Region’s first platform bank Wio launches in UAE

Wio Bank has announced its official launch in the UAE, becoming the first platform bank in the region, aiming to transform banking operating models towards a more digital future.

The new bank will provide solutions in three areas – digital banking apps, embedded finance and banking-as-a-service solutions.

Digital banking apps
In the UAE, almost one in five individual customers has an account with a digital bank and this is expected to double in the next few years. However, SME digital banking is still in its nascency with customers largely relying on brick-and-mortar branches to open accounts and carry out business transactions.

Wio will launch a range of digital banking apps for individual and business customers. These will offer easy and quick access to banking services, insights and tools to manage their personal and business lives efficiently.

Embedded finance
The embedded finance market is estimated to grow hundreds of billions globally over the next decade. Wio plans on taking banking where customers already engage and reduce the need for customers to go to bank channels to access banking services. The bank will play an active role to embed customised financial services with leading digital players in the region, thereby enhancing the digital economy.

Banking-as-a-service solutions (BaaS)
BaaS allows non-banking digital businesses to integrate and white label financial services in their applications. Wio will partner with digital businesses to offer its ready-made and modular BaaS solutions to enable them to provide banking products and services to their customers.

“At Wio Bank, we are keen to contribute to the digital ambitions of the UAE by driving the creation of a robust digital financial system that provides world class banking offerings and user experiences, laying the foundations for a futuristic economy,” said Salem Al Nuaimi, chairman of the Board, Wio Bank.

Jayesh Patel, CEO, Wio Bank commented: “We believe the next evolution of banking is a shift from traditional online banking and pure play digital banks to that of platform banking and we are excited to launch Wio as the first platform bank in the region. Wio will focus on introducing state-of-the-art digital banking apps for customers and embedding financial services in digital businesses that are frequented by consumers. We will also provide a top-quality banking-as-a-service platform to fintechs and non-financial businesses to accelerate creation of innovative end-to-end customer solutions.”

Meanwhile, Wio Bank launched their first digital banking application Wio Business, on September 5, 2022. Wio Business provides startups, freelancers and small and medium enterprises access to banking services seamlessly while empowering them with innovative beyond-banking services. The offering was developed in collaboration with customers and built to get SMEs up and running quickly by providing easy and simple banking tools to manage their business better.

Read: UAE’s first paperless Direct Debit Marketplace launched