Oil to Innovation: an overview of Fintech in Saudi Arabia

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, historically known for the great wealth of oil, aggressively seeking new plans to build himself as a leading global financial hub.

As Saudi Arabia looks at its economic diversification, it has invested many financial services. But how did it decide to achieve this goal? To find out, we have united a general view of the country’s fintech, shares different factual facts and statistics.

Hubs Finance

Riyadh (Rank 84)^th All over the world) and also the capital city of Jeddah (Historical Commercial Hub).

Main Economic Improvement Strategies

Vision in Saudi 2030

Economic, Financial Services and Fintech General Ideas

Saudi Arabia passes significant economic growth in its national strategy, Saudi Vision 2030. The center of this change is to create large projects, including King Abdullah Financial District, a new mixed-use financial center at Riyadh.

With physical development of infrastructure, Saudi Arabia primarily in the digital renewal of the finance service sector by initiatives such as Developmental Sector Program Program (FSDP).

The FSDP launches the fintech strategy implementation plan in 2022 to facilitate the growth of the Fintech sector in Saudi Arabia and establish Riyadh as a global fintech hub. The ambitious plan aims to triple the number of fintech companies to 230 to 2025, raise digital transactions to 70 percent in three years, and contribute $ 1.2billion in GDP while creating 6,000 New Jobs of 2025. In 2030, Saudi Arabia seeks to have 525 fintech companies, created nearly 18,000 jobs.

A major milestone on the Fintech Voyage Saudi Arabia is to push it for open banking, with launching a new open banking framework in Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (Similarly) – now known to be Saudi Central Bank by 2022. The country also leads the Venture Capital Funding in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region, which earns the top spot for the first time in 2022.

Saudi Arabia boasts one of the highest mobile adoption rate in the region, with a strong acceptance of digital technologies. Fees without contact, especially by near-field Communication (NFC), widely adopted, with a rate of more than 94 percent.

Fintech companies in Saudi Arabia, such as Tamara,, Geidea,, Lean Technologiesand FoodicsIt is at the forefront of innovation, offer solutions from buying today, pay later (BNPL) services to Point-of-sale (POS) systems and open infrastructure in banking.

Primary Organizations

• Saudi Central Bank (Like) – The main central kingdom bank
• Authority in the Capital Market – Authority in country’s capital market
• Fintech Saudi – the main body that promotes the local fintech industry
• King Abdullah’s Financial District (KAFD) – an under-construction financial district in Riyadh
• Saudi Investment Promotion Authority (kick) – Built to attract national and foreign investment as part of the National Investment Strategy
• Financial Academy – Body responsible for developing professionals in the wider financial service sector
• Council of Cooperative Health Insurance – To be international leader in preventing and improving health care services for health insurance beneficiaries

Sector disruption

Timeline of the fintech highlights

2012

The law of control of financial companies passes – any business involving FS requires a license of the same

2018

Fintech Catalyst Fintech Saudi launches the same and the CMA

CMA issues financial technology with experimental permit instructions

The same launches the regulatory sandbox initiative

2020

The same launches the regulations of providing payment service

Primary Statistics

This is a quote from The Fintech Times: Middle East and Africa (MEA) 2024 Report: Read online