Saudi Central Bank updates its Regulatory Sandbox Framework

The Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) announced on Wednesday that it has updated the Framework of its Regulatory Sandbox.

The bank  took this step to promote the Regulatory Sandbox’s involvement in the Financial Sector Development Program (FSDP), one of the key objectives of the Saudi Vision 2030.

SAMA launched the Regulatory Sandbox initiative in 2018 to garner the participation of local, regional and international FinTech institutions and companies seeking to take advantage of current and new technologies to provide innovative financial products and services to Saudi markets. 

The initiative proved to be very successful as it enables SAMA to adopt many services and products by issuing instructions and regulations, as well as launching many of those products and services to the clients within the financial sector by capitalizing on the experiences of Regulatory Sandbox certified companies, the number of which reached 38.

The Central Bank pointed out that the updated framework of the Regulatory Sandbox is open for both local and international applicants, be they entrepreneurs, non-regulated companies or existing regulated entities. 

The key differentiator of the updated framework is to move from a cohort based approach to an Always Open approach which will give greater flexibility to those applying. 

The Central Bank in cooperation with Saudi Fintech, will hold in the coming days, an introductory workshop on the updated regulatory framework for the legislative experimental environment.