Fintech Galaxy, the UAE-based cross-border fintech marketplace and innovation crowdsourcing platform, announced today that it has launched FinX22, its cloud-based open Innovation platform that aims at driving collaboration, fueling innovation, and facilitating integration between financial institutions and fintech companies.
The platform, which is now live, is hosted on a world-class cloud platform on regional data centres and is based on international standards. It has been designed and launched in collaboration with the Central Bank of Bahrain (Bahrain), the Arab Fintech Working Group of the Arab Monetary Fund (AMF) The Arab Federation of Exchanges (Lebanon), Emirates NBD (UAE), Banque Saudi Fransi (Saudi Arabia), Egyptian Gulf Bank (Egypt), Jordan Ahli Bank (Jordan), The Benefit Company (Bahrain) and Gulf International Bank (Bahrain).
FinX22 focuses on three core areas. Firstly, the platform provides an Open Banking API sandbox that enables fintech companies to develop, test and deploy fintech solutions. The sandbox comes with its own API Manager which handles access control, monitoring and authentication. Secondly, the platform offers a comprehensive marketplace that connects FIs to thousands of fintechs from across the globe. Finally, the platform enables institutions to run virtual hackathons, innovation challenges and incubation/ acceleration programs. Regulators, FIs and academic institutions will also be able to boost their research and development activities by tapping into the platform’s crowdsourcing solutions, to solve significant customer pain points in the financial and banking space and improve the overall customer experience.
Speaking about the launch of the platform, Mirna Sleiman, Founder & CEO, Fintech Galaxy, said: “Our strategic goal is to rebuild the future of inclusive financial services across the 22 Arab countries. The launch of this platform comes at a critical time, when financial institutions are increasingly focusing on implementing digital transformation strategies to drive business growth, despite the current outbreak of Covid-19. We are confident that with FinX22 we will be able to help alleviate some of the bigger issues that the market is currently facing as a result of the pandemic.”
She added: “After 2 years of active prototyping with regulators, financial institutions and fintechs, we are now bringing to the market a platform that has a large database of global and regional fintechs, allows seamless matchmaking between fintechs and financial institutions, all while providing real-time access to Open Banking APIs through a standardized universal gateway. With FinX22, we are committed to creating a common regional digital space for better connectivity that will help speed up the process of digital transformation and move the needle in financial inclusion.”
The platform was designed and built in collaboration with multiple regulatory bodies across the Arab Countries. Regulators can monitor, manage and control risks associated with new and disruptive technologies in a safe and secure sandbox environment, before regulatory sandboxing productionalization.
Commenting on the partnership, the Central Bank of Bahrain, added: “The CBB is pleased to partner with Fintech Galaxy on this intuitive platform, which provides financial institutions and FinTechs with technologically advanced infrastructure to collaborate and co-create solutions that enhance customer experiences across the region. We at the CBB are committed to encouraging such initiatives that will deliver a more competitive and efficient financial services sector, further strengthening Bahrain’s position as a FinTech hub.”
The platform offers extensive content on the region’s fintech hubs, regulations and educates the market through an interactive chatbot for regulatory policies, developed within the Arab Regional Fintech working group activities.
Also commenting on the partnership, Evans Munyuki, Group Chief Digital Officer at Emirates NBD, said: “Emirates NBD is pleased to be part of Finx22 as it aligns with goals of embracing collaboration with FinTechs as well as identifying FinTechs which can help us solve business problems leveraging better use of technology. We are confident that this initiative will pave the path for many more collaborations between banks and FinTechs, helping tackle challenges while delivering smarter and more secure banking solutions for the future.”
For his part, Rami El Dokany, AFE Secretary General, stated that: “Increasing the investors base in our Arab exchanges is a priority to guarantee the continuity of our markets. In a region of the world where youth represent almost 70% of the population, digital KYC & digital on-boarding have become a necessity to attract younger investors to the market. For this particular reason, AFE has partnered with FTG to look for solutions that would facilitate the digital on-boarding & KYC sharing.”
Matchmaking and Crowdsourcing Capabilities
The open innovation platform will enable virtual Fintech acceleration and crowdsourcing of global solutions through innovation challenges, virtual hackathons and AI-powered matchmaking between FIs and fintechs.
Global Fintech Marketplace
FinX22’s marketplace is also powered by AI and provides a comprehensive list of fintechs from across the globe, connecting, rating and qualifying each fintech for collaboration, procurement and investment. The marketplace, which includes an extensive due diligence data room for fintechs, also provides investors with unique deal flow. Both FIs and fintechs will also be able to access unique market research and regulatory insights.
Cloud-based Open Banking Platform
Finally, through the FinX22 platform, fintech companies can build or access a future-proof, safe and secure digital banking environment by utilizing an open API sandbox built in compliance with global standards – thereby supporting the integration between FIs and fintechs for rapid prototyping, solution validation as well as commercialization. Additionally, fintechs will be able to securely access simulated data from banking sandbox environments and drive modern solution development of new and innovative products and services, with enhanced agile Dev-Ops and speed to market.
FinX22, by Fintech Galaxy, is an open platform that fuels innovation, drives collaboration and facilitates integration between financial institutions and fintech companies. The platform provides an Open Banking API sandbox that enables development, testing and deployment of fintech solutions, offers a marketplace that connects institutions to thousands of fintechs from across the globe and delivers matchmaking and crowdsourcing capabilities that solve customer pain points, ultimately spurring disruptive and transformative innovation across the financial services industry.
