More than 60 MoUs, strategic agreements and announcements were unveiled at Fintech Forward 2026 in Bahrain. Bahrain FinTech Bay signed its first deals under a new strategy on day one.

Tariq Mattar, Director of Innovation and Business Development at Bahrain FinTech Bay, and Suzy Al Zeerah, Chief Operating Officer at Bahrain FinTech Bay, both Co-Chairs of the MENA Fintech Association’s Bahrain Chapter, join FinTech TV’s Raghda Ibraheem on Capital Markets as the event opens.

After eight years building Bahrain’s fintech community and connecting fintechs with financial institutions and investors, BFB is moving from connector to product builder. The new direction covers AI products and services developed with technology partners for financial institutions, expanded access to digital infrastructure including Google Cloud, and AI training for everyone from senior leaders to day-to-day teams.

Mattar draws the line between where AI sits in GCC banks today (automation and efficiency across back office, compliance and customer service) and where it needs to go: deposit decisioning, credit underwriting and personalisation at scale. Al Zeerah explains why training matters as much as technology, since AI adoption fails when people across the organisation do not understand how to work with it.

Their pitch to fintechs is consistent: a progressive regulatory environment, a collaborative community and a market designed for testing a product in Bahrain before scaling it across the Gulf and the wider region.

Topics discussed: Bahrain FinTech Bay’s new strategy, AI for financial institutions, Google Cloud infrastructure access, AI skills and training, AI for growth vs efficiency, Bahrain as a test market for GCC expansion.

Guests: Tariq Mattar, Director of Innovation and Business Development, Bahrain FinTech Bay; Co-Chair, MFTA Bahrain Chapter. Suzy Al Zeerah, Chief Operating Officer, Bahrain FinTech Bay; Co-Chair, MFTA Bahrain Chapter.
Interviewer: Raghda Ibraheem, FinTech TV, Capital Markets