DOHA: Qatar offers the right regulatory environment, extremely competitive operating costs, government support, funding support and a ready financial services sector to work with.
There has been a significant push to promote Qatar as a regional fintech hub, said Dr R Seetharaman, Doha Bank CEO, while speaking at the 4th Annual Edition of The Economic Times Global Business Summit 2018, in New Delhi, India, yesterday .
He participated in the session “Enabling fintech 2.0: Creating a fintech hub in India”
“Fintech can help achieve QCB’s goals set up in the financial sector strategy. There is momentum building in Qatar, with opportunity in the areas of digital payments, money management, lending, loyalty and rewards, remittances, and investments and advisory,” he said commending on Qatar’s fintech growth.
“An ideal fintech ecosystem features available talent, well informed investors, and a regulatory environment. To develop such an environment banks and regulators need to collaborate with fintech firms to provide the best possible customer service.
“In India we have more than 600 startups in the space of lending, payments, insurance and trading space. Fintech startups are not only spearheading innovation, but are also prompt banks and financial institutions to explore new technologies and invest in digital service delivery channels.”
“Qatar can explore cross border synergies with countries namely UK, Singapore, Australia or India pertaining to the fintech sector on areas such as knowledge sharing, investments and remittances which could lead to collaborations and partnerships. This is vital for the development of Qatar’s fintech sector.“
On the global fintech scenario, he said, “Fintech sector is one of the most happening sectors across the globe. Fintech would continue to disrupt banks, they have also become technology providers, competing with other fintech firms and sometimes collaborating or acquiring them to roll out shared platforms to enable services.
“A number of banks are examining the methods employed by tech leaders to imitate their prowess at innovation, flexibility and speed to market.
“After the explosive growth of digital payments in 2017, fintech companies are gearing up to ride on block chain and expand their portfolio of app-based services ranging from consumer lending to insurance products to cross-border remittances.”
On the benefits of fintech and digital banking, he said, “The key benefits of fintech include enabling better customer experience without restrictions of time, place & proximity. Data generation that enables insight driven solutions. In a Digital Bank all transactions will be done with the help of apps, internet banking and mobile banking. It provides end- to end banking solutions through digital platform. Accounts can be activated quickly using face and voice biometrics.”
