Riyadh, Saudi Arabia—The Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) has licensed Manafa, a finance company specialized in debt-based crowdfunding in the kingdom.
Manafa is a closed joint-stock company with a capital of SAR 40 million. The license was granted to the company after a successful trial run in SAMA’s Regulatory Sandbox, an experimental environment dedicated to innovative financial products and services in Saudi Arabia.
The central bank reiterated its commitment to support the finance sector, increasing the efficacy and flexibility of financial transactions, enabling and encouraging innovations in financial services, promoting financial inclusion in the kingdom and enabling easy and secure access to financial services to all segments of the Saudi society. Such a step will contribute towards achieving Fintech Strategy for the Kingdom to be among the leading countries in fintech, the bank said in a statement.
The Saudi Central Bank stressed the importance of exclusively dealing with licensed and authorized financial institutions, which can be verified by visiting SAMA’s website.