To achieve participation of all
stakeholders in this path breaking initiative, it is important for the
businesses to participate with banks. With the need to on-board the businesses
and provide opportunities and possible collaboration, Ithmaar Bank invites
qualified FinTech companies, local start-ups and other interested parties to
participate.
The announcement follows the 30 June
deadline set by the Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB), the Kingdom’s banking and
financial services regulator, requiring all banks to comply with the CBB’s Open
Banking regulatory framework.
Ithmaar Bank, a founding member of the
Bahrain Fintech Bay, the leading FinTech Hub in the Middle East, has
long-played a pioneering role in implementing new technology to help enhance
its products and services as part of its customer-centric strategy.
“Open banking will, potentially,
revolutionise banking as we know it,” said Ithmaar Bank Chief Executive Officer,
Ahmed Abdul Rahim. “The CBB open banking mandate, which came into effect on 30
June, opens up an exciting world of opportunities for banks, as well and for
FinTech and other kinds of companies that were not, in the past, involved in
banking,” he said.
Open banking allows customers to securely
share their financial data with various institutions and aggregators. This, in
turn, opens up the banking and financial services industry to new growth
opportunities and, potentially, creates exciting new banking products and
services for customers.
“Open banking is, ultimately, about
collaboration and, with the nation-wide initiative now rolled out on 30 June,
we will all be able to work together in ways we might have never thought of
before,” said Abdul Rahim. “To best realise the tremendous potential that lies
ahead, we have started reaching out to various FinTech and other CBB-licensed
companies to see how we can best serve our customers and Bahraini’s banking
population at large,” he said.
“As a pioneering, customer-centric bank, we
remain as committed as ever to continuously enhancing our products and
services,” said Abdul Rahim. “We listen closely to what our customers have to
say and we work hard to meet and exceed their expectations,” he said.
“We are equally committed to helping
reinforce Bahrain’s already prominent position as a key banking and financial
services hub in the region,” said Abdul Rahim. “To that end, we are
particularly delighted to be able to support the CBB’s open banking
initiative,” he said.
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