups | Entrepreneur | Consultant
Latest MENA News
Latest Local & Regional News?
In the Middle East, traditional lenders and fintech startups are racing to launch digital banking offerings, viewing the market's rapid adoption of mobile technology, economic growth and relatively low adoption of neobanking as a massive opportunity up for grab.
SeaPay has announced a strategic partnership with Salt Edge, a renowned financial technology company. This collaboration aims to provide local merchants in Saudi Arabia with innovative open banking solutions, aligning with the Saudi Central Bank's vision for a thriving business environment.
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Bank ABC becomes the first Middle East bank to introduce faster cross-border payments to specific corridors for corporates and financial institutions utilizing J.P. Morgan's Coin Systems. Coin Systems is a blockchain-based permissioned system that serves as a payment rail and deposit account ledger.
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Botim's fintech PayBy has witnessed an exceptional increase in remittances, processing 1.3 billion transactions and growing by 41x since its launch in January 2023. Botim has rapidly positioned itself as a financial powerhouse, equalling the capabilities of traditional banks.
mimojo is the UAE's most seamless and fully automated cashback platform that puts customers in control of theirsavings. mimojo eliminates the need for opening apps and avoids the hassle of complicated redemption processes - all while providing consumer privacy and discretion. It's as simple as paying your bill – mimojo takes care of the rest.
Emaar Properties PJSC, the Dubai-based builder of the world’s tallest tower, is exploring opportunities to develop housing communities in neighboring Saudi Arabia where an oil-fueled construction boom is underway. The developer is in talks with the kingdom’s housing ministry to build large mixed-use developments. Emaar could start working on a 4,000-unit housing project if they reach an agreement
The Central Bank of Oman (CBO) has drafted a comprehensive strategy to support the development of a thriving ecosystem around financial technology (fintech) based products and services – one of the fastest-growing financial services sectors in the Sultanate of Oman and globally as well.
The Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) licensed "Al-tizam for electronic insurance brokerage" and "Altheqa Insurance Brokers" to provide insurance aggregation services (soft launch). With Al-tizam and Altheqa, there will be five authorized insurance aggregation companies operating in Saudi Arabia.
The Family Office, the leading wealth manager in the GCC, has officially inaugurated its new Fintech Lab at its headquarters in Bahrain, where it will unveil state-of-the-art digital products and services, solidifying its position as a trusted partner in wealth management.
Emirates NBD, a leading banking group in the MENAT region, has launched a digital wealth platform that allows customers to trade securities and ETFs on both global exchanges such as, Nasdaq, NYSE, and London Stock Exchange and local markets such as, Dubai Financial Market, Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange, and Nasdaq Dubai. In all, there are more than 11,000 global equities and 150 regional equities available to trade on the platform.
Saudi Arabia is expanding its portfolio in the entertainment sector with the kingdom latest investment focusing on a Dubai-based startup that creates digital theme parks in shopping malls. HyperSpace is set to open two new ventures, in Riyadh and in Dubai, in Q4 2023
Wallan Trading Company, a market leader in the Saudi automotive industry, has partnered with Zeekr Automotive, a premium electric car manufacturer. Wallan Trading Company will soon be unveiling Zeekr showrooms in key cities, including Riyadh, Jeddah, and Alkhobar. These state-of-the-art showrooms will offer prospective customers an immersive experience into electric car luxury.
BENEFIT is Bahrain's innovative and leading company in Fintech and electronic financial transactions services, has reached a total volume of 161.9 Million transactions for all electronic fund transfer transactions (Fawri, Fawri+ and Fawateer) through BenefitPay during the first half of 2023, a 42.4% increase in volume compared to the first half of 2022.?
The online payments under the Electronic Fund Transfer System (EFTS), consisting of Fawri+, Fawri and Fawateer, experienced substantial growth in the first half of 2023, as witnessed by a 40.8% volume increase, from 121.2 Million transactions during the first half of 2022, to 170.7 Million transactions in the first half of 2023.
ROSHN Group, Saudi Arabia's leading national real estate developer and PIF-funded giga-project, has received the British Standards Institution Kitemark for Smart Cities. ROSHN is the first company in the India, Middle East, Turkiye, and Africa region, among the first in the private sector globally, and one of the top 20 organizations around the world to achieve this prestigious international certification.
