SNB Wades into the Open Banking Experimental Environment

The Saudi National Bank (SNB) is the 1st Saudi bank, to steadily wade into the open banking experimental environment, as a part of the ongoing efforts of the SNB to achieve the strategic objectives of the financial sector development program, emanating from the Kingdom’s Vision 2030.
SNB announced that it is the first bank in the Kingdom to have an infrastructure ready to provide services, under the umbrella of the experimental environment for open banking, which confirms its ability to adopt financial technologies.
Such an expansion of the range of services it provides to customers, in line with the objectives of the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) in supporting the open banking system.
To provide open banking solutions in the Kingdom within the experimental environment and on a limited scale in the initial stage, SNB with “Link Finance”, one of the financial technology companies participating in the experimental environment for financial services solutions, and one of the 1st fintech companies to obtain the required permits from SAMA.
Rapid development witnessed by the financial sector in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, driven by the vision of the Saudi Central Bank and its strategic role in the financial sector development program, within the framework of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030, to achieve digital transformation in financial services, Omar Yassin, Senior Executive Vice President and Head of Digital Banking, at the SNB explained, indicating that this development included laying the ground for embracing financial technologies, in launching the necessary environment for development, testing and eventually graduation to be part of the financial sector system, as many financial technology companies are gaining a wide scope in their services, nowadays.
The financial sector will witness a faster pace of development after the launch of the open banking system, he added, pointing to variety of advanced services and technologies to customers, that would be at avail, raising the level of competitiveness and creating an environment to support innovation, excellence and cooperation among banks and financial technology companies, in order to achieve the objectives of the program Development of the financial sector, he concluded.