Fintech News from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA)

Fintech News from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA)


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As Finovate prepares for its first conference in the Middle East, here’s a round up of recent fintech news and need-to-knows from the MENA region. Learn more about how to join us in Dubai in February for FinovateMiddleEast.

  • NCR overhauls self-service network for Oman’s BankDhofar.
  • U.A.E.-based Noor Bank launches redesigned credit and debit cards inspired by modern art and Islamic heritage, as well as a new rewards program.
  • First Abu Dhabi Bank gets green light to begin “arranging and advising activities” in the Saudi Arabian securities market.

Thought Leadership – Growth, Wealth, Modernization Drive Fintech Innovation in the MENA region.

  • Is there a future for cryptocurrencies in Turkey? The country’s Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek weighs in.
  • Al Rajhi Bank Jordan signs cooperation agreement with Middle East Payment Services
  • Emirates NBD adds Evans Munyuki as Chief Digital Officer and Miguel Rio Tinto as Chief Information Officer to help drive digital transformation.

Thought Leadership – Top Barriers to Fintech Growth in the Middle East – What will it take to bring the benefits of fintech innovation to the people of MENA? Randstad takes a look at some of the key factors, from regulations to technical talent.

  • Forbes Middle East publishes its roster of the top 20 fintech startups in the Middle East.
  • U.A.E tops Arab markets when it comes to Islamic fintech.
  • Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB) wins Best Overall Bank in Customer Experience in the U.A.E. at 2017 Retail Banking Customer Experience Benchmarking Index awards for the 7th consecutive year.

20 Finovate Alums Earn Spots on One World Identity’s Top 100 Influencers List

20 Finovate Alums Earn Spots on One World Identity’s Top 100 Influencers List

When you think about it, what’s cooler than being named to a Who’s Who list in the world of digital identities?

One World Identity, an independent identity research and strategy company that specializes in cybersecurity, digital commerce, and risk management, published its roster of the Top 100 Influencers in Identity this week. This year, 20 Finovate alums made the cut. The individual influencers – as well as the companies they work for- are listed below.

As with last year’s roster, this year’s list was compiled by taking nominations submitted via Twitter, LinkedIn, and at oneworldidentity.com. The staff and advisory council for One World Identity whittled down the initial list of more than 1,000 nominees to a final 100.

One World Identity began as a project from a group of Google employees back in 2015. The company was officially launched the following year as a way to help spur innovation and collaboration in the field of digital identities. Travis Jarae is founder and CEO.

Cardlytics Becomes the First Fintech to Go Public in 2018

Cardlytics Becomes the First Fintech to Go Public in 2018

Cardlytics, which originally filed plans to go public on January 12, has made its IPO official today. On the NASDAQ this morning, the data-driven marketing company issued 5.4 million shares under the ticker symbol CDLX. The offering is expected to close on February 13, 2018, subject to closing conditions.

To celebrate this momentous event in the company’s 10-year history, Cardlytics CEO and Co-Founder Scott Grimes and COO and Co-Founder Lynne Laube, rang the opening bell on NASDAQ this morning. Grimes said, “We believe becoming a publicly-listed company on the NASDAQ will help Cardlytics continue to strengthen our partnerships with banks, drive meaningful consumer engagement, and help brands make their marketing more relevant and measurable through our Purchase Intelligence platform.”

In an analysis on Seeking Alpha, Gary Alexander noted that the market cap of $273 million places Cardlytics “on the small extreme of the IPO spectrum.” However, he added that because Cardlytics is the first fintech– and even the first technology company– to go public this year, “it’s bound to get attention for signaling appetite in the IPO markets.”

Atlanta-based Cardlytics, which launched in the heart of the Great Recession, has raised a total of $203 million and counts ITC Holding Co., Kinetic Ventures, Canaan Partners, Polaris Venture Partners, and TTV Capital among its investors. In the nine months ending in September 2017, the company logged losses of $16 million on sales of $91 million.

