Under the Financial Inclusion for the Arab Region Initiative (FIARI), the Arab Monetary Fund (AMF) and GIZ on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI), and the World Bank together with the UAE Central Bank held the first of its kind Arab #FinTex Symposium in Abu Dhabi from December 12-13, 2018. The Forum enabled more than 250 policymakers and regulators, professionals, and academia to exchange about developments in fintech for financial inclusion.

To make some of the key issues at the intersection of technological innovation and financial inclusion relevant for the Arab World available to a wider audience, the Arabic FinDev Gateway and GIZ invited experts and guest authors to contribute to the “Fintech and Blockchain for Financial Inclusion in the Arab World Blog Series,” which they jointly curated and edited.

The blog posts are available in Arabic at the Arabic FinDev Gateway and in English here at fimena.org.

We wish you a pleasant reading!

Miranda Beshara, Arabic FinDev Gateway and Atilla Kaiser-Yücel, GIZ

Can Fintech and Blockchain Advance Financial Inclusion?

By Dr. Ayman Omar and Emma Garnick, Kogod School of Business, American University, Washington D.C.

Blockchain Use Cases in the Arab Region: From Digital Identities to Cross-Border Payments

By Dr. Heba Abdel Monem, Arab Monetary Fund

Forget About Financial Inclusion: Digital Identification for All

By Kai Wagner and Ellie Stephens, Jolocom

Blockchain and Cross-border Impact Investments

By Philipp Lesche, Crypto Development Fund (CDF)

In Pursuit of Fintech Innovation: Global Developments and Arab Prospects

By Atilla Kaiser-Yücel, GIZ and Armin Satzger