Open Banking in the Middle East

When it comes to open banking globally, there are several factors that have acted as drivers for the movement, like competition, inclusion, stability and innovation. Although innovation takes a back seat in some regions, there is one place where it is firmly front-and-center: the Middle East. The Middle East and North Africa, a region known by the acronym MENA, has embarked on its own open banking journey, where Bahrain, Oman, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Israel and Egypt have all introduced some form of open banking initiatives. While they may vary in scope and approach, they all have one thing in common: a laser focus on modernizing their banking sectors with innovation acting as the primary driver. In this episode, Eyal will sit down with guest Hakan Eroglu, the Global Open Banking Lead at Mastercard. With more than 13 years of international experience in open banking strategy, Hakan is global in both title and practice. Eyal and Hakan’s focus on a subset of the MENA region, the countries who are members of the Gulf Cooperation Council, or the GCC.

Specifically they discuss: 

• The meaning of the term “over-banked”
• Key drivers of open banking in the MENA region
• How market vs. regulation is really a spectrum
• An open banking tour of the the GCC members 
• The differences between one country and another
• Digital ID, real-time payments and other extensions 
• Open banking as a vehicle for innovation