The Fintech Abu Dhabi Summit 2017, hosted by the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) was just recently concluded this October 23. The two-day invitation-only event was filled with panel discussions, keynote speeches, demo sessions, and workshops for the Fintech community and was attended by 500 global FinTech personalities at the Fairmont Bab Al Bahar in Abu Dhabi.
Abu Dhabi Global Market Financial Services Regulatory Authority CEO Richard Teng was greatly pleased with the success of this event. He used his opening address to remind the attendees of their collective mission and to encourage them to use the summit as an avenue to connect to new partnerships and enhance old ones as a step forward together for the Mena region.
“One of ADGM’s roles is as a connector. I encourage you to use our summit to build new partnerships, reignite old ones and, above all, learn,” Teng said. “Our collective mission is to help international and local stakeholders anchor their business and financial Mena activities for the region’s benefit.”
In addition to the vast number of participants and activities, the Summit also made several important announcements concerning the development of the industry.
First, H.E Ahmed Al Sayegh, Chairman of ADGM announced two major initiatives — the launch of the ADGM FinTech Innovation Centre, and its global partnership with world’s largest startup accelerator Plug and Play.
H.E @AhmedAAlSayegh,
Chairman of @ADGlobalMarket taking centre stage to welcome #FinTechADattendees on Day 2 of the Summit. pic.twitter.com/4rEWRX9Z6w— FinTech Abu Dhabi (@FinTechAD) October 23, 2017
The Innovation Centre is a physical hub for FinTech communities and will also include a co-working space and facilities for networking and events. Furthermore, it will be home to the participants of the Regulatory Laboratory (RegLab), an initiative launched by the ADGM earlier this year that aims to assist the growth of FinTech solutions by providing a sandbox environment for the participant’s projects. It is expected to be open for operations by the first half of 2018.
The partnership between ADGM and Plug and Play, in support of the Innovation Centre, was formed to facilitate the startup acceleration programme. ADGM will take on the central role of working with partner banks and financial institutions to identify needs and problems within the regional financial sector, search for solutions from global innovators and support the deployment of such solutions with participating financial, technological, and academic institutions.
The Chairman also declared that “on the startup side, ADGM is currently working closely with industry practitioners to set up a FinTech Association.”
Further in line with the focus on fresh innovation and solutions, the event coincided with the approval of eleven additional participants from a second batch of applications for the RegLab. The RegLab programme now has 16 FinTech firms, with Teng promising that the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) will continue to expand this team to accommodate more ideas on how to better serve the needs of the financial services industry and the economy.
Finally, the Summit also held the culmination of the first Fintech Abu Dhabi Innovation Challenge, where 10 finalist teams were given five weeks to work on their solutions to specific problems. The two winners of the challenge are FRS Labs, with their project on the world’s largest identity verification system, and Silent Eight, for their work on the creation of an Artificial Intelligence (AI) system against money laundering and terrorist financing. The winners have been given the opportunity to demonstrate their innovations at the Singapore FinTech festival this November.
Our two winners of the #InnovationChallengeAD ladies and gents. A big congrats to @frslabs and #SilentEight. #FinTechAD pic.twitter.com/9jD8Ny3wME
— FinTech Abu Dhabi (@FinTechAD) October 22, 2017
The participants were also satisfied by the lineup of activities and announcements in the two-day Summit, with many believing that it is a huge step forward in solving problems such as the roadblocks to business and the huge amount of unbanked people in the Middle East.
Thrilled to see this come to life @TheScottRob @SaeedAmidi @fintechad@adglobalmarket #FinTechAD https://t.co/WG2hHCCnOV
— jzaler (@jzaler) October 23, 2017
“@ADGlobalMarket is making the right steps in terms of coming up with new regulations, to accommodate the innovations in #FinTech” pic.twitter.com/S0HivqGlb7
— FinTech Abu Dhabi (@FinTechAD) October 23, 2017
This is a great point. And lots of start-ups here @FinTechAD focusing on trying to solve that problem https://t.co/drLh3VZmKk
— Arjun Kharpal (@ArjunKharpal) October 23, 2017
with Marianne Besas