Cardlytics leverages algorithms and machine learning to normalize raw purchase data and make it useful for marketers. The company offers solutions for both marketers and banks, including:

  • Insights: helps marketers make better business decisions across marketing, store operations, and real estate planning by viewing into customers’ actual purchase behavior.
  • Measure: leverages sales data to help marketers measure and optimize their marketing strategies
  • Purchase Intelligence: allows marketers to advertise within a native banking environment to capture new clients with the use of loyalty and rewards

At FinovateFall 2013, Cardlytics demoed its geolocation application, a solution that sends bank customers ads and offers based on their location. Last month, the company appointed Sathish Gaddipati as Chief Technology Officer. Most recently, Cardlytics earned a spot on the Tech Tribune’s list of the 10 Best Tech Startups in Atlanta.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • Cardlytics Becomes the First Fintech to Go Public in 2018.

Around the web

  • The Banker’s Tech Talk interviews FinanceIT CEO Michael Garrity.
  • Tinkoff Bank launches development hub.
  • Icon Solutions announces strategic GDPR partnership with Digital Control Room.
  • Larky expands partnership with Sharetec.
  • Zebpay adds support for Ripple’s XRP.
  • Pindrop helping PSCU block $1 million in fraud in one month.

This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.

The Spirit of Innovation: Fintech is Booming in UAE

The Spirit of Innovation: Fintech is Booming in UAE

As populations in the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region grow at increasing rates, developing a financial infrastructure capable of serving those who live in the Middle East and North Africa – from the underbanked to the ultra high net worth individual – is a massive challenge. We speak to HE Younis Haji Al Khoori, Undersecretary of MoF about how the UAE Ministry of Finance’s (MoF) innovation strategy reflects its support to the National Innovation Strategy of the UAE and what this means for the fintech environment in the MENA of the future.

Finovate: What are the main features of the Ministry of Finance’s (MoF) innovation strategy over the next 12 months?

HE Younis Haji Al Khoori: The UAE Ministry of Finance’s (MoF) innovation strategy reflects its support to the National Innovation Strategy of the UAE, which acts as an umbrella for the UAE Government’s efforts in innovation.

Through this strategy, MoF aspires to showcase its innovation projects that are in support of the innovation ecosystem in the UAE. This is currently being achieved through the introduction of high-calibre projects like the Mohammed bin Rashid Innovation Fund, which is aimed at supporting innovators by granting them access to affordable financing solutions.

In addition, MoF’s innovation strategy focuses on fostering a culture of innovation within the Ministry, and offers its employees comprehensive skills-building and training programmes that are specific to innovation, and empowers them to apply related tools and business practices professionally.

Finovate: How do you define innovation?

HE Younis Haji Al Khoori: Innovation is a broad term with numerous applications. From my perspective it relates to businesses improving competitiveness by developing new and creative processes, products and services to meet and overcome the challenges they face.

The UAE Government aspires to become one of the world’s most innovative countries by 2021. For that, the Ministry of Finance has adopted innovation as a methodology integral to the way every one of our divisions operates and to how every service we deliver works. This spirit has also driven the launch of various initiatives, programs and incubators that support the spread of innovation-culture throughout the country and support its future growth.

Finovate: What’s on the agenda to increase innovation within government and finance?

HE Younis Haji Al Khoori: The UAE Ministry of Finance has announced a 2 billion dirham fund, The Mohammed Bin Rashid Innovation Fund. This fund offers affordable financing solutions to innovators at different levels of their development through a government backed guarantee. MoF is collaborating with Emirates Development Bank to operate the fund and partners within the banking sector to provide the required financing to innovators.

Recently, the Ministry has announced the Fund’s very first success story where an applicant achieved a complete disbursement in virtue of his highlighting an interesting aspect of social innovation in his business.

