By Gulf Times Now MANAMA — Bahrain’s Fintech Bay has been crowned the world’s most innovative financial hub in the Global Financial Innovation Index 2025, in a result that shocked many Western financial observers and confirmed the Gulf Kingdom’s remarkable transformation into a global leader in financial technology.
The index, widely regarded as the gold standard in measuring financial hub competitiveness, evaluated 82 cities across dimensions including regulatory quality, startup ecosystem vibrancy, talent availability, and cross-border transaction efficiency.
Bahrain’s Central Bank regulatory sandbox — one of the first in the world when launched in 2017 — received particular praise for its ability to process fintech licences in as few as 28 days, compared to an average of 14 months in the United States and 11 months in the European Union.