Amman played host on 24 and 25 September 2025 to the Jordan Fintech Festival, the first national fintech event of its kind in the Arab world, organised by the Central Bank of Jordan in cooperation with the Arab Monetary Fund. The two-day gathering brought together central bank governors, securities regulators, and fintech entrepreneurs from across the Arab world to examine the future of digital finance in the region, marking a milestone for a country that has been actively positioning itself as a centre for financial technology investment and regulatory innovation.
The choice of Amman as the host city and the Arab Monetary Fund as co-organiser reflected the ambition of the Central Bank of Jordan to give the festival a genuinely pan-Arab dimension rather than a purely domestic focus. By convening regulators and private sector participants from multiple Arab economies under one roof, the event created a platform for dialogue on the harmonisation of digital financial regulation across a region that is moving at varying speeds toward open finance and digital asset frameworks.
DIGITAL PAYMENTS, OPEN FINANCE AND VIRTUAL ASSETS
The festival's agenda was structured around three interconnected themes: digital payments infrastructure, open finance frameworks, and the regulatory treatment of virtual assets. Each theme reflects an area where Arab economies face both significant opportunity and regulatory complexity. Digital payments has emerged as the most immediately actionable priority for many central banks in the region, with governments increasingly linking progress on financial inclusion to the availability of low-cost, interoperable payment systems that can reach populations historically dependent on cash.
Open finance, which extends the data-sharing principles of open banking to a broader set of financial products including insurance, investments, and pensions, was presented as the next frontier for jurisdictions that have already put in place the foundational infrastructure for digital account-to-account payments. Speakers at the festival discussed the regulatory prerequisites for open finance and the consumer protection frameworks that would need to accompany any expansion of data-sharing obligations across the Arab financial sector.
JORDAN'S VIRTUAL ASSETS LAW AND HUB AMBITIONS
Jordan's Virtual Assets Law was highlighted throughout the festival as a concrete legislative achievement that places the kingdom ahead of many of its regional peers in providing a clear regulatory framework for digital asset businesses. Officials presented the law as evidence that Jordan has the legal architecture to attract fintech investment and give entrepreneurs the regulatory certainty they need to build and scale businesses with a view to serving the broader Arab market from a Jordanian base. The law was developed in coordination with the Central Bank of Jordan and is designed to balance investor protection with openness to innovation.
The development of Jordan's national digital payments infrastructure was also prominently featured as a milestone supporting the country's broader fintech hub ambitions. Officials described ongoing investments in building an interoperable payments backbone that can accommodate new entrants and reduce the cost of transactions for businesses and individuals alike. The Jordan Fintech Festival is expected to become a recurring annual event, with its organisers expressing confidence that the inaugural edition will generate momentum for deeper regulatory cooperation across Arab financial authorities in the year ahead.