The Rise of Fintech in UAE and Saudi Arabia: Assessing Its Impact on Banking Performance and Identifying the Region’s Fintech Leader

This study investigates the influence of fintech on banking performance in GCC nations, evaluating critical criteria including ROA, ROE, and Net Interest Margin. Study has taken UAE and Saudi Arabia and data is collected Bloomberg terminal and also Statista and Crunchbase platform is used for data collection. The data collection period is 2014 to 2024. Simple OLS regression is applied and influence of FinTech is observed on banking performance variable like ROA, ROE AND NIM. Control variables are also used some are bank specific and other are macro-specific. Quantile regression offers a more comprehensive and detailed insight into fintech's influence on banking performance in the GCC. The results are significant as all variable of bank performance negatively affected by the rise of FinTech. Banks are advised to actively invest in FinTech startups and also engaged in partnership to avoid risk of disruption. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have become the most prominent fintech centres in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) as of 2025. With the help of aggressive regulatory frameworks, large investments, and an increase in creative entrepreneurs, both nations have made great progress in creating strong fintech ecosystems.