The fund also offers the opportunity for international value to be brought into applicant businesses through the network of high profile SME owners from around the world working as members of the fund Advisory and Decision Committee. The Ministry is also currently working on broadening the scope of our contribution to the innovation ecosystem through a number of initiatives that will be announced soon.

Finovate: How are emerging technologies going to disrupt the financial services sector?

HE Younis Haji Al Khoori: The advent of fintech, especially with regards to Blockchain and Cryptocurrency spells significant change for the financial services sector which will need to evolve to keep up with the rapid changes we are living through. It is speculated that there will be more changes in the industry over the next decade than there have been in the past 100 years, however I believe the core principles which have seen the financial services sector continue to perform through other periods of change will continue to serve us well through periods of significant upheaval. Embracing a culture of innovation, as well as continuing to acquire smart and informed talent will ensure the sector is prepared regardless of the technological advances that occur elsewhere.

Finovate: How do you see the fintech sector developing in the UAE and beyond?

HE Younis Haji Al Khoori: 2017 has seen fintech enter the popular consciousness in a big way, the meteoric rise of Bitcoin and other emergent digital currency, developments in mobile payment technology, and the introduction of Blockchain have ignited the public interest and pushed the sector’s growth. It is easy to say that the fintech revolution is transforming the financial services sector, and will continue to do so by forming a globally connected world.

The UAE can consolidate its position at the leading edge of this new frontier by attracting the most promising enterprises to develop in our cities, continuing to develop cutting edge business infrastructure and providing accessible and generous funding through funds and incubators. We aspire to become a leading light in the accelerating fintech sector.

NCR Overhauls Self Service Network for Oman’s BankDhofar; Expands ATM Access in India

NCR Overhauls Self Service Network for Oman’s BankDhofar; Expands ATM Access in India

Two headlines from NCR Corporation reflect the breadth of the company’s work with financial institutions and underbanked populations around the world.

First up is news that NCR has been selected by leading Oman bank, BankDhofar, to overhaul its current self-service banking network. The bank will also deploy NCR’s SelfServ 80 Series ATMs, upgrading BankDhofar’s current line-up of older NCR ATMs.

“BankDhofar is well known for being innovative and constantly striving to be ‘the best bank for its customers by making banking easy and always available,” AGM and Chief Information Officer, Dr. Tariq Taha said. Taha said the ATM upgrade will enable the bank to purse new growth opportunities as well as provide a “next-generation customer experience.”

The new ATMs have a widescreen display that enables multi-touch function and comes equipped with a cash dispenser that provides up to a 60-note bunch (approximately OMR 3,000) per transaction. Customers will also be able to deposit up to 4,000 notes and 400 checks. “We are proud to be the first in the country to offer this revolutionary technology that delivers intuitive and striking interfaces to access banking transactions and services on-the-go,” Taha said.

NCR also announced a special deployment of its ATMs in remote areas of India in an effort to better reach the underbanked. The company said the deployment of the small-footprint, SelfServ Select Edition Cash and SE Recycle ATMs will enable FIs to provide cash more readily to an economy that is more than 19% unbanked and conducts more than 50% of its retail transactions in cash.

“Financial inclusion is emerging as a new paradigm of economic growth that plays a major role in driving away poverty from the country by reaching and serving the underserved,” VP and GM for NCR Financial Services, Jose Resendiz said. “The new ATMs will allow financial institutions to modernize their ATM network, improve customer experience and extend their reach to serve areas where cash demand is strong.”

NCR’s global presence has been manifest in recent months. In January, the company’s technology was used to help Union Bank of the Philippines launch a prototype branch with an interactive teller. Back in the U.S., the same interactive teller technology was deployed at Tucson FCU in December. Winner of four GOOD DESIGN awards, NCR teamed up with Samsung to launch an all-in-one POS commerce station, NCR Silver Quantum in November and, in October, the company introduced its cloud-based NCR Mobile Payment solution.

