FinTech accelerates digital economy innovation

ABU DHABI: The Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) on Monday launched its second edition of FinTech Abu Dhabi Summit, held under the patronage of Sheikh Hazza Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Chairman of Abu Dhabi Executive Council, at a local hotel in the UAE capital.

The two-day event, was well-attended by about 1,000 participants comprising senior government officials, local and global FinTech experts, financial leaders, investors, innovators and international regulators. The FinTech Abu Dhabi Summit provides a platform for the FinTech community to deep-dive into trending topics and business issues that will shape the digital economy of the future.

Riyad Al-Mubarak Al-Mubarak, Chairman of the Department of Finance and Member of the Executive Council; Saif Mohammed Al Hajri, Chairman of Economic Development Department and Executive Board Member; and Rashid Bin Lahej Al Mansouri, Abu Dhabi; Saif Saeed Ghabash, Under-Secretary of the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi; and a team of senior Abu Dhabi officials were hosted and brought around by Ahmed Al Sayegh, Chairman of ADGM, to meet the ADGM RegLab Firms, including NowMoney and Pyppl from the UAE, HalalaH from Saudi Arabia, Securrency from the USA, to name a few.

They were given a brief orientation of the RegLab firms and a better understanding of their innovative solutions and product offerings that serve to transform the financial services industry in Abu Dhabi and beyond.

At the summit’s inaugral speech, Al Sayegh announced several significant and trail-blazing initiatives, including launching the first ADGM digital sandbox to host the testing of new FinTech products; being a member of the ASEAN Financial Innovation Network to foster cross-border investment opportunities between Abu Dhabi and Singapore; working alongside Hong Kong and Singapore to build a blockchain-based trade financing platform for cross-border trade and collaborating with Maqta Gateway and more.

Digital sandbox

The ADGM has also announced an initiative to launch a FinTech digital sandbox. The digital sandbox that allows financial institutions, FIs, and FinTech innovators to come together to experiment on products and solutions in a digital platform environment, supported by regulatory standards developed by the Financial Services Regulatory Authority, FSRA, of ADGM.

The ADGM digital sandbox will provide a marketplace for open collaboration between FIs, FinTech firms, and regulators to facilitate testing and adoption of innovative digital financial products and services that can benefit the industry in the region.

The ADGM digital sandbox allows financial institutions to source and procure FinTech solutions locally and globally, run tests digitally on the platform, and adopt and orchestrate the best ones that meet their business needs. FinTechs to offer their innovative solutions to international market players, and tap cross-border market access and opportunities to grow and scale their business. Participants in the UAE and regional markets to connect with other international markets and vice versa.

Commenting on the announcement, Richard Teng, CEO of ADGM’s Financial Services Regulatory Authority, said, “As a FinTech Hub, ADGM is consistently looking at innovative ways to serve and anticipate the needs of its stakeholders. The objective of the digital sandbox is to help FIs build deep digital capabilities to tap market opportunities, and promote financial inclusion through innovative technologies to better cater to the underserved population in the Mena region.”

One of the biggest challenges FIs encounter in their ability to embrace innovation relates to integration of their legacy banking systems with the FinTechs’ solutions. The ADGM digital sandbox will support and enable APIs that connect legacy systems of FIs to FinTechs in a cost-effective and scalable manner, with synthetic data hosted on the cloud in a secure manner. To promote industry adoption, interoperability, financial inclusion and convergence to higher standards, the FSRA of ADGM will develop guidance on the standards and IT security requirements for open APIs and cloud adoption.

Based on FSRA’s regulatory standards for the usage of the platform, it will be able to provide a regulated environment for experimentation. With the advent of innovative supervisory technology, FSRA will be able to leverage the digital sandbox to supervise the test activities of FinTech participants that are licensed in its Regulatory Laboratory, RegLab, in real time.

As part of ADGM’s commitment to foster a global marketplace for digital transformation and financial inclusion, ADGM will partner with the ASEAN Financial Innovation Network, AFIN, to leverage on the global API Xchange platform to bring together FIs and FinTech firms between the Mena region and the Asia-Pacific region onto an online digital platform enabled by open APIs.

“Our partnership with AFIN will enable ADGM to drive and further accelerate the financial inclusion agenda, and expand access to financial services in Abu Dhabi, regionally and globally. ADGM will continue to actively engage the industry, keep abreast of regulatory developments, innovate, and introduce appropriate initiatives to enhance the FinTech ecosystem in Abu Dhabi and for the region,” Teng concluded.

Partnership agreement

Meanwhile, Abu Dhabi’s Department of Economic Development (ADDED) and Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) signed a cooperation agreement to provide more integrated support for innovators and technology enterprises across various key industries leveraging the Technology and Innovation Pioneers, TIP, Platform under DED’s Takamul

Programme.

The new partnership will serve to enhance the innovation and technology ecosystem in Abu Dhabi particularly and the UAE in general, encouraging the growth of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) and serve the innovation lifecycle The agreement was signed by Saif Mohamed Al Hajeri and Ahmed Al Sayegh during the FinTech Summit.

The new partnership will include several aspects, including fostering cooperation in services pertaining to innovation and technology under the Takamul Programme, promoting awareness and support of TIP Platform and its services. It will also help in collaborating on joint entrepreneurial and leadership development initiatives, providing business incubation support to tech startups leveraging ADGM’s innovation programmes, and connecting technology business incubators with the economic and industrial sectors, as well as use of ADGM facilities and ecosystem to support innovative entrepreneurs and business incubators.

Commenting on the agreement, Al Hajeri said that innovation has become a focal point in Abu Dhabi’s plans, programmes and initiatives due to its vital role in building a knowledge-based economy and transforming new and transformative ideas into economic value promoting economic growth and development locally and nationally. He added that its strategic partners and concerned parties, the department strives to lead the economic agenda of the emirate of Abu Dhabi to achieve a sustainable, balanced and diversified economy based on knowledge and innovation.

WAM

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