Qatar Financial Centre (QFC) hosted a panel discussion entitled ‘Qatar-UK Fintech Roundtable’ in partnership with Qatar Development Bank (QDB) and Refinitiv, in London.
Strong participation of senior executives was secured from key Fintech organisations and high-level decision makers such as QFC, QDB and QCB, among others, discussing how the two countries can work together to fully leverage Fintech to its maximum potential in Qatar. During the discussion, Henk J. Hoogendoorn, Managing Director, Financial Sector Office, QFC, noted the growth of Qatar’s Fintech market presents abundant opportunities for key partnerships between the UK and Qatar to fully develop these areas.
QFC recently unveiled its multi-pronged strategy, focusing on new clusters such as media, digital, sports and financial services as part of furthering its contribution to Qatar’s economic diversification efforts. Furthermore, the QFC is home to several Fintech firms, including Goals101 Data Solutions, India’s leading Fintech and big data technology platform.
Abdulaziz bin Nasser Al -Khalifa, Qatar Development Bank CEO, said: “The Qatar-UK Fintech roundtable is part of our efforts to contribute to building a vibrant Fintech and digital banking ecosystem in Qatar. QDB is taking tremendous efforts to offer the much-needed push to Qatar’s financial landscape, aptly backed by technology.”
Hoogendoorn said: “The Qatar-UK roundtable provided a valuable forum to explore the role that established players in the financial services industry must assume in the future growth of Fintech. Both Qatar and the UK are of course vital markets for this fast-growing industry and it therefore makes sense that the two countries cooperate and provide the necessary leadership to leverage Fintech to achieve its full potential.”
Ahmed Hafez, Head of Refinitiv Qatar, stressed there are tremendous opportunities for Islamic Fintech and Islamic banking institutions taking up Islamic Fintech to reach out and improve the attractiveness of their products. The Islamic banking and finance industry currently reaches approximately 100 million customers worldwide while the potential market is six times that. This gap can also be tapped through Fintech.
He said Fintech can enable Islamic finance to attract more customers, increase efficiency, reduce costs and offer a wider range of products, helping the sector become more competitive against conventional finance as discussed during the roundtable. Islamic finance has taken great strides this century, with Shariah-compliant financial assets forecast to total $3.8tr by 2022 up from $2.2tr in 2016, with around 1,400 Islamic financial institutions now operating across 80 countries, according to a Refinitiv report.