Author: Alan Blanchard, Business Development Director for TSO, has been responsible for digital transformation both as a regulator and consultant. In his current role he helps organisations to publish regulations more effectively.

In a rapidly evolving global  regulatory and innovation environment, the resilience and growth of economies depends on their ability to adapt and innovate. The United Arab Emirates is widely recognised for its forward-thinking regulatory authorities, which consistently encourage the adoption of new technologies and work collaboratively with industry leaders to build new regulatory rails for exponential technologies that have yet to embed into the traditional business systems. As a future-ready financial hub, investment in digitisation of rules can help harness innovation and create growth.

Transparency: the cornerstone of market confidence

In the financial sector, regulation and financial frameworks serve as the backbone of market integrity and investor confidence, but the challenge today is sheer scale. Firms must keep pace with a near constant stream of rule changes across major jurisdictions, and the cost of financial crime compliance alone is about 206 billion dollars a year globally. Transparency and clear communication of these rules inspire confidence in markets. When regulatory expectations are accessible and consistently applied, market participants can plan, invest, and innovate with certainty. This confidence is essential not only for established institutions but also for new entrants, because when compliance becomes too complex and slow, entry drops sharply, as seen in the US where regulators approved only about five new bank charters per year on average from 2010 to 2023.

The policy and supervisory role of financial regulators has become increasingly complex. Rapid technological advancements, fintech companies, cryptocurrencies and globalisation mean that regulators need to continually adapt to protect consumers and the integrity of financial systems. The landscape demands agility and collaboration to effectively manage challenges. A significant barrier to transparency and innovation in regulation is the persistence of legacy formats such as PDF rulebooks and siloed regulatory handbooks. These formats can be difficult to search, interpret, and apply, particularly for new market entrants or technology-driven firms.

Modernising regulatory frameworks involves more than simply updating existing rules; it requires a fundamental rethinking of how regulations are designed, communicated, and implemented.

Unlocking regulation and moving to rules as code

Unlocking regulation means transforming legacy documents into machine-readable formats that make regulation easier to find, use, and understand. This shift not only lowers the barriers for new players but also supports RegTech solutions; technologies designed to streamline compliance, automate reporting, and provide real-time regulatory insights.

Machine readable rules and rules as code can deliver improved interoperability between firms and regulators, simplify change management, and remove barriers to entry for market participants. The first step is to convert legacy unstructured documents, such as PDFs, into more useful and manageable machine-readable formats such as XML, identifying headings, parts, sections and numbering and adding structure to the content. This structured content makes it possible to present the rules in different ways to meet the needs of regulated organisations, for example contextualising rules with a timeline of changes on a website, or publishing via an API to enable organisations to consume the rules as data.

As well as making rules easier to understand, structured data enables faster and more accurate editing workflows. Content can be managed at paragraph level, enabling relationships to be made and references to be added. Editors can self-serve using a Content Management System to edit content at a paragraph level and view the revised content immediately for proofing.

What this means for the future

Digitising and structuring regulatory information creates several tangible benefits. Firms can quickly and accurately understand their compliance responsibilities through improved search and better presentation of the rules that apply to them. Enhanced interoperability enables data sharing across different systems and institutions without manual reformatting. Machine-readable rules and rules as code create the possibility of automated compliance checks, better integration with RegTech solutions, and even the ability to simulate the impact of regulatory changes before implementation. An additional benefit of structured data is that it makes it easier for AI to use accurately, enabling large amounts of information to be summarised, connected and queried using day to day language.

The transition to digital, machine-readable regulations not only enhances transparency and efficiency but also fosters an environment conducive to innovation and growth. By leveraging structured content, regulation as code, and collaborative policymaking, regulators can create more agile, responsive, and user-friendly frameworks that better reflect the realities of financial markets today and in the future.

Finastra, a global leader in financial services software, brought together regulators, banks, fintechs, and technology leaders at the Saudi Arabia Reimagine Banking Forum in Riyadh to examine how the Kingdom’s financial sector can accelerate innovation while protecting trust, resilience, and customer value under Vision 2030.

The forum featured perspectives from regional and global experts, including Rudy Kawmi, Vice President for Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific, Universal Banking at Finastra, along with senior leaders such as Abdulkarim Alsowaygh, Head of Advisory Services at TechArch, and Aymen Belhedi, Digital and Technology Transformation Leader at KPMG Middle East.

As the conversation turned to how banks can turn ideas into action, Finastra shared perspectives based on its long-standing work with financial institutions in the Kingdom, where it has supported banks since the early nineties through local expertise, established relationships and ongoing investment. The company referenced the role of modern core platforms like Essence, in supporting agility, compliance and customer-centric design. Finastra Essence was also recognized as a Leader for the 2nd consecutive time in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Retail Core Banking Systems, Europe.

Across three panel discussions – Banking Today: Delivering delight in a hyper competitive world, Banking Tomorrow: Innovation, agility and relevance, and Practical AI: Leveraging AI for profit, safely and securely – speakers shared practical strategies to balance regulatory expectations, customer needs, and technology adoption.

