Central Bank of Oman unveils fresh fintech strategy

03/10/23

Omans Central Bank (CBO) has released the Fintech Framework and Roadmap to support financial technology (fintech) based products and services. Fintech is one of the fastest growing financial services sectors both in the Sultanate of Oman and the world.

The comprehensive strategy is fully aligned with the Sultanates Vision 2040. It also aims to develop skilled and innovation driven nationals and individuals and encourage collaboration between academia and the fintech sector. Moreover, the proposed ecosystem has the potential to support fiscal sustainability and economic diversification in Oman, which will eventually contribute to the county’s economic growth. In turn, this will create new job opportunities and attract venture capital investment into the country.

The CBO has prioritised investments in data management, aiming to effectively leverage the full potential of data. These efforts will significantly contribute to fostering fintech enabled financial inclusion and enhancing the availability and efficiency of financial payment systems.

Most importantly, the sector has the potential to thrive in Oman due to a number of enabling factors. These include a healthy and resilient banking sector coupled with robust payment platforms and infrastructure. Furthermore political stability and a higher percentage of youth in the Oman population will aid adoption of fintech.

The Sultanate of Oman already boasts several initiatives to foster fintech growth. These include the Fintech Professional Educational Programme, the Fintech Regulatory Sandbox and the Fintech Innovation Hub. Further initiatives include the Cloud Computing Framework for the banking and financial sector, National e-KYC and Customer Digital onboarding, Open Banking API Strategy and the Aligning Fintech Strategy between CBO and Capital Market Authorites.

In addition, the country hosts the Fintech and Banking Zone at the Comex Technology Exhibition and also Sponsors Fintech Competitions and Hackathons.

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