CAIRO: Dubai-based fintech company Tarabut Gateway is strengthening its presence in Saudi Arabia with partnerships and operations to support open banking.
The Kingdom’s fintech sector is set to see a huge opportunity with open banking launching in the first quarter of 2023.
Open banking enables third-party developers to connect applications and services to financial institutions by creating data transparency.
The company has been a leading business-to-business regional infrastructure provider for open banking with operations in the UAE, Bahrain and the Kingdom.
In an exclusive interview with Arab News, Abdullah Al-Moyeed, CEO and founder of Tarabut Gateway, said the company has forged several partnerships with fintech companies and banks in the Kingdom, with plans to set up its local headquarters by March 2023.
“We will be building an entire country-specific operation in Saudi Arabia for that specific market. We are absolutely excited about the size of the market and the opportunity it presents, for which we will set up operations to be able to entertain that market.”
From Al-Moyeed’s point of view, open banking is about the customer, as it allows individuals to have complete control over their financial data by granting or revoking access to that data.
“In the case of Saudi Arabia, we range from supporting banks to prepare themselves for this new phenomenon of open banking, to providing the necessary infrastructure to be able to entertain and interact with these newly licensed third parties. help build,” he said.
Al-Moyeed further explained that the Saudi Central Bank, also known as SAMA, has granted licenses to more than a dozen fintech companies, and more than 80 companies are registered in SAMA’s regulatory sandbox.
In line with Vision 2030, SAMA aspires to strengthen the financial technology sector by increasing the number of fintech companies in the Kingdom and providing proper infrastructure for open banking.
SAMA enrolled Tarabut Gateway in a sandbox at the beginning of the year, where it began testing its open banking platform with banks and fintechs.
“Our focus is to support and ensure that open banking is successful nationally. More importantly, we are committed to supporting Saudi Arabia to succeed in open banking. And that is why we are working on the entire ecosystem. are doing, whether it is fintech, banks or regulators,” explained Al-Moyad.
The company is already partnering with several major banks in the Kingdom, including Riyadh Bank, Saudi British Bank, Banque Saudi Français and Alinma Bank.
Al-Moyed announced that the company is working with several licensed fintech companies in the Kingdom, such as Mala, Drahim and Tamam.
He also pointed out that the Kingdom will become an open banking blueprint for other countries thanks to its well-organized operations to support fintech companies and banks.
The founder said the Kingdom’s central bank has created suitable supervision and environment for startups to mature and go into production.
Tarabut Gateway has raised $25 million in investment and has begun hiring a team for its local headquarters in the Kingdom.