Bahrain will set up a fintech-focussed venture capital fund this year as part of its aim to achieve leadership status in the fintech space, which is seen as a huge disruptor in the financial services area, Khalid Al Rumaihi, Chief Executive of Bahrain Economic Development Board, said.

This venture capital fund will be managed by a third-party investment manager and is one of three deliverables that Bahrain is looking at in the next one year in the fintech space, he said at the Bahrain GCC Financial Forum 2017.

The other two deliverables are ‘regulatory sandbox’ and ‘fintech accelerator’.

“These are the three deliverables that we hope to achieve in next one year to promote fintech,” Khalid Al Rumaihi said. He later clarified to BusinessLine that the VC fund will be a privately driven one and would look at investing in fintechs beyond Bahrain also.

Efforts are on with Bahrain’s central bank to frame and implement regulations on peer-to-peer lending and also crowd-funding, he added.

By moving quickly on fintech regulations and putting in place an ecosystem that is friendly to innovation, more fintech companies could be located in Bahrain and be used as a base for global expansion, he said.

He expects blockchain to unblock many potential possibilities just as electronic mail (through internet) did in the last few decades.

Meanwhile, at another session, Rasheed Mohammed Al Maraj, Governor, Central Bank of Bahrain, said Bahrain was “bitcoin friendly”, adding that a new white paper on fintech has been prepared by the central bank. “We will soon share this white paper with industry,” he added.

(This reporter is in Bahrain at the invitation of Bahrain Economic Development Board.)

Srivats.Kr@thehindu.co.in

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