Mobily and Huawei unite on developing cloud and digital services. Saudi-listed Etihad Etisalat Company (Mobily) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with China's Huawei to collaborate on cloud services and enhance its digital and Internet of Things (IoT) B2B offerings.
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Kuwait International Bank (KIB) won an award for launching the first Biometric Visa Card in Kuwait, which?uses the customer's fingerprint to authorize POS transactions. The Bank's management received this award at KIB's headquarters
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Mike Cunningham has announced that JB, a new digital bank, is launching in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). JB, a “digital leasing and lending platformâ€, is set for launch in Saudi Arabia. Promising an “easier, clearer and quicker experienceâ€, the challenger’s launch was confirmed by Cunningham, the former chief strategy and digital officer of Banque Saudi Fransi (BSF)
The Saudi National Bank (SNB), and Mastercard, the official sponsor of the UEFA Champions League, have partnered to launch the UEFA Champions League card portfolio, the first of its kind in the Kingdom, offering cashback credit card and prepaid card without annual fees.
The ground-breaking ceremony, attended by ROSHN’s senior leadership team, marked the official start of construction of ROSHN’s second mixed-use project in Riyadh, located in a promising area east of Riyadh in Al Janadriyah district. 1.4m sq. km WAREFA community to extend the ROSHN vision for a new way of living and extensive amenity offering to a new location in eastern Riyadh.
Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund, has announced the establishment of Al Balad Development Company, which aims to develop Jeddah’s historic district as part of the kingdom’s push to grow its tourism sector. BDC will work with the private sector to transform Jeddah’s historic district into a global cultural and heritage destination
stc Bahrain, the world-class digital enabler, under its 5G advance (5.5G) network evolution plan has announced the launch of its cutting-edge 5G Network Slicing Service. The revolutionary milestone represents stc Bahrain’s commitment to providing the next generation of mobile connectivity and delivering an unparalleled user experience for customers and businesses.
Lucid announced plans for the Jeddah factory last year and said the kingdom had signed an agreement to buy up to 100,000 vehicles from the company over 10 years.
This collaboration will enable Wasalt to provide its users with a wider range of services and improve the transparency and efficiency of the real estate auction process in Saudi Arabia.
Latest Global News
OpenAI has unveiled a major overhaul to ChatGPT, rolling out new voice and image capabilities that let the AI chatbot effectively see, hear and speak. The Microsoft-backed company said the new capabilities offer a “more intuitive type of interface." The improved ChatGPT will let users take images and use them as prompts, if they wish to get more information about them. ChatGPT users also can now interact with the chatbot using their voice.
Smart glasses are one of the many ways that tech companies have tried to move beyond the smartphone as a user-friendly device. Meta Platforms Inc chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg said the tech giant is putting artificial intelligence (AI) into digital assistants and smart glasses as it seeks to gain lost ground in the AI race.
Mercedes-Benz has introduced in-car biometric payments for fuel through a partnership with credit card giant Mastercard. This follows the brands' partnership with Visa in March 2023, allowing payment of digital services and on-demand hardware upgrades via in-car fingerprint sensors.
Nokia opened a 6G lab at its India R&D facility, a move which will see the Finnish vendor contribute to the nation's Bharat 6G alliance.
The call was placed using AST's BlueWalker 3 satellite and connected callers in Hawaii and Spain.
Visa is launching a $100 million generative AI ventures initiative to invest in start-ups focusing on the technology's use in payments and commerce.
American Express is to pilot the use of facial and fingerprint recognition for authenticating users at online checkouts.
Reuters reported Meta Platforms planned to lay-off employees today from a Reality Labs division that's focused on developing custom silicon. The silicon unit focuses on developing custom chips that power the AR and VR hardware produced by Meta's?Reality Labs?division.?Meta had announced in April that it would lay off thousands of employees across its major properties
The Major Payment Institution (MPI) licence, granted by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), will allow Coinbase to offer digital payment token services to individuals and institutions in Singapore, which has emerged as a centre for crypto in Asia in recent years.