The inaugural edition of the World FinTech Summit digitally converged some of the prominent speakers in the FinTech Industry who discussed the growth of its FinTech sector in ways unparalleled to others across the world.

World FinTech Summit – KSA which took place on 6 December 2021, attracted some of the prominent voices in the FinTech space such as Ihab Hawari

Chief Information Technology Officer, Aljabr Holding; Yahia Kafi, CFO, ALJ Enterprises; Ali Alomran, Financial Technology Expert; Faisal Alyousef, Chief Business Officer, Saudi Financial Technology - Alinma Bank; and Loredana Matei; Founder, Finsight.news to name a few.

More than 200 FinTech experts, business leaders, industry experts, innovators, government officials, and startups from around the world attended the summit, which featured informative keynotes and networking sessions where they shared ground-breaking insights into FinTech industry and future strategies.

The show covered key topics such as The FinTech and banking landscape in KSA, the New language of FinTech World: API’s, Convergence between FinTech and other sectors, Convergence between FinTech and other sectors and much more.

Ben Lloyd, Head of Digital Product, Banque Saudi Fransi discussed at length The FinTech and banking landscape in KSA. He stated that “With the changing banking model as a result of open banking we see other organizations use this as an opportunity to start API services and banking as a service”

Dr Makoto Shibata, Head of Finolab, Chief Community Officer, FINOLAB Inc. in his keynote spoke about how Covid-19 has speeded up digital transformation and has changed the relationship between banking and customers. He also discussed how existing business should improve their existing business to improve efficiency or reduce costs. 

He further stated that "FinTech was thought to be disruptive but we saw that more collaborations happening between startups and financial institutions and this collaboration between them would be the main driver for improvement"

World FinTech Summit – KSA also saw an engaging panel discussion on the topic’ Convergence between FinTech and other sectors’ which was moderated by Shadi Dawi, Chief Program Director, TECHx Media. 

The panellist discussed how FinTech has not only continued to innovate in the banking and financial sphere but have also moved to advise and guide companies from all sectors in their digitization processes.

The panellists included Hesham Saad Al Ghamdi, Group Chief Data and Analytics Officer, Abdul Latif Jameel; Essam Fawzy, Senior Program Manager, FinTech Consultant, Saudi British Bank; Bader Alswailem; Chief Executive Officer, Yanal Finance Company; and Anuscha Iqbal, CEO, Spotii. 

According to Mithun Shetty, CEO, Trescon “To stay ahead financial institutions who are unable to adapt and make improvements in their operations will be left behind in this new wave of technological innovation.” He further added that “FinTech isn't merely a term that refers to the convergence of technology and finance. In the future FinTech will determine the direction of the next wave of changes in the market. Financial institutions must make some reforms to achieve success.”

The show was hosted on the virtual events platform Vmeets which helped the participants to network and conduct business in an interactive and immersive virtual environment. Participants were also able to engage with speakers in Q&A sessions and network with solution providers in virtual exhibition booths, private consultation rooms and private networking rooms.

World FinTech  Summit – KSA was officially sponsored by Silver Sponsor – Spotii and Bronze Sponsor - Sary Technologies.