The Saudi Arabia Monetary Agency (SAMA) announced the launch of licenses for non-bank financial institutions, a news release on its website said, issuing the first licenses for an electronic wallet company and the first license for a payment services company in the Kingdom.
“The announcement comes as part of SAMA’s efforts to achieve the objectives of the financial sector development program, which is one of the pillars of the Kingdom’s 2030 vision, in enabling financial institutions to support private sector growth by opening financial services to non-banking actors (payment services providers and financial technologies), supporting development of the national economy,” SAMA said.
SAMA has licensed the Saudi Digital Payments Company (STCPay) as an Electronic Wallet Company, and GEIDEA Technology Company as a payment services company. “This comes after the success of the trial period in the experimental environment.” SAMA said.
SAMA’s governor, Ahmed Alkholifey, recently sat down for an interview with CNBC as the Kingdom gears up to host the G20 in Saudi Arabia this year.
