Bahrain Economic Development Board (Bahrain EDB) has concluded Fintech Forward 2025 (FF25) on a high note earlier at Exhibition World Bahrain (EWB) bringing together policymakers, investors, founders, and thought leaders from around the world to shape the future of financial services.
In its third edition, Fintech Forward has recorded the highest number of sponsors, participants, and partnerships to date, with 38 Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) and strategic agreements signed across fintech, digital infrastructure, and financial services, reflecting the increasing depth of industry collaboration and the strong investor confidence in Bahrain’s thriving fintech ecosystem.
Fintech Forward 2025 had adopted the theme ‘The Era of Integration: The Maturing Age of Fintech‘, featuring over 40 distinguished speakers, including global regulators, financial strategists, fintech pioneers, and renowned innovators such as Changpeng Zhao (CZ), former CEO of Binance, and Dhiraj Mukherjee, Co-Founder of Shazam.
The event reaffirmed its position as a premier global platform for innovation, bringing together leaders who have reshaped industries and redefined how people interact with technology and financial services. The agenda of Fintech Forward 2025 spanned a wide range of topics influencing the future of finance, including embedded infrastructure, AI adoption, open banking, Islamic fintech, digital payments, and evolving regulatory frameworks.
Building on its reputation as a regional hub for financial innovation, Bahrain convened industry pioneers at Fintech Forward 2025, which drew around 2,000 attendees and wide support from key players across the Kingdom’s financial and technology sectors. The region’s leading fintech event also saw robust international participation from countries including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, the United States, and India.
Major milestones at Fintech Forward 2025
Among the milestone agreements announced at Fintech Forward 2025 included the successful pilot of the new Google Cloud infrastructure for payments, a landmark collaboration facilitated by Bahrain Fintech Bay, the National Bank of Bahrain (NBB), Bahrain Islamic Bank (BisB), Bank of Bahrain and Kuwait (BBK), and BENEFIT, enabling instant payments using digital commercial bank money between their clients on Google Cloud Universal Ledger. This state-of-the-art project highlights Bahrain’s role as a testbed for next-generation financial technologies and its ability to facilitate meaningful cross-border collaboration.
As part of the Fintech Forward event, the Bahrain EDB hosted a delegation from the United Kingdom’s Department for Business and Trade (DBT), comprising 70 delegates from 36 fintech companies, the largest delegation the Department has ever led to any country, highlighting the shared commitment to advancing cross-border innovation, financial collaboration, and sustainable economic growth. Among the delegation, three UK companies announced their launch in Bahrain, including Umazi, Ajyad & Valexa, and Aman by Themis, further reinforcing the Kingdom’s growing appeal as a gateway for international fintech expansion.
Image Credits: BNA | Cropped by GBN
Over the past decade, Bahrain has transformed its financial services landscape through progressive regulation, advanced digital infrastructure, and a strong commitment to innovation. As the largest contributor to GDP, accounting for 17.2 percent of the economy in 2024, the sector drives economic growth while benefiting from a forward-looking regulatory framework led by the Central Bank of Bahrain, the Kingdom’s single, agile regulator.
Guided by the Financial Services Sector Development Strategy (2022–2026), Bahrain continues to advance innovation, talent development, and sustainable growth, leveraging its strategic location, business-friendly environment, highly-skilled workforce and sophisticated digital infrastructure to serve as a launchpad for scalable, cross-border fintech solutions and a gateway to the $2.15 trillion GCC market, solidifying its position as the region’s premier destination for fintech investment and collaboration.
Fintech Forward continues to play a central role in driving investment, fostering innovation, and shaping the future of finance across the region. Building on its growing momentum, the event will return in 2026, reaffirming its position as the region’s premier platform for dialogue, collaboration, and transformation in the digital finance landscape.