Key insights from the Saudi Arabia Reimagine Banking Forum include:

Innovation anchored in trust and compliance
Panelists agreed that innovation in Saudi banking must begin with trust. Cybersecurity, regulatory alignment and security maturity were described as non-negotiables, not afterthoughts. Speakers highlighted the role of the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) in setting clear guardrails through initiatives such as API-driven banking frameworks and the Regulatory Sandbox, enabling banks and fintechs to experiment in controlled environments while protecting consumers and financial stability.

From product proliferation to precision, lifestyle-integrated banking
The discussion underlined a shift from launching more products to delivering precise, contextual experiences. Banks in Saudi Arabia are under pressure to evolve from traditional service providers into lifestyle platforms that integrate payments, credit and everyday services into the digital journeys customers already use. With the risk of banking drifting into a utility model, where providers are interchangeable, panelists called on institutions to differentiate through relevance, immediacy and purposeful design, not just scale.

Ecosystem orchestration as the new competitive edge
Speakers stressed that no institution can innovate in isolation. Banks that act as ecosystem orchestrators, curating fintech, technology and cybersecurity partners while owning the “trust layer”, are better positioned to deliver new propositions quickly. Internal teams, advisors and partners form a single value chain. The conversation moved beyond capability lists toward how those capabilities are combined, governed and brought to market at speed.

Data and AI turning trusted information into intelligence
Data was described as a critical and often underused asset. Panelists highlighted that the real opportunity lies not in collecting more data but in converting trusted data into actionable intelligence. In this context, AI and generative AI can help banks move from reactive service models to proactive, personalized engagement, provided governance keeps pace. With the right tools and controls, small teams can now deliver improvements in productivity and customer experience that previously required much larger workforces.

Practical, ethical AI with humans firmly in the loop
The AI discussion focused heavily on ethics, explainability and human oversight. Panelists warned against black-box systems in areas such as credit decisions and collections, where AI outcomes directly affect people’s lives. They emphasized the need to identify and address bias in training data and to keep humans accountable for final decisions. AI was positioned as a powerful tool to automate repetitive tasks, assist agents and accelerate analysis, while freeing people to concentrate on higher value work.

Technology is available, but adoption remains gradual
Speakers noted that while the technology to support next-generation services is already in place, adoption timelines can vary. Some innovations introduced in pilot phases have taken time to progress to full rollout, reflecting the sector’s careful approach to implementation. The discussion highlighted opportunities for continued progress in areas such as real time, transparent cross-border payments and fully digital account opening that reduces the need for in-branch processes.

Across all sessions, there was a consistent message: Saudi Arabia is setting a high bar for responsible innovation by combining a progressive regulator, a clear national agenda and banks that are re-architecting for trust, speed and inclusion. The future of banking in the Kingdom will belong to institutions that innovate boldly, design for resilience, and earn customer trust every day.

Rostro Group, an international diversified fintech and financial services group, has obtained a Category 5 license from the UAE Securities and Commodities Authority (SCA), marking a significant step in its long-term commitment to shape the UAE’s future financial ecosystem.

The UAE’s fintech ecosystem continues to expand at an exceptional pace, supported by progressive regulation, rising investor appetite, and strong government initiatives. Recent industry reports from bodies such as the MENA Fintech Association and Magnitt indicate that the UAE consistently attracts over 40–45% of all fintech investments in the region, reinforcing its position as the leading fintech hub in MENA.

Looking ahead, the sector in the UAE is projected to grow at a compound annual rate of more than 20% over the next five years, driven by increasing adoption of digital payments, rapid expansion in wealth-tech and digital brokerage services, and continued regulatory enhancements from bodies such as the SCA and ADGM. With this momentum, the UAE is well-positioned to remain a regional centre of innovation, capital formation, and digital financial transformation.

With UAE Securities and Commodities Authority (SCA) strengthening oversight and raising industry standards, the approval recognizes Rostro Group as a compliant and trusted participant in the country’s expanding financial landscape. It also allows the Group to operate in line with UAE’s expectations for transparency, investor protection and responsible market engagement.

Based in the UAE, the Group is led by CEO Michael Ayres, who has long-standing experience in the region’s fintech sector. Speaking about the SCA approval, Ayres highlighted that Dubai and Abu Dhabi’s rapid evolution into a future-ready financial ecosystem is unmatched.

Ayres said, “We at Rostro Group see the UAE as one of the most forward-thinking financial centres, one that will soon rival leading centres like London, Singapore or New York. Securing this licence deepens our alignment with the country’s vision to build a tech-first, institutionally robust financial ecosystem and propels our contribution to its next phase of growth.”

Rostro Group’s multi-brand structure is built to serve diverse categories of investors through a unified global ecosystem. Its Scope Prime division supports institutional clients with industry leading trading infrastructure, while Scope Markets offers individuals streamlined access to global trading and investing opportunities.

In recent years, the product offering of Rostro Group has been widened to include access to over 60 regional CFD equities, as well as the development of proprietary CFD indices to mirror the performance of the Dubai and Abu Dhabi stock markets.

Local banking relationships have already been established. In addition, Rostro’s Scope Prime division is now ready to provide multi-asset prime brokerage services to financial institutions across the GCC, whilst the retail client-facing Scope Markets division has the ability to offer account types denominated in multiple currencies including AED and USD.