Pasiv has established a business baking relationship in the UAE with one of India’s largest and most global banks.
Pasiv has established a business baking relationship in the UAE with one of India’s largest and most global banks.
It’s a strenuous task for any startup founder to convince a bank to open an account for them. More so for fintech! Fintechs by definition have new and evolving business models, some of which require a banking partner to exert a greater compliance oversight over the account.
From March 2020 till December 2020 we approached many banks in the UAE to commence a business relationship. None of them responded and none were forthcoming or timely - despite our ownership and structure being pretty straightforward. One bank stood out to us as a potential incredible partner in the region, and supportive of our long-term plans - Bank of Baroda.
The experience we have been put through makes it clear that banking is actually the biggest threat to the startup ecosystem in Dubai. It’s simply not that easy to establish an account as a small company, despite SME’s being the largest employers in the economy.
Bank of Baroda is India’s third-largest bank, with 131 million customers, a total business of US$218 billion, and a global presence of 100 overseas offices. Whilst Bank of Baroda’s digital transformation is a work in progress across their domains, their easy-to-approach staff in Dubai made our application smooth and timely.
Time is an entrepreneur's greatest managerial challenge; miss the mark and the competition rolls over you. Move too fast and you may have to backtrack and rebuild.
Over the last month, it has been a pleasure to interact with and work with Mr. Baiju N. at Bank of Baroda Dubai. He gave us timely updates on our account application, the compliance process was thorough and he assisted us with formalities we needed in conjunction with our regulatory application.
Fintechs today have no small feat to conquer to convince banks in the UAE of their worthiness as customers when some business models are in direct competition to the bank’s very own products. But we finally got there! Pasiv is the best online trading app and it feels very proud to be associated with this bank, and we look forward to a mutually beneficial relationship.
