Doha: Qatar’s fintech sector is expanding rapidly as it offers growth opportunities for both local and international fintechs. Global fintechs are engaging with Qatar Fintech Hub and are exploring opportunities in Qatar, said a senior official during an event.
Addressing the session on ‘Fintech of the Future’ during Rowad Qatar 2021 organised by Qatar Development Bank (QDB) panelists gave insight into rapidly growing fintech sector. Jiazhong Wang, Vice President of the Financial Sector Office at Qatar Financial Centre (QFC) said “Qatar is a fascinating place, and its infrastructure offers opportunities for tech companies that have unique solutions. Fintech development in Qatar is still in its infancy, we have only got started. Because of the wealth of the nation, we can apply most relevant updated technologies to develop as Qatar is home to big financial institutions and there lies the opportunities for both indigenous and international fintechs.”
“We are glad to see that a lot of international fintechs start engaging with Qatari stakeholders particularly with Qatar Fintech Hub. We hope that the international fintech communities continue to explore their possibilities and opportunities in Qatar,” he added.
Speaking about the fintech technology he noted that it can improve consumer to manage finance and interaction between a client and financial institution. Fintech is fascinating because it reflects the history of financial sector of a certain country. Citing examples of the US and Asian countries who are developing the technology, he said “US is an important center for expertise and innovation because of its unique combination of capital ideas and infrastructure. Asia has very different legacy in history; Japan and Korea has important economy but the most visible one is China where the whole model is very different. In each country innovation is driven by available technology as well as past history.”
Dr. Karim Al Yafi, Associate Professor of Information Systems at Qatar University discussed about the growth of fintech industry globally. “Fintech is applying the technology and innovation to the financial sector and see how these innovations and technologies are transforming the traditional way of finance,” he said.
Al Yafi said, “Fintech is getting proliferated at huge pace. Growth in fintech is different than growth in industry because it not only led by technology but also other factors like accepting, adopting and integrating the innovation and applying it to different services as financial sector as an industry is huge and comprises of so many services under it. The demand for careers in different aspects of fintech are on the rise and fintech brings promises for growth in the near and the long future.”
“Technologies such as AI, big data, automation are complementing each other to create a broader fintech eco system that is borderless now a days. So, this is huge in terms of investment, data science, business opportunities. We are seeing many startups that are getting into the fintech sector and they are important players as they generate many new ideas,” he added.
The fintech industry applies various technologies to improve financial activities and access to finance for the masses. According to a recent report, investment in financial technology has increased by over 2200 percent from 2008 to 2015.
