MENA Regulators to Increase Fintech Priority

MENA Regulators to Increase Fintech Priority

The COVID-19 pandemic has increased the prioritization of fintech among regulators in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

These have moved fintech up the regulatory agency and introduced a number of measures to harness the opportunities introduced by technology-enabled financial services all the while mitigating the new risks brought about by these novel solutions, a new report by the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF) at the University of Cambridge Judge Business School says.

A report titled Fintech Regulation in the Middle East and North Africa shares findings from a study that sought to review how MENA jurisdictions have responded to the opportunities and challenges associated with fintech through their regulatory efforts.

It draws data from previous 2020 and 2021 studies, and complements it with direct surveys with a select number of sampled regulators from jurisdictions such as Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), as well as free zones the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), and the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM).

Findings show that the global pandemic made financial regulators realize the importance of fintech, with surveyed regulators indicating perceiving fintech to be supportive in market development (85%), promoting financial inclusion (77%), promoting competition (69%), and