‘ePay Summit’ gathers top experts, decision makers

Manama : Top experts from all over the world converged on Bahrain yesterday for the ‘ePay Summit’ which shed light on E-Payment and Internet Banking technology as a key factor for E-commerce activities.

Held under the patronage of Central Bank Bahrain, the summit organised by EastMed shared practical cases and in-depth experiences in cybersecurity, E-Payments infrastructure, regulation, technological disruption and innovation in the payment landscape.

Also known as Electronic Payments and Online Banking Conference 2018, the summit witnessed the participation of top-managers and directors of the leading enterprises across banking, FinTech, eCommerce, retail and telecom industries.

“I believe that a conference like this is very timely and extremely important. Bahrain has been a financial hub for a very long time and to maintain the position of being the financial centre we need to be inline with the developments that are taking place around the world,” Abdulkareem Bucheery Chairman of Bahrain Bourse told DT News.

Fintech, Bucheery said, is something that is growing rapidly and the issue, as the panellists pointed out, “is not about liking or disliking the technology, but is about moving forward with the technology.”

“All banks will have to embrace digitalisation. We believe the faster we adopt, the better it will help us maintain Bahrain image as the financial hub in the region.”

Stressing the importance of vision 2030, Essa J Sayyar, Company representative of East Med told DT News, “A conference like this comes in line with the vision 2030, where private sectors and government sectors can work effectively incorporation with each other.”

“Banks cannot work in isolation unless all the concerned authorities in Bahrain like the Central Bank, e-government work together to prepare a ground for new technological advancements where we can attract investment to Bahrain,” he pointed out.

Chief executive officer of Benefit, the Kingdom’s first E-wallet in terms of account to account transfers, Abdulwahid Janahi, told DT News, “We are working on phase two to establish a person to person transaction.”

“We are working closely with the banks along with the central bank to make this a success,” he said.

“We believe that for the development of the country all the financial sectors should work together so that despite the competition all of us can complement each other,” stressed Abdulwahid Janahi.