Headquartered in Duluth, Georgia, NCR demonstrated a fully-immersive, virtual reality ATM experience featuring real-time remote collaboration at FinovateSpring 2017. The company trades on the NYSE under the ticker “NCR” and has a market capitalization of $4 billion. Bill Nuti is Chairman, President, and CEO.

TSYS Tech Backs J.P. Morgan’s Commercial Virtual Card Issuance

TSYS Tech Backs J.P. Morgan’s Commercial Virtual Card Issuance

Global payments provider TSYS announced this week that J.P. Morgan will leverage the fintech’s Virtual Payment Precept (VPP) to broaden its virtual card solution.

TSYS’ VPP is a commercial card solution that enables issuers to generate secure, virtual, single-use account information in real-time, offering a more flexible and faster card issuance program that gives more control over account and transaction parameters. J.P. Morgan will use VPP to issue cards on both Visa and Mastercard networks.

“Virtual cards are a vital component of our clients’ payments strategy and business operations and this will continue to power our clients’ and suppliers’ growth,” said Naney Pandit, Head of Commercial Card Product at J.P. Morgan.

VPP technology allows businesses to set limits on what each account can be used for. And virtual cards replace static account numbers on physical cards that are vulnerable of being compromised. These two factors help reduce risk and improve operational efficiency.

TSYS demoed its Spend Controls feature at FinovateEurope 2013 in London. Last December, the company extended its agreement with Capital One to continue providing processing services for the bank’s North American clients. That same month, TSYS closed its acquisition of payment technology company Cayan for $1.05 billion.

TSYS was founded in 1983 and has 11,500 employees across offices in 13 countries. In 2016, the company processed 25.5 billion transactions, generating $4.2 billion in revenue. TSYS is a publicly traded company (NYSE: TSS).

Finovate Alums Larsen, Armstrong, Garlinghouse Among Crypto’s Richest

Finovate Alums Larsen, Armstrong, Garlinghouse Among Crypto’s Richest

Mirror, mirror, on the wall … Who has reeled in the biggest cryptocurrency haul of them all?

Forbes has published its first – and hopefully not last – list of the richest “secretive freaks, geeks, and visionaries” in the world of cryptocurrencies. And on a list that features widely-known tech luminaries like Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss (“the Winklevoss Twins”), and Tim Draper, Forbes’ roster of cryptocurrency’s richest also features a handful of Finovate alums including Chris Larsen and Brad Garlinghouse (founder and current CEO of Ripple, respectively), as well as Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase.

Not just that, but by Forbes’ estimation, Chris Larsen is the richest person in cryptocurrency, with an estimated crypto net worth between $7.5 billion and $8 billion. Armstrong comes in at between $900 million and $1 billion in crypto net worth, with Garlinghouse’s crypto net worth estimated between $400 million to $500 million.

Introducing their new roster, Forbes noted that they based their rankings using the “estimated holdings of cryptocurrencies, post-tax profits from trading crypto-assets and stakes in crypto-related businesses” as of January 19, 2018. Additionally, in order to qualify for the list, cryptocurrency investors needed to have holdings valued at at least $350 million.

The publication acknowledges that there may be richer crypto investors out there who were inadvertently overlooked. Additionally, Forbes concedes that its estimated valuations of cryptocurrency investments may be “wide of the mark.” But the editors suggest that the list remains valuable for the same reason its list of the Forbes 400 richest Americans first published in 1982 was of value: by “(making) the world a better place by shining a light on the invisible rich.”

See the full list. In addition to the names and estimated cryptocurrency wealth figures, the Forbes feature shared some additional interesting data on the Kings (and they are all men, by the way) of Crypto. They found, for example, that the average age of cryptocurrency’s richest was 15 years younger than the average age of their Forbes 400 wealthiest Americans (42 years old versus 67). The article also noted the average price change in 2017 of the most common cryptocurrencies (more than 14,000% for Bitcoin, Ethereum, and XRP). The piece also included an interesting comparison of daily price volatility of various assets, with gold at the low end of 0.7%, shares of Apple stock at 1.37%, and XRP topping the list at 16.75%. Whee!

