Open Banking Is Coming To The Gulf – Which Founders Will Move Fast Enough To Own The Opportunity?

Across the GCC, open banking is shifting from bold policy into everyday products.

Saudi Arabia’s SAMA has launched an open banking licensing framework; the UAE runs the AlTareq framework giving licensed third parties access to financial data and payments; and Bahrain has had pilots running since 2020.

This infrastructure is the enabling layer for embedded finance – financial products built directly into the platforms businesses already use rather than offered through standalone bank interfaces. Account aggregation, Pay-by-Bank payments, automated SME credit decisions and workflow-native lending all become commercially viable once those rails are in place.

In markets where open banking has already matured – the UK, Australia, Brazil – the early movers built distribution, data relationships and product habits that proved very difficult for later entrants to dislodge. The Gulf is earlier in that curve, which means the positions available right now won’t be available in three years.

Key players including Tamara, Tabby, Wio Bank and Rasan are already demonstrating that embedded finance is live and growing in MENA. The question for anyone building in the region is whether they move before the infrastructure is fully in place and competition intensifies, or wait for certainty and find the best opportunities already taken.

Finding the Biggest Advantages

The highest-probability areas for embedded finance in the Gulf are cross-border payments and SME lending – both are fuelled by structural gaps that open banking data can help fix.

Cross-border payments remain expensive and fragmented despite the volume flowing through the region, and open banking rails give fintech firms a route to building cleaner, cheaper services around those flows. SME lending has been chronically underserved by traditional banks, and real-time access to financial data changes the risk assessment: businesses that were invisible to the formal credit system become bankable when their cash flows are verifiable in real time.

Market leaders will be the first to truly master the foundational systems – strong bank integrations, regulatory fluency across multiple Gulf jurisdictions and compliance infrastructure that can scale are as important as the product itself.

The compliance layer is where many embedded finance plays get made or lost. Multi-jurisdictional AML/KYC, automated sanctions screening and transaction monitoring that adapts to local regulatory changes aren’t optional extras – they’re the infrastructure that determines whether a product can scale across the GCC. Founders who treat compliance as a day-one architectural decision rather than a retrofit will move between markets significantly faster.

We asked a group of experts across fintech, compliance, infrastructure and AI to weigh in on where the open banking opportunity is most compelling – and what founders need to get right to capture it.

Our Experts

• Ryan Kirkley: Co-founder and CEO, Global Settlement Network
• Dr. Ravishankar Chamarajnagar: Founder and CEO, BRACKT AI
• Thomas Berndorfer: CEO, Connecting Software
• Aditya Singh: Head of Product and Strategy, INFINOX

Ryan Kirkley, Co-founder and CEO, Global Settlement Network

“Saudi Arabia’s National Fintech Strategy 2030 is a great example because there is a clear long-term vision behind it that goes beyond attracting startups. The goal of the larger strategy is to attract the best in talent and investment to create the infrastructure, regulatory environment and overall landscape needed to support entirely new financial industries. When you combine that with ecosystems like DIFC and ADGM in the UAE, you start to see why founders are paying attention. Capital, policy and technology are all moving together, which creates an environment where businesses can scale quickly and effectively.

“The Gulf also occupies a unique position globally as the region serves as a natural connection point to Europe, Africa and APAC, which gives founders access to markets far beyond a single region. Many companies entering the UAE don’t look at it as one market – they’re looking at it as a launch point into multiple growth corridors at once.

“The companies that own categories over the next few years will probably be the ones moving closest to real customer pain points today. Founders have a relatively short window where markets are still taking shape and customer behaviour is still forming. The advantage goes to those that are actually spending time on the ground, forming relationships early and becoming part of the landscape before it becomes crowded.”

Dr. Ravishankar Chamarajnagar, Founder and CEO, BRACKT AI

“Given the region’s large expat population, active intra-Gulf business corridors, and significant oil and gas settlement flows, there is strong demand for cross-border payments to be executed with flawless precision. Open banking can support this demand, but only if compliance infrastructure maintains pace. Founders must address multi-jurisdictional compliance from the outset to lead in cross-border embedded finance, or risk substantial regulatory barriers and fines.

“The founders who will own this category are directly building AI-native, multijurisdictional compliance into their embedded finance products. This means real-time AML/KYC across Gulf frameworks, automated sanctions screening, and transaction monitoring that adapts to evolving regulations. The winning playbook isn’t just faster payment rails – it’s a compliant-by-design architecture that uses modern APIs and AI to handle cross-border complexity from day one.”

Thomas Berndorfer, CEO, Connecting Software

“What stands out in the UAE’s move toward blockchain-based digital business identity is not the blockchain itself, but the broader move toward machine-verifiable trust infrastructure. AI systems now generate, process and exchange information autonomously, so organisations need stronger ways to prove the integrity and authenticity of digital records without relying solely on centralised databases or manual verification.

“Blockchain has real value here when used pragmatically. Its strength is not that it makes information true, but that it makes tampering detectable. A cryptographic audit trail allows independent parties to verify whether a document, credential or record has remained unchanged – a critical capability in environments shaped by AI-generated content, automated workflows and increasingly sophisticated fraud.

“The long-term opportunity is likely less about putting entire business processes on-chain and more about building verifiable trust layers around critical digital assets and decisions. Organisations that approach blockchain as an integrity and verification tool – rather than a branding exercise – will ultimately create the most durable enterprise value.”

Aditya Singh, Head of Product and Strategy, INFINOX

“The Gulf’s open banking buildout is one of the most important infrastructure shifts in emerging market fintech right now. The two opportunities that stand out are cross-border payments and SME lending. The Gulf has one of the world’s largest remittance corridors, with millions of migrant workers sending money home every month through expensive and fragmented channels. Open banking rails give firms a chance to build cleaner, faster and cheaper services around that flow.

“SME lending is the other major gap. Traditional banks in the region have historically underserved smaller businesses. Access to real-time financial data through open banking makes it much easier to assess risk, underwrite properly and serve businesses that may have been invisible to the formal credit system.

“In other markets, the early advantage has often gone to firms that understood the plumbing first. Strong bank integrations, regulatory fluency and reliable distribution matter as much as the product interface. The priority now is focus – pick the right use case, build bank and platform relationships while the frameworks are still forming, and make sure your compliance infrastructure can scale with the business. The opportunity is significant, but the firms that benefit most will be the ones that build properly underneath.”

For any questions, comments or features, please contact us directly.