Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), a leading international financial hub in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia (MEASA) region, has strengthened its position as MEASA’s number one FinTech hub with a series of landmark agreements between FinTech Hive at DIFC and global FinTech accelerators.

 

FinTech Hive at DIFC, the first and largest financial technology accelerator in the MEASA region, has signed more than 10 significant memorandums of understanding (MoU) with leading FinTech institutions around the world. These include Accenture’s global FinTech Innovation Labs in New York, London and Hong Kong, iE5 in London, SuperCharger in Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur, LATTICE80 in London and Singapore, DICE FinTech Ace in Mumbai, Finance Innovation and Le Swave in Paris, B-Hive in Brussels, Holland FinTech and Bahrain Fintech Bay. 

 

As part of the MoUs, FinTech Hive and the institutions will share knowledge and explore opportunities to facilitate global FinTech access to and from the MEASA, foster a venture capital ecosystem in the region and promote their innovation programmes across each global market.

 

Raja Al Mazrouei, executive vice president, FinTech Hive at DIFC, said: “These exciting MoUs signal DIFC’s commitment to global FinTech outreach and re-emphasise our ambition to shape the future of finance. They will promote knowledge sharing and enable innovative businesses to operate even more seamlessly between Dubai and the world. These collaborations will also benefit startups, entrepreneurs and large established entities by enhancing access to investment, unlocking business opportunities and engaging new audiences and innovative products or ideas.”

 

In its 2018 programme, FinTech Hive brought together a larger pool of 22 startups, which doubled from 11 in 2017. It has also tripled its commitment to FinTech by expanding the programme to include InsurTech, RegTech and Islamic FinTech. FinTech Hive continues to lead the region’s efforts in providing an enabling environment for innovative solutions to contribute to the development of the financial services industry, in line with Dubai Plan 2021 and DIFC’s 2024 Strategy.

 

DIFC hosts an integrated ecosystem that offers holistic support to FinTech firms. This includes cost-effective licensing and dedicated workspace within the DIFC as well as regulatory support through the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) Innovation Testing Licence (ITL) where qualifying FinTech firms can apply for, if needed, in order to develop and test their concepts from within the Centre. The Centre has also dedicated a $100 million FinTech fund to accelerate the development of financial technology in the region. - TradeArabia News Service