ila Bank taps Arab Financial Services for prepaid card offering
The Bahraini denominated card can be used to pay for transactions in both an in-store and online setting.
Middle East
ThetaRay’s Sonar goes live on Microsoft Azure Marketplace
ThetaRay currently engages around one billion end users and monitors over 15 billion transactions per year.
Standard Chartered exits several markets in Africa through sale of subsidiaries to Access Bank
Access Bank will acquire Standard Chartered’s subsidiaries in Angola, Cameroon, The Gambia and Sierra Leone.
BKN301 names Mahesh Paolini-Subramanya as new CTO
He joins BKN301 Group from Klar, a digital bank in Mexico, where he served as CTO for a year.
Tarabut Gateway names Tariq Sanad as new CFO
Tarabut Gateway says Sanad excels “particularly in scaling growth start-ups post-Series A”.
Okoora launches integrated payments, banking and risk management platform
To facilitate its expansion, the start-up has submitted licence applications in multiple European countries.
Jordan Ahli Bank launches social payment app Qawn powered by Thought Machine
Qawn runs on Thought Machine’s cloud-native core banking platform, Vault Core.
Mastercard and Bankiom to launch virtual prepaid cards across the GCC
With the partnership, Mastercard aims to drive digitalisation in the GCC payments landscape.
Paytech Medius to acquire expense management firm Expensya
Medius says the acquisition of Expensya is “one of the largest in the MENA region”.
Demystify Podcast: Demystifying BaaS in the Middle East with Andrew Sims, nDigital
The importance of fintech for GCC countries as they pursue aggressive economic strategies.
Saudi Arabia’s D360 Bank taps Thunes to power cross-border payments
With the partnership, D360 mobile app users will be able to transfer funds to Europe, US and the Middle East.
Core banking tech challenger Tuum hires global partnerships VP
Jean Souto moves from Feedzai, where he led the fintech’s global partnerships for a year.
Singapore’s Whampoa Group selects Bahrain as HQ for new digital bank
Launching end of 2023, the new digital bank aims to support the adoption of digital assets worldwide.
BKN301 Group taps Finastra for digital payments solution Essence
BKN301 Group’s long term strategy is to bring a BaaS payments solution to corporates in the MENA region.
Sharia-compliant challenger Nomo taps Paymentology for digital payments platform
Paymentology’s technology has allowed the bank to offer cross-border transaction services “without high fees”.
Tarabut Gateway lands $32m in Series A funding
With the new funding, the Dubai-based firm plans to expand its footprint in Saudi Arabia.
UAE’s Mbank partners Dgpays for digital wallet offering
The new offering will allow businesses in the region to integrate digital payments into their operations.
Network International in talks over potential £2bn sale to PE consortium
The consortium is made up of CVC Capital Partners and global tech investment firm Francisco Partners.
QFCA partners with R3 to boost Qatar’s fintech sector
The pair will collaborate to create an innovation lab catering to commercial banks and fintech firms in Qatar.
Capital Bank taps Finastra for corporate digital banking platform
The corporate digital banking platform unifies trade, supply chain finance, lending and treasury services.
Demystify Podcast: Demystifying ESG and financial services with Shargiil Bashir, FAB
Chief sustainability officer of FAB talks about the critical role of banks in supporting an ESG agenda.
Tarabut Gateway appoints Chun Ong as new chief operating officer
Ong joins from UK digital mortgage lender Molo, where he spent three years as COO.
UAE central bank partners R3 and G42 Cloud for CBDC implementation initiative
The CBDC initiative will look at a range of use cases across domestic and cross-border use.
Saudi EXIM Bank goes live on Temenos core
The implementation process and the go-live took place over six months, both firms say.
Qashio taps Alinma Bank to launch operations in Saudi Arabia
According to both firms, the partnership is the first between a bank and a fintech in Saudi Arabia.
Saudi National Bank chairman resigns following Credit Suisse losses
Saudi National Bank was the largest shareholder in Credit Suisse before it was taken over by UBS.
Bank ABC taps Temenos and NdcTech for core banking overhaul
Temenos’ core banking tech will also be used to power Bank ABC’s ila Bank, a digital mobile-only challenger.
Lebanese start-up Purpl launches digital wallet offering powered by Mambu
The fintech selected banking tech vendor Mambu to power its products last summer.
Al Busairi Bank opts for ICS Banks core banking system
The new microfinance bank will implement the ICS Banks Islamic core banking system from ICSFS.
Central banks of UAE and India partner for cross-border CBDC testing
The central banks will conduct joint proof of concept and pilots of bilateral CBDC cross-border transactions.
Saudi BNPL firm Tamara lands $150m debt facility from Goldman Sachs
The receivables warehouse facility will help Tamara finance the accelerating demand for its flagship BNPL product.
Rain partners Tarabut Gateway for open banking API
Rain will make use of Tarabut’s open banking payment solutions to facilitate on and off-ramp transactions for users.
UAE lendtech Ezra appoints new chief risk officer, Andrew Goodrich
Goodrich will lead the data engineering, predictive analytics, credit risk and fraud functions across Ezra.
UAE’s Mashreq Bank taps i2c for digital payment capabilities
Through the partnership, Mashreq will leverage i2c’s SaaS platform to offer digital payments.
Bahrain fintech Sinnad appoints Rana Almaeeli as CEO
Almaeeli has held several senior roles at Sinnad, most recently as general manager for more than 11 years.
Riyad Bank taps SunTec for e-invoicing integration with Saudi tax office
The integration allows banks to share standardised e-invoices with Saudi tax office Fatoora.
First Abu Dhabi Bank hires Michel Longhini to lead global private banking
Longhini joins from Edmond de Rothschild where he was CEO of private banking.
Saudi fintech Hala acquires UAE paytech Paymennt.com
Maher Loubieh, co-founder of Hala, says Paymennt’s product was a “clear fit” with their own strategy.
Dubai’s VARA outlines new virtual asset framework
VARA says the new framework will offer “regulatory certainty”, giving market participants greater clarity.
UAE’s central bank launches financial services digital transformation programme
The UAE is aiming to become a “financial and digital payment hub”.