Who’s Up for Analyst All Stars?

Who’s Up for Analyst All Stars?

Finovate was built on the foundation of live fintech demos. And there’s plenty to love about the live demo-only, fintech-speed-dating model, but I’ve become increasingly fond of Finovate’s incorporation of the analyst speed-dating session that takes place in the days following the demos.

Demo companies and the analysts both face a 7-minute time limit, but there are two major differences between the two sessions. First, while the companies demo specific fintech innovations, the analysts present on fintech themes and opportunities for the future. Second, the companies face a demo-only, no slides rule, but the analysts are allowed to use as many slides as they’d like in their 7-minute time slot.

Here’s a look at who will be facing the heat of the spotlight during our Analyst All Star session at FinovateEurope next month.

Ron van Wezel

Van Wezel is a senior analyst for Aite Group’s Retail Banking and Payments practice. His research covers market and regulatory trends in the payments space, with a focus on Europe. Aite Group is an independent research and advisory firm focused on business, technology, and regulatory issues and their impact on the financial services industry. Headquartered in Boston, Aite Group works with its clients as a partner, advisor, and catalyst, challenging their basic assumptions and ensuring they remain at the forefront of industry trends.

Kieran Hines

Hines is Head of Industries at Ovum, and leads a team of analysts that support clients across a range of verticals including financial services, retail, government, education, healthcare, and utilities. Hines’ personal research focus is payments, and he regularly produces research and advises customers on issues such as real-time payments, open banking, fraud/security, and vendor selection.

Michelle Evans

Evans is the Head of Digital Consumer Research at Euromonitor International. In her role, she oversees the firm’s research on the digital consumer, providing actionable insights and in-depth analyses into how technological advances are reshaping the way consumers browse and buy goods and services globally.  Recognized as a thought leader in digital commerce, she was named a Power Woman in Fintech by Innotribe in 2015, a Woman on Top in Tech by Asian Entrepreneur in 2016, and a Woman to Watch by Remodista in 2018. Leveraging her master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University, she has a reoccurring column in Forbes and is regularly quoted in publications globally.

Oliwia Berdak

Berdak joined Forrester Research in 2013 and leads Forrester’s coverage of digital disruption and digital innovation in financial services. She advises executive teams on their digital strategies and the impact of emerging technologies on their business. Prior to joining Forrester, Dr. Berdak held a number of research positions in business and academia, working with a variety of methodologies to deliver insight.

Zilvinas Bareisis

Bareisis researches and advises clients on consumer payments. He has a keen interest in payments innovation, and how the “perfect storm” of competitive, regulatory, and technology developments shapes consumer payments today and tomorrow. Bareisis has over 20 years of experience advising senior executives at the leading financial institutions and their technology and service providers. He joined Celent in April 2010 from Oliver Wyman.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • TSYS Tech Backs J.P. Morgan’s Commercial Virtual Card Issuance.
  • Finovate Alums Larsen, Garlinghouse, Armstrong Among Crypto’s Richest.
  • NCR Overhauls Self Service Network for Oman’s Bank Dhofar; Expands ATM Access in India.

Around the web

  • Revolut partners with Visa to issue prepaid cards to new customers.
  • Call Centre Helper interviews Mike Iacobucci, Interactions CEO.
  • SMArtX (formerly HedgeCoVest) expands Direct Indexing Platform.
  • doxo surpasses 3 million users and 45,000 payable billers.
  • Army Aviation Center FCU ($1.2 billion in assets) launches member owned full service insurance agency courtesy of Insuritas.

This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.

Entrust Datacard Teams with Gemalto

Entrust Datacard Teams with Gemalto

Identity authentication and secure card issuance company Entrust Datacard has formed a major partnership this week. The Minnesota-based company teamed with payment card supplier Gemalto to offer a SaaS-based instant issuance solution for U.S. banks.

