Today is day one of Money 2020 Middle East.
The agenda includes a focus on financial inclusion and day one also featuring discussions on the role of digital wallets and regional transformation as well as the exploration of AI and machine learning and finance.
Money 2020's chief strategy and growth officer is at the conference and has been busy talking with fintech leaders.
She joins us now with a recap.
Hi Scarlett, great to see you.
First and foremost, tell us about what it's been like and take us through day one.
Absolutely, I'm so happy to see you again, even though that you're halfway around the world.
I'm happy to be back with you here right now.
So day one has been jam packed.
It has delivered Money 2020, but Money 2020 in Middle East still.
So what does that mean?
That means 451 brands, almost 1000 investors.
150 plus startups from the region and beyond and 40,000 people.
We've been covering so many different topics across multiple stages all day long, 450 plus speakers, but the thing that really sticks out, Remy, is all around collaboration and how you take opportunity during volatility to have real impact.
Yeah, and Scarlett, speaking of which, tell us about the organizations that are present at Money 2020 Middle East and also what separates this gathering from other iterations of the conference.
Great question, Remy.
And as you know, because you've been a partner of ours for a long time, we have Money 2020 all over the world.
We have Bangkok in Asia in April.
We have Las Vegas in October, and we have Money 2020 Europe and Amsterdam in June.
The Riyadh edition Money 2020 Middle East is a little bit different because we actually have done this with our partners and co-organized.
Co-hosted by Tahale and FinTech Saudi and of course the government partners were with us including the Saudi central bank, the Insurance Authority, the Capital Markets Authority, and of course the financial sector for development program.
So it's a really big thing.
I talked to you about collaboration and partnership.
This is it living and breathing every single day.
Yeah and Scarlett, speaking of collaboration, tell us about the key conversations you've had today and some of the events you attended.
Yeah, so I heard you had acting chairman Pham on a moment ago.
I had the opportunity to host and chair a session with her earlier.
We also had the Secretary General of the Digital Cooperation Organization.
And then Nigeria's Minister of State for Finance.
So it was a jam packed session really all about how regulation needs to keep up and keep pace with what's happening in FinTech, the role that they can play, and where they see opportunities in the future.
We also saw a bunch of big announcements today already.
One of the first ones is Google Google Pay coming to Saudi Arabia, and then also Alipay is coming as well, and there was an agreement to enable Alipay in Saudi Arabia starting in 2026, so very exciting stuff.
Yeah, and Scarlett, as you mentioned earlier, these money 2020 gatherings around the globe are jam packed, so I know this is just day one, so what are you looking forward to as you head into day two?
We have Today I also personally hosting something with Tencent and Lean, a FinTech here in the region, so that's really exciting.
But more broadly we're going to have a lot more announcements to come.
A lot there's also the startup competition, and I'm going to be a judge for that.
So I'm looking forward to that 2 hours of startups pitching, and we're having real economic upside on the other side.
OK, Scarlett, always great talking to you.
Thank you so much for joining us and make sure you get plenty of rest ahead of day 2.
I'll do my best, Ray.
Thank you.
