MENA Fintech Association releases its first SHIFT report

SHIFT is the name of the working group, which is composed of the association’s members. These industry leaders are focused on payment technology solutions and services, financial education and regulation, and international card networks. They include The London Institute of Banking & Finance (LIBF), Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), Arthur D. Little, BPC, checkout.com, Codebase Technologies, GPS, Karm, Mastercard, M2P Solutions, Marshal, Taptap Send, and YAP.

The SHIFT guide will be released in several volumes that cover the core aspects of payments, from regulation, technology, and processing to information on trends in specific countries, including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, Iraq, and others.

The release of the first volume, ‘SHIFT – MENA Payments Landscaping’, contains everything a fintech needs to know about the regional payments market. It draws a picture of a diverse region undergoing a significant transformation in how payments are made.

Although the banking sector has been relatively slow to adopt digital payments compared to other parts of the world, a number of factors and trends that are discussed in this report indicate that digital payments are becoming more commonplace across MENA and are disrupting the traditional value chain for payments.

Subsequent volumes of the report will cover regulatory and Know Your Customer prerequisites, card-issuing models and best practices, cross-border payments, and trending products, such as store value cards.