At Bahrain’s third annual Fintech Ahead, fintech’s grown-up period was clear: align with regulators, workforce with banks, ship issues individuals use.
Held on 8 to 9 October at Exhibition World Bahrain, Fintech Ahead 2025 is the Kingdom’s flagship fintech discussion board, hosted by Bahrain EDB (the funding promotion company) with Bahrain FinTech Bay (the nationwide fintech hub) and robust help from the Central Financial institution of Bahrain (CBB).
Now in its third version, FF25 drew virtually 2,000 attendees, 40-plus audio system and a file 38 MoUs/strategic agreements. The UK Division for Enterprise & Commerce introduced its largest-ever delegation – 70 delegates from 36 fintechs – because the occasion leaned into its theme, ‘The Period of Integration: The Maturing Age of Fintech’.
What was on the desk? Integration in every single place: instantaneous funds transferring into on a regular basis use; the CBB’s push into supervisory expertise (suptech); digital belongings as sensible rails (stablecoins, custody, tokenisation); interoperability throughout borders; open banking and Islamic finance; and inclusion with measurable outcomes.
On the agenda
First up, the occasion addressed the state of worldwide fintech. Host Joshua Roberts, capital markets editor at The Economist – the occasion programmer, framed the temper: sturdiness over grow-at-all-costs enlargement.
Simon French, MD, chief economist and head of analysis at UK funding financial institution Panmure Liberum, defined why capital deployment is adjusting “to a really, very totally different international price of capital setting”, noting that funding phrases from the near-zero-rate period gained’t fly when “the worldwide price of capital is 4, 5 per cent,” and {that a} “big battle for expertise” with, “pre-existing compensation packages” limiting mobility, has left “one thing of a static ecosystem”.
Subsequent, H.E. Noor bint Ali Alkhulaif, Minister of Sustainable Improvement and chief government of Bahrain EDB, introduced that international image all the way down to floor stage.
If French described the squeeze, she described how Bahrain is rising by it: regular, diversified and intentionally collaborative. Monetary companies now make up the most important slice of GDP, and, as she put it, Bahrain’s benefit is its scale – sufficiently small for choices to maneuver quick, sufficiently big to matter.
The method is partnership-first: regulator, banks, academia and international corporations at one desk, targeted on constructing expertise and holding the ecosystem open for enterprise. She defined: “once you’re confronted with challenges, the most effective factor to do is to innovate… and in Bahrain it’s innovation that’s partnered.”
Digital belongings, minus the drama
From there we shifted to crypto as plumbing, not spectacle. On stage: Revolut, Ripple, the UK authorities and Nationwide Financial institution of Bahrain (NBB). The thread was institutional and sensible – custody, settlement, payouts – relatively than slogan-y.
Usman Ahmed, group chief government at Nationwide Financial institution of Bahrain, revealed that the financial institution is “going to announce… the adoption of a blockchain-based resolution that permits us to do extra programmable liquidity administration” alongside programmable funds that don’t care about cut-off instances.
Reece Merrick, MD Center East and Africa at Ripple, famous how briskly sentiment has turned in boardrooms – “within the final couple of years, it’s fully flipped” – whereas Katie Ramsey, head of fintech on the UK Division for Enterprise and Commerce (DBT) saved the belief recipe easy: “readability, not hype. Readability is what is going to drive that belief.”
The regulator’s playbook
In a one-to-one, H.E. Khalid Humaidan (Governor, CBB) stated the way forward for finance will probably be “a digital future” and regulators must hold tempo. He instructed that Bahrain is “main the world in the case of instantaneous funds,” averaging about 25 per particular person per thirty days within the first half of 2025.
Past funds, the financial institution is overhauling supervision: section one (this 12 months) opens raw-data feeds from licensees; section two automates ratio and guidelines checks; section three makes use of the dataset to forecast dangers – suptech in observe.
On authorisations he caught to first rules – compliance, governance, shopper safety and systemic danger – as a result of “after we give attention to crucial dangers, we will say sure to virtually every part else”.
Inclusion, measured… not simply marketed
In a panel on constructing a sustainable fintech ecosystem, the discuss targeted on outcomes over optics.
Cynthia Wandia, co-founder and CEO at Kwara, stated retention solely counts if customers return for issues that tangibly assist eg greater credit score scores, extra ladies borrowing, worth chains truly funded.
Durreen Shahnaz, founder and CEO of Affect Funding Change, highlighted how measuring last-mile affect and baking it into merchandise can decrease portfolio danger. Whereas Mathias Wikström, CEO at Doconomy, argued inclusion ought to include local weather literacy – rating on a regular basis transactions so individuals see trigger and impact.
And Gerrit Sindermann, government director of Inexperienced Digital Finance Alliance, pointed to regulation plus information rails that may steer actual capital into greener company and infrastructure initiatives.
