Digital Payments & Fintech - Saudi Arabia

The Law of Payments and Payment Services was issued by Royal Decree No. M/26 (dated 22/03/1443H), and its Implementing Regulations came into force on 13 June 2023. SAMA is the exclusive authority: no entity may operate a payment system or provide payment services without its licence.

SAMA offers four licence types: Micro and Major Electronic Money Institution (e-Wallet) licences and Micro and Major Payment Institution licences, covering payment initiation, account information, e-money issuance and payment processing. Minimum capital is generally SAR 5 million, adjustable by SAMA.

On 26 March 2026 SAMA moved open banking from its sandbox into a formal licensing regime and licensed its first two account-information service providers, requiring TPPs to meet API performance, data security, consent-management and governance standards under the Open Banking Framework.

SAMA owns and launched the sarie instant payment system (2021) for real-time retail transfers up to SAR 20,000, available 24/7, supporting alternative identifiers (mobile number, national ID, email, IBAN). It settles through the SARIE RTGS system.

SAMA issued dedicated Rules for Regulating Buy-Now-Pay-Later (BNPL) Companies (December 2023). Providers must be joint-stock companies with minimum capital of SAR 5 million, are licensed and supervised by SAMA, and face a per-consumer outstanding financing cap of SAR 10,000.

Saudi Arabia's payment stack is operated/overseen by SAMA and Saudi Payments: the mada national debit-card scheme, SADAD bill-payment system, and SARIE RTGS for interbank settlement. SAMA issued an updated Oversight Framework for payment systems and their operators in March 2026.