Overview
Review of the typical costs associated with operating a financial services firm in the GCC.
Direct Cost Comparison
Analyzes setup, utility, operational costs and other business-critical comparisons.
Indirect Cost Comparison
An overview of the average cost of living in the GCC.
As the GCC’s most established financial hub, Bahrain is home to a robust and progressive financial services sector with the GCC’s largest concentration of financial institutions, populated by more than 400 local, regional and global financial institutions.
Bahrain is also regarded as the most experienced practitioner of Islamic Banking in the region, placing it squarely at the center of the Islamic financial services industry globally.
Thanks to the government’s forward-thinking and progressive vision, Bahrain leads the GCC in nurturing and encouraging the growth of digital financial services. A move to embrace the FinTech industry with the development of Bahrain FinTech Bay, the region’s largest FinTech hub, further elevates the country.
It’s no surprise then that the financial services sector alone is the largest non-oil contributor to Bahrain’s real GDP, and it continues to grow year on year.
For over 40 years the sector has been guided by the region’s most advanced supervisors – the Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB), which fosters a solid and healthy regulatory environment.
Bahrain FinTech Bay (BFB), is the largest Fintech hub in the Middle East and Africa. Newly established, it works closely with industry leaders and new entrants from Bahrain, the region and globally, to drive innovation and create opportunities for growth.
Bahrain’s FinTech Regulatory Sandbox is the region’s only onshore Regulatory Sandbox, providing a virtual space for investors to test technology-based innovations without the burden of heavy regulations and licenses.
Bahrain was the first nation in the region to officially adopt a Cloud First policy. Accordingly, the CBB has adopted regulatory changes to allow the use of cloud technology, enabling banks and government entities to upload data to the cloud.
Bahrain leads the region and stands second globally only to Malaysia in Islamic Finance, with the world’s highest concentration of Islamic finance institutions.
