Bahrain as a Banking Hub
Bahrain
as a Banking Hub
Bahrain is home to a robust and progressive financial services sector with the GCC’s largest concentration of financial institutions. Bahrain is also regarded as the most experienced practitioner of Islamic Banking in the region. Moreover, Bahrain leads the GCC in nurturing and encouraging the growth of digital financial services. All these factors have contributed to establish Bahrain as the GCC’s premier financial hub.
Dynamic Financial Services Base
Bahrain is home to a robust and progressive financial services sector with the GCC’s largest concentration of financial institutions, populated by more than 360 local, regional, and global financial institutions. Thanks to the government’s forward-thinking and progressive vision, the financial services sector alone is the largest non-oil contributor to Bahrain’s real GDP, and it continues to grow year on year.
Central Bank of Bahrain
For over 40 years the sector has been guided by the region’s most advanced supervisors – the Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB), which fosters a solid and healthy regulatory environment.
Bahrain FinTech Bay
Bahrain FinTech Bay (BFB), is the largest Fintech hub in the Middle East and Africa. Newly established, it works closely with industry leaders and new entrants from Bahrain, the region and globally, to drive innovation and create opportunities for growth.
FinTech Regulatory Sandbox
Bahrain’s FinTech Regulatory Sandbox is the region’s only onshore Regulatory Sandbox, providing a virtual space for investors to test technology-based innovations without the burden of heavy regulations and licenses.
Cloud Computing
Bahrain was the first nation in the region to officially adopt a Cloud First policy. Accordingly, the CBB has adopted regulatory changes to allow the use of cloud technology, enabling banks and government entities to upload data to the cloud.
Economic Development Board
The Bahrain Economic Development Board (EDB) is a dynamic public agency with overall responsibility for attracting inward investment into Bahrain. The EDB focuses on target economic sectors in which the Kingdom offers significant strengths including, amongst others, Financial Services, ICT, Manufacturing, Transport and Logistics services and Tourism and Leisure. For details about investing in Bahrain, see www.bahrainedb.com.
Islamic Finance
Bahrain leads the region and stands second globally only to Malaysia in Islamic Finance, with the world’s highest concentration of Islamic finance institutions.
