ALINMA Bank hosted its first-ever FinTech-focused event at the Four Seasons hotel in last Dec. 3, 2018. The gathering was hosted by the bank in partnership with FinTech Saudi and Alinma Investment Company, with the stated goal of raising awareness about this important sector.

Alinma Bank has, since its inception, remained focused on leveraging technology for the benefit of the bank and its partners. Towards this end, Alinma has engaged with the FinTech community in Saudi Arabia and across the region, to help navigate the growth of this exciting and important new business sector. And as a key contributor to Vision 2030, Alinma remains committed to ongoing initiatives such as this, which the bank believes will have a positive impact on the kingdom’s overall growth and progress thanks to the efficiencies that can be achieved through FinTech.

Experts and other speakers provided an overview of where FinTech stands today and how the companies that fill this sector will impact the financial landscape in the future. Event attendees discussed opportunities and challenges for payments and remittances, credit ratings, general financing, FinTech financing, blockchain, and digital currencies. Attendance was strong and feedback was positive.

Alinma Bank CEO, Abdulmohsen Al-Fares, stressed the importance of supporting Saudi banks and engaging the FinTech community in an effort to enrich the local market with new, innovative digital banking products and services. He added that the Saudi market was on the threshold of a quantum leap in banking technology and that banks and customers alike stand to benefit significantly from this progress, which, he said, Alinma was committed to supporting going forward.

Alinma’s collaboration with FinTech Saudi was part of the Fintech tour 18, which aims to raise general awareness and to transform ideas and visions into projects and plans to support financial technology and to make Saudi Arabia a regional center of excellence for financial technology. Fintech Saudi is one of the most important initiatives launched by the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA) in line with the kingdom’s Vision 2030 in supporting entrepreneurship and enhancing financial services technology. — SG