UAE – Mubasher: The Middle East, Africa, and South Asia's (MEASA) leading financial hub, Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), has launched WorldFirst to be a global currency exchange and payments company, with the aim to tap into a large e-commerce market across the region.
Through its new DIFC base, the UK-based WorldFirst will offer currency exchange services and cross-border payment solutions for both e-commerce businesses and individuals.
The new office will boost international money transfers across the region, providing an ideal practice platform for international trade and currency exchange, said a press release on Sunday.
“The launch of WorldFirst in the Centre will enable the organisation to tap into the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia region’s burgeoning e-commerce market which is projected to be worth $ 97 billion by 2020 and continue their upward growth trajectory,” said CEO of DIFC Authority, Arif Amiri.
He added, “The DIFC continues to attract leading transaction exchange organisations and financial technology pioneers from around the world, thanks to our connectivity to global markets, state-of-the-art infrastructure, collaborative eco-system and advanced regulatory and judicial system."
Since its conception in 2004, the DIFC has succeeded to attract a number of the world’s top financial institutions. The DIFC FinTech ecosystem has remarkably grown over the last twelve months, with a boosted dynamic community of a number exceeding 100 innovative companies, and a three-fold growth in registered FinTech firms since the end of 2018.
The new launch comes in line with DIFC’s roadmap to support Dubai’s economic vision through diversifying the financial services industry, facilitating opportunities for sector pioneers, and accelerating the growth within the financial technology arena while attracting top global brands.
In this regard, CEO of WorldFirst, Jonathan Quin, commented, “To date, more than 250,000 global customers have chosen WorldFirst for their international transfers. We have transferred $70 billion for customers since our launch and undertaken more than one million transfers per year."
He further added, "Now is an exciting time for the e-commerce industry and we believe the Middle East offers vast potential for growth as we continue our journey to become the world’s best foreign exchange platform for individuals and international businesses.”
It is noteworthy to mention that WorldFirst has been acquired by Ant Financial Services Group, the financial technology arm of Alibaba Group Holding Limited in February 2019, currently serving over 250,000 global clients and working with top international firms, including Amazon.
