Nothing could have prepared any of us for the recent outbreak of COVID 19. It has impacted individuals, communities, economies, and countries around the world. It has acted as a catalyst for growth because its impact has gone beyond a physical, financial, and economic level. The purpose of this study was to discuss the impact of strategic partnerships on driving innovation, accelerating digital transformation across financial services in the Kingdom of Bahrain, and economic growth. The Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB) Digital Lab, a collaborative effort, between the CBB and several strategic Partners of FinHub973 including the Bahrain Economic Development Board, Bank ABC, Benefit, BisB, ila Bank, and the National Bank of Bahrain, enables local and global FinTechs to connect seamlessly to explore, test, and prototype new and innovative solutions on a centralized digital sandbox. These new solutions are commonly referred to as fintech. Collaborative partnerships are essential to catalyse innovation in finance, for the benefit of the industry, economy, and society at large.
Top1. Introduction
A collaborative effort, between the Bahrain Central Bank (CBB) Digital Lab, and several “strategic partners of FinHub973 including the Bahrain Economic Development Board (EDB), Bank ABC, Benefit, BisB, ila Bank, and the National Bank of Bahrain” empowers local and global fintech’s to link flawlessly with Bahrain’s financial organizations to explore, test, and prototype new and advanced solutions on a centralized digital sandbox. “Financial services (such as payments, remittances, and credit) that may be accessed and supplied through digital channels, including mobile devices, are referred to as digital financial services (DFS)”. These include dependable tools (like debit and credit cards) generally provided by banks, as well as cutting-edge cloud computing, digital platforms, distributed ledger technology (DLT) solutions, crypto-assets, and peer-to-peer (P2P) applications. These new solutions are commonly referred to as fintech.
In Bahrain, 87% of professionals are either interested in partnering with fintech companies or have already done so. Such collaborations will be facilitated and accelerated by the MENA region's largest fintech hub, Bahrain Fintech Bay. The development of fintech is being aided by Bahrain's well-established financial services sector, its position as a key center for Islamic finance, and the country's push for financial inclusion. Around 400 domestic, regional, and international financial institutions are now located in Bahrain. The financial industry is eager to investigate working with fintech’s and implement cutting-edge new solutions. Rowad and Bahrain Development Bank have joined forces strategically, according to Bahrain Fintech Bay (BFB). The Bahrain Development Bank will collaborate closely with the BFB and be one of its founding partners to develop the Rowad Program, Seed Fuel-Rowad, and the Invested Platform and support fintech entrepreneurship programs, which offers qualifying fintech businesses access to the ‘BFB's Seed Fuel program, which offers equity investments of up to BHD 25,000 and entrepreneur support programs, as well as the investor platform. (Bahrain Fintech Ecosystem Report 2022).
It is crucial to emphasize that Islamic fintech differs from traditional fintech since it must adhere to Shariah regulations. However, the development of Islamic financial institutions (IFIs) now has wider accessibility thanks to fintech solutions. opportunity to enhance their product offering and infrastructure (Jamil & Seman, 2019). As a result, studies on the use of fintech in the field of Islamic finance have been more prevalent recently (Abojeib & Habib, 2019; Jamil & Seman, 2019). In 2022, Shaikh, Z.H., Sarea, A., and Irfan, M. fintech may make Islamic banking more competitive with traditional finance without compromising on advantages, allowing the business to draw in more customers, increase efficiency, save costs, and provide a larger choice of products.
The structure of this chapter contains: An introduction is given in part one, and a survey of the literature on fintech that complies with Shariah is the main topic of section two. The impact of strategic partnerships on innovation and commercial success of Bahrain's fintech industry is discussed in Section 3. The last section concludes the study analysis and discusses the project's future direction. Section four discusses current fintech innovation and economic progress.