From The challenges of open banking and how to overcome them | Fintech Forward 2024 · · Fintech Forward
“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?' — the data exists, it's a question of leveraging it.”
On , Abdulla Almoayed, CEO & Founder at Tarabut Gateway, spoke about customer experience during The challenges of open banking and how to overcome them | Fintech Forward 2024 on Fintech Forward.
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.