Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) plans to launch open banking services in the first quarter of 2023, state-owned SPA news agency reported.

As part of the open banking framework issued in November 2022, the central bank launched the open banking lab to enable innovation and accelerate the development of open banking services in the Kingdom.

The lab will provide banks and fintechs with a technical testing environment to enable them to develop, test, and certify their open banking services to ensure compatibility with the open banking framework.

Open banking services is a new concept in the financial industry and aims to enable the consumers of financial institutions to securely share their financial data with a third-party provider. This will help to provide new and innovative financial services and products for consumers.

The implementation of open banking services is one of the initiatives of the fintech strategy, one of the pillars of the financial sector development program under Saudi Vision 2030.

The council of ministers approved the fintech strategy of ministers in May 2022.

The report said that the first phase of the open banking services focused on the account information service, while the second version will highlight the payment initiation service.

(Editing by Seban Scaria seban.scaria@lseg.com)