Saudi Central Bank Publishes Open Banking Framework

Saudi Central Bank has published an open banking framework, setting out legislation, regulatory guidelines and technical standards to enable banks and FinTechs to provide open banking services in the country.

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The framework is part of the Kingdom's open banking programme which the central bank says is designed to not only let customers share their data with third parties but also strengthen partnerships between banks and fintechs, and improve financial infrastructure.

Last week, the bank outlined a phased rollout of the scheme, with account information services introduced first, followed by payment initiation services.

The Saudi Central Bank said it is tracking banks and fintechs to ensure they are ready to launch services in the first quarter of next year.

Nino Ocampo, chief product officer at Tarabut Gateway, the MENA region's first and largest regulated Open Banking platform, said that Saudi Arabia's open banking regulation has laid out a framework for banks to create premium open banking APIs that they can charge third parties for access to. This way, instead of banks doing the bare minimum to enable authorized entities to access account data, they are encouraged to share richer data in a more accessible manner as a way of generating revenue.

The open banking programme is part of a wider fintech strategy - part of Saudi Vison 2030 - that is seeing the Kingdom push to become a global financial technology hub.