Why Responsible Innovation now?
The financial services industry in MENA is transforming at pace. Open Banking, embedded finance, and real-time data flows are reshaping how individuals and businesses interact with financial systems. But with progress comes responsibility.
At Tarabut, we believe that innovation must be grounded in trust, inclusion, and long-term value. As the region’s leading financial technology platform, we are introducing the Responsible Innovation Standard: a shared framework designed to guide how we build, collaborate, and scale responsibly across the financial ecosystem.
This is more than a vision. It is a practical, actionable commitment that we invite all partners, from banks and fintechs to regulators and digital platforms, to align with.
Purpose of the standard
- To define a regionally relevant benchmark for responsible innovation in financial services
- To encourage alignment across ecosystem players around shared values and priorities
- To provide a practical guide for product design, data use, security, and ecosystem growth
- To foster accountability and establish trust as a competitive differentiator in MENA
The four pillars of Responsible Innovation
Financial inclusion principle:
Innovation should expand access - not entrench exclusion
We commit to:
- Designed products that serve underbanked and underserved individuals and SMEs.
- Using open banking and embedded finance to bridge access gaps, not create new ones
- Championing inclusive design principles that account for diverse digital literacy levels
What this means in practice:
- Partners should audit their UX and data practices to ensure transparency
- Any use of enriched or predictive data must be explainable and accountable
Consumer protection & ethics principle:
Data is powerful. It must be used ethically, transparently, & fairly
We commit to:
- Enforcing consent-driven data sharing with clear opt-in and opt-out mechanisms
- Designing user experiences that prioritise clarity over complexity
- Implementing data minimisation principles, collecting only what is needed, never more
- Ensuring data is never used in ways that manipulate, discriminate, or exploit
What this means in practice:
- Partners should audit their UX and data practices to ensure transparency
- Any use of enriched or predictive data must be explainable and accountable
Security & compliance principle:
Trust must be earned, and protected, at every touchpoint
We commit to:
- Meeting and exceeding regulatory requirements in every operating market
- Building on secure, API-first infrastructure with clear audit trails
- Regularly reviewing and strengthening our cybersecurity posture and data protection controls
What this means in practice:
- Partners are expected to uphold the same security and compliance standards when integrating with or building on Tarabut’s platform
- All data transfers must be secure, encrypted, and auditable
- Product teams should factor compliance into the design process, not retrofitted after launch
Collaboration principle:
Innovation is not suitable without collaboration
We commit to:
- Working closely with regulators, central banks, fintechs, and ecosystem partners
- Creating forums for knowledge exchange, co-design, and futureproofing regulation
- Supporting the creation of industry-wide benchmarks, certifications, and working groups
What this means in practice:
- We invite partners to co-develop impact metrics and share insights
- Ecosystem players should proactively seek alignment and avoid siloed development
- Tarabut will continue to publish insights, host roundtables, and share learnings
How to use this standard
Join the movement
Tarabut’s Responsible Innovation Standard is a living framework. As the industry evolves, so will our approach. We invite our partners to join us in putting these values into practice.
Together, we can build a financial ecosystem that is not only smarter, but fairer, safer, and more inclusive.
Putting principles into practice
Each of Tarabut’s solutions, from Open Finance Compliance and premium APIs to embedded lending, payments, and real-time data intelligence, has been designed in alignment with this standard. These principles guide how we build, deploy, and scale technology across MENA.
