During our field visits to local and regional banks over the past few years, we've made it a habit to ask one question in every meeting: "How do you see Open Banking?" What surprises us each time isn't how different the answers are, it's how similar they are. Most financial institutions in the region still treat this topic as nothing more than a regulatory compliance item. Only a small, but promising, group has started to realize that this shift may be the biggest strategic opportunity the banking sector will see this decade.
Banks That Understood the Game
These banks, and there aren't many of them, treated Open Banking not as a technical project or a response to a regulator, but as a growth platform. We've worked with some of them on building API platforms, training technical teams, and designing partnership models with fintech companies. These institutions don't wait for regulators to tell them what to do, they lead the conversation inside their own organizations.
According to McKinsey, the MENAP region is seeing fintech revenue grow at 35% a year through 2028, compared to a global average of 15%. The banks helping build this ecosystem today are the ones that will collect its benefits tomorrow.
Most Banks Are Still Waiting for Regulation
Most of the banks we've visited, though, are still in wait-and-see mode. For them, dealing with Open Banking means: "let's wait for the final regulation, then do the minimum required." That thinking is understandable, but it's costly.
Saudi Arabia's central bank (SAMA) issued its Open Banking framework in 2022 and expanded it in 2024 to include Payment Initiation Services. The UAE's central bank (CBUAE) announced an Open Finance regulation in June 2024 that requires all licensed financial institutions to take part.
Unfortunately, this applies especially to most of our local Jordanian banks. Most are still waiting, and haven't yet realized that the landscape has changed, and that waiting alone is no longer an acceptable strategy. Anyone who treats these requirements as just a checklist won't just lose the opportunity, they will later find themselves in a rushed, expensive transformation project.
The Bigger Risk: Banks That Haven't Started at All
This is where the deeper risk lies. In some meetings, it becomes clear that Open Banking simply isn't on the roadmap, not next year, not the year after. The reason given is always the same: "we have more important projects" or "we're waiting for the regulator before we start."
What isn't understood is that Open Banking isn't a project you add to a list, it's a shift in the entire business architecture of the institution. Delaying it doesn't preserve the status quo, it means piling up technical and organizational debt that will have to be paid back later, with compound interest. And unfortunately, moving at the last minute won't just mean being late, it will put pressure on every other project the bank is running, and on how the whole bank operates.
Conclusion: The Shift Is Coming, Where Will You Stand?
The Open Banking market in the Middle East and North Africa was worth $2.26 billion in 2024, and is expected to exceed $10 billion by 2030, growing at 28.3% a year, according to Grand View Research. These numbers don't describe a technical market, they describe the entire banking sector's map being redrawn.
Banks that treat Open Banking as a strategic tool today will become the preferred partners for fintech companies and for new customers. Those who wait, or haven't started yet, aren't holding their position, they're falling behind without even noticing.
References
- Grand View Research, MEA Open Banking Market Report
- McKinsey, MENA Fintech's Ascent
- SAMA, Open Banking Framework (2022, updated 2024)
- CBUAE, Open Finance Regulation (June 2024)
- Arab Monetary Fund, Guidelines for Effective Open Banking/Finance Adoption (2023)
- McKinsey, Fintech in MENAP: A Solid Foundation for Growth
