Fintech Galaxy has boosted its capabilities by launching on FinX22, its cloud-based open Innovation platform that aims at driving collaboration, fueling innovation, and facilitating integration between financial institutions and fintech companies.
The platform is hosted on a cloud platform on regional data centres and is based on international standards. It has been designed and launched in collaboration with the Central Bank of Bahrain (Bahrain), the Arab Fintech Working Group of the Arab Monetary Fund (AMF) The Arab Federation of Exchanges (Lebanon), Emirates NBD (UAE), Banque Saudi Fransi (Saudi Arabia), Egyptian Gulf Bank (Egypt), Jordan Ahli Bank (Jordan), The Benefit Company (Bahrain) and Gulf International Bank (Bahrain).
Speaking about the launch of the platform, Mirna Sleiman, Founder & CEO, Fintech Galaxy, said: “Our strategic goal is to rebuild the future of inclusive financial services across the 22 Arab countries. The launch of this platform comes at a critical time, when financial institutions are increasingly focusing on implementing digital transformation strategies to drive business growth, despite the current outbreak of Covid-19. We are confident that with FinX22 we will be able to help alleviate some of the bigger issues that the market is currently facing as a result of the pandemic.
“After 2 years of active prototyping with regulators, financial institutions and fintechs, we are now bringing to the market a platform that has a large database of global and regional fintechs, allows seamless matchmaking between fintechs and financial institutions, all while providing real-time access to Open Banking APIs through a standardized universal gateway. With FinX22, we are committed to creating a common regional digital space for better connectivity that will help speed up the process of digital transformation and move the needle in financial inclusion.”
FinX22 focuses on three core areas. Firstly, the platform provides an Open Banking API sandbox that enables fintech companies to develop, test and deploy fintech solutions. The sandbox comes with its own API Manager which handles access control, monitoring and authentication.
Secondly, the platform offers a comprehensive marketplace that connects FIs to thousands of fintechs from across the globe.
It also enables institutions to run virtual hackathons, innovation challenges and incubation/ acceleration programs. Regulators, FIs and academic institutions will also be able to boost their research and development activities by tapping into the platform’s crowdsourcing solutions, to solve significant customer pain points in the financial and banking space and improve the overall customer experience.
Commenting on the partnership, the Central Bank of Bahrain, added: “The CBB is pleased to partner with Fintech Galaxy on this intuitive platform, which provides financial institutions and FinTechs with technologically advanced infrastructure to collaborate and co-create solutions that enhance customer experiences across the region. We at the CBB are committed to encouraging such initiatives that will deliver a more competitive and efficient financial services sector, further strengthening Bahrain’s position as a FinTech hub.”
Evans Munyuki, Group Chief Digital Officer at Emirates NBD, said: “Emirates NBD is pleased to be part of Finx22 as it aligns with goals of embracing collaboration with FinTechs as well as identifying FinTechs which can help us solve business problems leveraging better use of technology. We are confident that this initiative will pave the path for many more collaborations between banks and FinTechs, helping tackle challenges while delivering smarter and more secure banking solutions for the future.”
For his part, Rami El Dokany, AFE Secretary-General, stated that: “Increasing the investors base in our Arab exchanges is a priority to guarantee the continuity of our markets. In a region of the world where youth represent almost 70% of the population, digital KYC & digital on-boarding have become a necessity to attract younger investors to the market. For this particular reason, AFE has partnered with FTG to look for solutions that would facilitate the digital on-boarding & KYC sharing.”