Crypto in transition
Changpeng Zhao (CZ), the previous Binance chief, stayed sensible in his keynote interview. His largest lesson from the scrutiny period? “At all times, all the time respect the federal government, particularly the US authorities”… and work intently with regulators.
On funds infrastructure, he instructed that whether or not you’re speaking stablecoins or CBDCs, the identify isn’t the purpose: “the label issues a lot much less… the benefit of use, the payment of transfers, the comfort and the liberty is absolutely vital”. He additionally argued on-chain exercise is less complicated to police than money and expects stablecoins and CBDCs to stay facet by facet.
Wanting forward, he stated “AI goes to drive crypto like loopy… one million instances extra transactions for everybody on the earth.” In his view, AI-native brokers gained’t use playing cards; they’ll transact on blockchains, pushing crypto deeper into on a regular basis monetary plumbing.
Classes from Shazam
Dhiraj Mukherjee, co-founder of Shazam and now a tech-for-good investor, shared hard-won ideas for fintechs from his music recognition journey in addition to his investor seat.
Begin helpful. Shazam launched earlier than the App Retailer; “we needed to invent the expertise from scratch”. Its actual moat turned out to be information, recognizing tracks earlier than radio did. The fintech tip: construct one thing individuals really want, then let the info compound.
Accomplice sensible. Have empathy for incumbents with manufacturers and regulators to reply to. Don’t attempt to run by the wall; work with the principles and convey individuals with you.
Keep adaptable. Remedy an actual buyer ache, however count on to alter course. “Expertise evolves on a regular basis… what issues is being fluid – in a position to adapt to the tempo of change.”
And look forward. “AI is the working system of this decade.”
Bahrain-UK in motion
To shut Fintech Ahead 2025 out, Bahrain EDB, Bahrain FinTech Bay and the UK’s DBT ran a joint Bahrain-UK session on the principle stage. H.E. Noor bint Ali Alkhulaif, CBB governor H.E. Khalid Humaidan, British ambassador Alastair Lengthy, and DBT’s Ramsey – rocking spectacular Bahrain impressed red-and-white nails – did the welcomes.
Briefly: pro-partnership, get-stuff-done.
The UK delegation was large by any measure: 36 fintechs throughout id, open banking, AML, wealth tech and information, comparable to Raidiam, Velexa, MonetaGo, Umazi, Sumsub, Finbridge International, Sensfish, Savea and extra.
Umazi formally launched in Bahrain (digital id/KYC), whereas Velexa and Ajyad unveiled a wealth-tech tie-up. AMAN, powered by Themis, launched the AMAN AI Investigator – a part of a nationwide rollout to assist defend the Kingdom in opposition to worldwide and transnational crime and cash laundering.
As Ambassador Lengthy stated, the intention is “a shared way forward for innovation, sustainability and belief”.
A flavour of Bahrain
There wasn’t simply panels and pitch decks at Fintech Ahead 2025. The Exhibition World Bahrain ground had queues for Mohammed Redha, a classical Arabic calligrapher and lettering artist taking on-the-spot commissions.
Just a few steps away, a craftsman was weaving baskets from palm leaves – Bahrain’s conventional khous work – whereas DANAT (the Bahrain Institute for Pearls and Gem stones) ran stay oyster-shucking demos.
Guests picked three oysters, watched the specialists open them, and, if luck struck, took house a Bahraini pearl. Our haul? A thimble of pearl glitter!
On the fintech facet of the corridor: stands from the likes of stc pay, Visa, BENEFIT and Flooss had been saved busy throughout networking breaks.
Additionally introduced at FF2025
The occasion served up some headline information, too.
Bahrain revealed it had efficiently piloted Google Cloud’s Common Ledger (GCUL) forward of the occasion. Coordinated by Bahrain FinTech Bay with BENEFIT, NBB, Bahrain Islamic Financial institution (BISB), Financial institution of Bahrain and Kuwait (BBK), the managed take a look at settled high-value BHD funds immediately utilizing tokenised business financial institution cash.
“We proved you are able to do cross-border-grade funds immediately at a fraction of the fee,” Bahrain FinTech Bay CEO Bader Sater instructed The Fintech Occasions, including that Bahrain will “hold taking part in first-adopter and test-bed” to deliver big-tech rails into manufacturing.
Ripple expanded its footprint by way of a brand new partnership with Bahrain FinTech Bay to help the event of proofs-of-concept and pilot initiatives related to Bahrain’s fintech ecosystem; showcasing options throughout areas comparable to blockchain expertise, cross-border funds, digital belongings, stablecoins and tokenisation.
It additionally lays a clearer path, as Merrick says, for Ripple to supply its “digital belongings custody resolution and stablecoin Ripple USD (RLUSD) to Bahrain’s monetary establishments”.
As Fintech Ahead 2025 wrapped, H.E. Noor bint Ali Alkhulaif gave a 2026 teaser: “Subsequent 12 months, we’ll make it greater!”
