As businesses adjust to a mobile-connected world, the Middle East market is rapidly transforming to accommodate the payment preferences of an evolved consumer base. With more than 300 million people under the age of 24, there is considerable opportunity for the region to develop itself as a digital-first region when it comes to banking, payments, and financial technology.
In the past few years, several countries in the Middle East region have funded fintech programs, adopted Open Banking mandates to encourage collaboration between fintechs and traditional financial institutions. This has helped in the emergence of many fintech startups, which is expected to top 250 by the year-end. Besides, global payment solutions providers, such as Samsung Pay, Apple Pay, Alipay, Stripe, Adyen, and G-Pay have entered the market to prove the necessary boost to the payment ecology in the region. These newer competitors to the traditional banks are able to scale faster than before and at a fraction of the cost, or infrastructural requirements.
With the proliferation of cloud and cognitive technologies, the capability to collect and analyze data is also transforming the financial sector through better insights into consumer preferences and behaviors. The payment industry in the Middle East is now able to predict purchase decisions by leveraging data on sales, conversion rates, check out metrics, and merchant ratings. It has also helped to minimize fraudulent activities thanks to data on payment volume, frequency, the geography of the sources, and the history of payments.
Several new players are entering the region with a striving and conducive market. In this Issue of Banking CIO Outlook, we have compiled a list of “Top 10 Payment and Card Consulting/Service Companies-2020” that are transforming the finance industry in the Middle East.
We Present you Banking CIO Outlook’s “Top 10 Payment and Card Consulting/Service Companies-2020.”
