Yasmeen Al Sharaf is the Director of the FinTech & Innovation Unit at the Central Bank of Bahrain (“CBB”), tasked with setting up a conducive ecosystem to facilitate a robust regulatory framework that fosters innovation within the financial services sector. She has been working with the CBB for the past 18 years, whereby, she started her journey at the CBB at the Licensing Directorate.

Yasmeen Al Sharaf has been in charge for designing and implementing the FinTech strategy for the Central Bank of Bahrain.  She has worked on creating the Kingdom’s Regulatory Sandbox and is in charge of supervising all companies operating in the Regulatory Sandbox. She has also successfully worked on a number FinTech regulations that were issued by the CBB, making the Kingdom of Bahrain the first country in the GCC and wider MENA regions to issue such regulations. One of her latest achievements was the launch of the Kingdom’s first digital sandbox platform “FinHub973”.  Her tremendous efforts has led to the recognition of the Kingdom of Bahrain as a leading FinTech hub in the MENA region. 

Prior to joining the CBB, Al Sharaf worked briefly at Bahrain Islamic Bank within the Corporate Finance Department. She holds a Bachelor’s of Science in Banking and Finance from the University of Bahrain and a professional certificate in “FinTech & Regulatory Innovation” from the Cambridge Center for Alternative Finance, University of Cambridge.