00:14My name is Steve Durning, I'm Associate Vice President at Haluf and I look after Money 2020
00:19Middle East and today we're in Riyadh in Saudi Arabia at Money 2020 Middle East 2026. Money
00:272020 is focused on everything fintech and finance it brings together the global ecosystem from every
00:33corner of the world to here in Riyadh we look at every single topic that's happening within
00:37the industry we're on top of the latest trends and we also have one of the biggest fintech
00:41exhibitions in the world with over 300 brands here. Well we we had a bumper launch last year
00:49I think it exceeded all expectations that we had and then this year obviously the conditions are
00:54different for us but we've still got a sellout show we've seen actually funnily enough we've
01:00seen an increase in international participation in the show this year so against the backdrop of
01:05something that is quite difficult to manage the team's done a very well a very great job in building
01:11up the the show to where we are. If we look at Saudi Arabia the ecosystem is very much into
01:17a maturing
01:17phase now there's still huge capitals flowing into startups but we're seeing some of the bigger
01:23fintechs now looking to expand outside of the borders of the kingdom so I think it's constantly
01:29moving it's hard to say like benchmark versus where it was last year because so much is being added to
01:34the industry even if you look at things like AI and how that's changing the entire ballpark for everyone
01:40it's constantly progressing and it's Saudi's got brilliant regulatory framework here as well which
01:45allows companies to sell quickly become more more competitive it's hard it's not really a stepping
01:50stone from here to there it's constant change and continuum and it is really fantastic to see the
01:55growth the the ecosystem is growing fast here and money 2020 is is part of this we hope to enable
02:02that growth we hope to bring in best practice from around the world here into the kingdom we hope that
02:07we can bring people around the table from different markets people with different regulations
02:13ultimately our job is to ensure two people who have the right commercial objectives find each
02:18other in this room so they can partner and help grow their businesses and scale Saudi Arabia's ecosystem
02:25Saudi Arabia's got the the regulatory framework in place to help your business scale
02:29it's got the the tools at a regulator level like the sandboxes that we we've discussed it's got capital
02:35Saudi's got a a very proactive approach to investing capital especially within fintechs
02:40and it's got the market Saudi Arabia's got a it's got the in the gcc it's got the biggest population
02:46it's young it's digitally savvy people are used to doing or running their lives on apps so i think if
02:52you're thinking about it make the plunge i think Saudi Arabia could be your next home market for you
