Exploiting Fintech Growth In The Middle East With Accelerated Onboarding

In the Middle East, the Fintech sector is booming. However, improved performance means greater competition and a need for businesses to differentiate themselves. In this respect, customer experience is a core battleground. Service providers across the region are racing to remove obstacles to onboarding and ensure customers benefit from an easy and intuitive experience.

Understanding fintech growth in the Middle East

For several years, experts have acknowledged the Middle East as a potential Fintech powerhouse. Today, the sector is growing rapidly.

Significant investment in promoting Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Dubai, and Riyadh as Fintech hubs means the sector has been the primary recipient of venture capital investment for the past four years. Between 2021 and 2022, venture funding in Middle Eastern and North African Fintech rose from $587 million to $925 million - an increase of 58% (IMF).

This growth is also reflected in revenues. The IMF expects Fintech revenues in the Middle East, North Africa, and Pakistan region to increase from $1.5 billion in 2022 to $3.5–$4.5 billion by 2025.

Much like other successful Fintech markets, growth is being driven by competition between established finance players and a new breed of disruptive startups. Consumers are looking for new ways to access financial services as the traditional mechanisms fail to keep pace with digital developments in other industries. Crucially, the Middle East boasts a remarkably young population. 55% of the population is aged 30 or under, compared to 36% in OECD nations (OECD). This translates into a substantial digitally-native consumer base hungry for innovative Fintech solutions.

Time-intensive, costly and frustrating manual processes

In this context, Fintech companies need to distinguish themselves. One of the most effective ways of doing so is by optimizing the customer experience. And customer onboarding is a great place to start. It’s one of consumers' first interactions with any Fintech organization and sets the tone for future engagements.

However, a quick, smooth, and satisfying customer onboarding process is not without its challenges. Speed and simplicity are critical. But cyber security, verification, and customer trust are just as important. Unfortunately, they invariably slow down onboarding processes.

The central challenge involves speeding up onboarding and making it easier for consumers without compromising security. Digital solutions can help us achieve this.

Simplifying KYC processing and verification

KYC requirements are one of the main obstacles to quick and easy customer onboarding. A necessary security measure, they traditionally involve long, complex, and repetitive paper processes and require the customer to be physically present. This results in a frustrating, suboptimal customer experience and considerable room for improvement.

The EDC’s Digital Onboarding and eKYC solutions are excellent examples of how technology enables us to realize these improvements. These solutions read and extract data from national ID cards and, using facial recognition technology and the captured information, verify details against trusted identity providers.

Completely compliant with ICP regulations, the technology also uses auto-population and easy integration with digital forms and backends to streamline onboarding processes. It enables organizations to onboard customers in the comfort of their own homes, eliminating the need to attend a branch or office in person.

Automating document scanning and data collection

Onboarding processes can also involve significant documentation, particularly in the B2B sphere, where onboarding a new client company may mean scanning business licenses, application forms, and other paperwork. Here, automated document processing can replace time-intensive, error-prone manual processes, saving Fintech businesses considerable amounts.

EDC’s Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) solution demonstrates how this functions in practice. Exploiting advanced AI technology, the solution accurately extracts data from both digital and physical documents for relevant information and transfers the data to your business systems. In the case of digital documents, this is achieved through a simple drag-and-drop process into the IDP interface, and with physical documents it works in tandem with a scanner. This is all accomplished with a striking 99.5% accuracy rating, eliminating the need for manual data entry, reducing the time spent on document processing by 90%, and cutting costs by up to 80%.

Crucially, the EDC IDP solution can be integrated into KYC and KYB processes, simplifying customer onboarding, reducing processing time for service providers, and facilitating automated document verification with authorities and their systems.

Taking advantage of the Middle East fintech opportunity

In the Middle East, the Fintech sector looks set to continue its remarkable growth, with new national and international competitors fighting it out to capture the largest share of a high-value consumer base. The scope for Fintech growth in the Middle East is enormous and competing service providers must distinguish themselves to succeed. The customer experience, and customer onboarding, in particular, are the perfect places to start.

Implementing the right digital technology to deliver an optimized customer experience will give your business a competitive advantage. At EDC, our solutions are designed precisely for that purpose.

To learn more about how EDC solutions enhance your organization’s customer onboarding, speak to one of our expert advisors today.