MANAMA: National Bank of Bahrain (NBB) has become the first bank in Middle East and North Africa to launch an open banking solution.
The bank’s new ‘Aggregator’ service was revealed yesterday during a media briefing at the Capital Club Bahrain, in the presence of representatives from the National Bank of Bahrain, the Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB), the Economic Development Board (EDB) and Tarabut Gateway.
NBB said the activation of the first phase of account aggregation services through its online app was made possible by a partnership earlier this year with Tarabut Gateway – Bahrain’s first licensed open banking fintech provider.
Speaking on the milestone, Economic Development Board chief executive Khalid Humaidan said, “By setting the standards for open banking in the region, Bahrain has once again successfully risen to the challenge, proving its potential as an attractive, forward-thinking, digitally advanced investment location. I would like to congratulate NBB for pushing the industry’s boundaries and showcasing the strength of our national assets.”
Services developed by Tarabut Gateway will be rolled out in phases, with account aggregation being the first.
Initially, NBB customers will be able to view and track their finances across all their accounts, regardless of the bank.
Financial transactions and fully-fledged services will be enabled subsequently.
NBB CEO Jean-Christophe Durand said its “biggest accomplishment” was that it achieved the feat in less than a year thanks to “the guidance and support of the CBB, the efforts of Tarabut and the passion, determination and hard work of the NBB team”.
NBB has spearheaded the development of open banking technologies following the regulatory mandate by the CBB in November 2018 asking all banks in the kingdom to adopt it for “customer transparency, efficiency and an enhanced experience”.
NBB has invested significantly in the requisite systems and infrastructure to enable the service,” said Mr Durand.
The bank’s customers will get a holistic view of their finances and eventually be able to make instant transactions and informed decisions on competitive products and services that best suit their needs, at the click of a button.
According to Abdulla Almoayed, CEO of Tarabut Gateway, by partnering with its licensed open banking platform, other banks will also be able to provide bespoke services to their customers.
“Open banking is built on CBB’s regulatory guidelines which put the customer rights and security as a primary focus; no customer data can be accessed by third parties without proper licensing and customer consent,” he said.
© Copyright 2019 www.gdnonline.com
Copyright 2019 Al Hilal Publishing and Marketing Group Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info).
