FINTECH SAUDI
TBY talks to Nejoud Al Mulaik, Director of Fintech Saudi on finance sector.
BIOGRAPHY
Nejoud Al Mulaik was appointed Director of Fintech Saudi in October 2018. Previously, she had served as Director for International Strategic Partnerships at Monshaat, the Saudi SME authority. She has a decade of experience in corporate and investment banking, most recently as corporate associate at JPMorgan Chase & Co. She holds a bachelor’s degree in business systems from Arab Open University.What is your strategy to create an innovative fintech hub and align all the stakeholders?
Technology has disrupted every sector, including the financial services industry. The Saudi fintech initiative is diversifying the sources through which we manage financial transactions, and devising a strategy to move toward a cashless society. The ecosystem in Saudi Arabia is rather unconnected, with many players navigating on their own. The Fintech Saudi program was launched in April 2018 to enhance, innovate, and connect the system and better understand the market and prevailing opportunities. We need to build infrastructure and see how to connect the dots between start-ups, investors, and traditional financial players. This will help diversify the economy and develop a better ecosystem for entrepreneurs.
What other initiatives are shaping the fintech industry?
When we consider the retail and telecommunication industries, both the fundamental dynamics and consumer behavior are changing. This demands a diversity of new services on various platforms. We understand that STC Pay, Halalah, and other fintechs will help customers manage their transactions and foster diversification. Initiatives such as the central bank's sandbox initiative and the fintech initiative are involved in navigating the ecosystem to better create a pipeline in the market. Then there is the Capital Market Authority's Fintech Lab initiative, which is geared at regulating its services into arrangement, custody and stocks, bonds, and crowd funding. We are considering supportive and responsible fintechs and endorsing safe environments with a view to better understand what regulators need to introduce. The sandbox and Fintech Lab are the “test bed" where fintechs can enter for 12 to 18 months before graduating. We are also using these testing environments to regulate services in the market for new fintechs to navigate the market without having to go through the full testing cycle for the same service.
FINTECH SAUDI
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Interview
Mohammed A. Al-Mowkley , Deputy Minister of Water Services, Ministry of Environment, Water, and Agriculture & CEO, National Water Company (NWC)
NWC leads the Kingdom's efforts to preserve water as a non-renewable national resource and drastically reduce the average per capita water consumption.
read articleInterview
Majed H. Al Saadi , Managing Director, Priority Projects Office (PPO), Local Content and Government Procurement Authority
PPO and ECA act as an accelerator for the realization of Vision 2030 by bridging the gap between the private and public sectors and helping the government diversify the economy in the long run.
read articleInterview
HRH Princess Hala bint Khaled bin Sultan Al-Saud C, Chairman, Saudi Law Conference (SLC) organizing committee & Founder,, Burhan Almarifa
Burhan Almarifa is focused on maturing the legal sector, encouraging innovation, and enabling research and development in KSA through knowledge transfer and consultancy.
read articleInterview
Sahel N. Abduljauwad, Rector, King Fahd University oF Petroleum & Minerals (KFUPM)
The King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals has long been the backbone of Saudi Arabia's formidable drilling expertise. Today, it is working to train the next generation of renewable energy and water management scientists.
read articleInterview
Dr. Abdullah Al-Rubaish, Rector, Imam Abdulrahman bin Faisal University (IAU)
Dr. Abdullah Al-Rubaish was appointed vice president of KFU in 2007 and president in 2010. He combined his executive experience from serving in various deanships at KFU with academic practices to become associate professor of medicine and work as a medical consultant at the Department of Internal Medicine. He graduated from KFU's College of Medicine and completed his medical internship at KFHU, where he also pursued a fellowship program. He became a member of the UK Royal College of Physicians and the Arab Board after he completed his sub-subspecialty in Pulmonary Medicine at the University of Alberta, Canada.
read articleInterview
Rajaa Moumena, Founder & President, Future Institute of Higher Education and Training
Saudi Arabia is allowing women more privileges, including driving and becoming ambassadors. The Future Institute of Higher Education and Training is trying to help by providing courses they need to adapt to this new world.
read article