The new offering pairs Entrust Datacard’s instant issuance technology with Gemalto’s SaaS platform, lowering the barrier to entry to create an easy-to-deploy instant issuance solution for any size financial institution. The technology gives banks complete control over the card issuance delivery process and, when they issue cards in the branch, they benefit from cost reductions not only in the form of savings on postage, but also from lowered overhead.

Here’s how it works: once a bank branch installs Entrust Datacard’s instant issuance printers they can personalize and print EMV cards on-demand. The issuance software is hosted and managed by Gemalto’s secure, cloud-based SaaS infrastructure.

In the press release, Karen Kaukol, Vice President of Instant Issuance at Entrust Datacard said, “With a SaaS-based instant issuance solution, we are able to not only provide financial institutions with the ability to instantly meet their customer’s needs, but do it in a manner that drives retention, and increases activation and usage rates, all while reducing the overhead expenses to the bank.”

Entrust Datacard was founded in 1969 and presented at FinDEVr Silicon Valley 2016. Jason Soroko, Security Technologies Manager, and Matt Rose, Technical Sales Consultant, spoke to the audience of developers on Safeguarding Your Banking Applications. With more than $600 million in annual revenue, Entrust Datacard has 2,000 colleagues working around the globe to serve customers in 150 countries. Last month, the company partnered with the government of Ghana to help it issue national identity cards to its citizens in real time.

IdentityMind Global Introduces Anti-Fraud Solution for ICOs

IdentityMind Global Introduces Anti-Fraud Solution for ICOs

Trusted digital identities specialist IdentityMind Global is doing its part to make the world better and safer for cryptocurrency and ICO market participants. The company unveiled its KYC Plug-in for ICOs today, a turnkey SaaS product that enables firms to conduct KYC and AML checks on those seeking to invest in ICOs.

“As ICOs become more prevalent, and as money continues to flow into ICOs, regulators globally are starting to take notice,” IdentityMind Global CMO Jose Caldera said. “The regulatory risk, in conjunction with the risk of enabling fraudsters, financing of terrorism, and money launderers should motivate organizations performing ICOs to properly identity the participants in the ICO process. IdentityMind is at the forefront of delivering an easy compliance solution to companies conducting an ICO.”

Left to right: CTO Kieran Sherlock and CMO Jose Caldera during their presentation “Entity Link API” during FinDEVr London 2017.

The plug-in includes a variety of features to ensure companies are able to perform KYC and AML checks. These consist of a web-ready software client to guide the ICO participant through the KYC process, a pre-configured risk-based KYC ruleset based on local regulations, reports for examiners and auditors, a due diligence platform, and the ability to validate the risk of bitcoins used to participate in the ICO.

“By working with IdentityMind, we are assuring that all participants go through KYC and AML processes before partaking in our $500 million Dragon ICO,” founder and CEO of Dragon Corporation, Chris Ahmad said. “This is perhaps the largest ICO to date and by working with IdentityMind we’re able to verify participants on a global basis in a quick and efficient manner.”

IdentityMind Global presented its Entity Link API at FinDEVr London 2017. A component of the company’s RegTech API, Entity Link API provides the analysis and machine intelligence that determines whether the person on the other end of the transaction is a real entity, is authorized to use the data it is presenting, or posses a risk to the corporate brand in some way.

Named to the Global RegTech 100 last fall, IdentityMind Global announced an expansion of its partnership with fellow Finovate/FinDEVr alum Mitek in late January, adding biometric facial comparison technology to its compliance and fraud prevention platform. The company began the year winning a new patent for technology that improves screening for sanctioned individuals making cryptocurrency transactions.

IdentityMind Global has raised more than $10 million in funding, and includes Lakewood & Company, MoneyTime Ventures, and Overstock.com among its investors. Founded in 2013 by Garrett Gafke (President, CEO), IdentityMind Global is headquartered in Palo Alto, California.