CEO & Founder, Tarabut Gateway
Search every verified Abdulla Almoayed interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote โ each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Abdulla Almoayed, founder and CEO of Tarabut Gateway, has been speaking about the progress and potential of open banking in the Middle East and North Africa. He has described open banking as an infrastructure that gives consumers control over their financial data and enables more personalized, proactive financial services. Almoayed has stated that the region's 18 jurisdictions, with a population of 550 million and fewer than 350 retail banks, present a significant opportunity for competition and financial inclusion. He noted that Tarabut, which he described as the first licensed open banking platform in the region, has grown to nearly 200 employees across hubs in Bahrain, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and the UK. Almoayed has discussed the shift in bank attitudes toward open banking, saying that two years ago many banks viewed it as a threat, but that perspective has changed. He has advocated for a unified regulatory framework across the GCC to simplify cross-jurisdictional operations, and has emphasized the importance of aligning interests between banks, regulators, and technology providers through revenue-sharing and profit-sharing models. Almoayed has also highlighted specific use cases enabled by open banking, including shortening microloan application times from six days to under four minutes and providing access to credit for gig-economy workers without traditional salary certificates.
“Open banking was introduced to increase competitiveness and to deliver better services to customers who don't have access to these services today.”
“We can now unlock data so people in the gig economy who don't have a salary certificate can get access to loans they couldn't get before.”
“I remember knocking on the door at the central bank and saying we need something called open banking; the first answer was 'what is open banking?' โ then we had a conversation and showed the social impact it could have.”
“Cybersecurity is a moving goalpost, so regulators must take care of requirements so licensed companies can leverage data to create more personalized services.”
“If you have money sitting idle in your bank account for 90 days, why doesn't my bank say 'would you like me to put it in a fixed deposit for you?' โ the data exists, it's a question of leveraging it.”
“Banks need to shift from reactive to proactive: wake up your customer with a notification like 'you've got X amount sitting idle โ would you like a fixed deposit?', or warn them they're overspending.”
“When we started, there were almost no fintech engineers in Bahrain; today the region has become much more attractive and we grew to nearly 200 people across hubs.”
“The most valuable data today is banking data โ it shows real behaviour (how much you spend, where, when) and banks sitting on that data have the chance to reinvent how they value and score customers.”
“We shouldn't focus on what open banking is โ we should focus on new use cases and segments that lenders and banks can serve using open banking infrastructure.”
“Before we get started I'd like to thank the EDB and the Central Bank of Bahrain for organizing this beautiful event โ we launched open banking and were amongst the first to launch it in the Middle East and that pioneering mindset has always been embedded into the ecosystem.”
“Open banking was introduced to increase competitiveness and to deliver better services to customers who don't have access to these services today.”
“Open banking has enabled hundreds of use cases โ microโfinance, BNPL and many other things โ that give customers access to financial services they didn't previously get.”
“You own your own data โ but we shouldn't be focused on the term 'open banking'; we should think about the new use cases and segments lenders can go after because of open banking regulations.”
“Open banking can unlock access to loans for people in the gig economy who don't have a salary certificate โ by unlocking data a user can get banking services they couldn't get previously.”
“I chose Bahrain because the regulator here was prepared to have a conversation and pioneer open banking โ we showed the social impact potential for financial inclusion and then entities like the Economic Development Board drove it with us.”
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