The Road to the SDGs

PURPOSE X Financial technology (fintech) is a revolutionary set of technologies used by financial institutions (FIs) to improve and automate the delivery of services by helping companies, business owners and consumers better manage their financial operations, processes and lives. X Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, FI have been forced to expedite their digitalisation efforts to meet new and growing demands. X Against this backdrop, one of IsDB Group’s private sector entities, the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD), is working to strengthen its FI global network through a dedicated digital platform. The intention is to improve connectivity and commercial interaction between the Group’s FIs. X Through the Bridge Platform initiative, ICD aims to accelerate knowledge sharing, market assessments and specific deals that will boost national economic development and strengthen the capacity of the private sector to support financing of SMEs. X The platform aims to: – Facilitate information sharing among member FIs – Enhance market and business intelligence analysis – Enable open access to fintech resources and cloud services – Reduce financial transaction costs for member FIs – Upgrade advisory services that ICD offers to its partners across the Islamic developmental network by applying fintech technologies. X Using technology that connects FIs, the platform will achieve the following results that feed into the P5P: – The platform will serve as an integrated communication channel for all MCs and will consequently increase IsDB visibility – The platform will help to build partnerships in MCs and enable FIs in MCs to access the latest technological products – By sharing data on the platform, FIs will obtain the knowledge necessary to identify the real problems and difficulties and then explore possible solutions and business opportunities – By enabling FIs to communicate and explore opportunities, the platform will help them to expand financing to other MCs – Digitalisation of communications, information sharing, crowdsourcing and T he Bridge Platform is a dedicated online resource that brings together financial institutions in its MCs Bridge Platform: establishing a global network of financial institutions The aim of the Bridge Platform is to enable ICD, as a member of IsDB Group, to play a more competitive and responsive role in meeting the needs of IsDB's MCs [ 94 ] SDGs