The Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA) has recently launched the operational model of the Unified Monetary Centers in Taif, which comes in line with the kingdom's 2030 vision to support the development of the national economy and the financial sector development program, in addition to enable private sector to play a larger role in the Saudi economy. The Governor of the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA), Dr. Ahmad Al-kholifey patronized the inauguration ceremony in the presence of banks' representatives and the operator of the center. This initiative is one of the strategic objectives of SAMA to improve the monetary cycle in the kingdom and mitigate possible operational risks to improve weakness spots of the current operational model.

SAMA said that the Unified Monetary Centre 'Multi-Bank Cash Center-MBCC program aims at merging the institution's cash center and local banks into unified centers that can provide service to all local banks and retail sectors, with high quality standards and advanced technical technology that keep abreast of recent developments in this field. This includes transfer of funds and feeding ATMs according to the latest technologies, and the use of operating companies with international and local expertise. The unified monetary centers to be distributed into 34 centers according to geographical and demographic analysis of different sizes to achieve the best coverage with high efficiency to be replacements of the current centers affiliated to the institution and banks, which exceed 135 centers.   

SAMA considers this program one of the most important objectives to boost the level of service offered to cash traders, provide all categories of papers and coins with the necessary quality and at the right time and place. In addition, SAMA seeks to ensure smooth transition of cash within its session and removes all obstacles that may face cash traders and decreases cash processing cost during this constant increase in the cash demand from 45 billion in 1996 to 208 billion by the end of the third quarter of the current year. It is worth mentioning that local banks serve more than 18,500 ATMs and 2800 branches and money transfer centers.  Moreover, indicators point out that the increase in monetary harmonies with international movement. Cash trading is expected to increase in the future in light of the constant economic development to reach 240 Billion riyal by 2020 and this requires the adoption of new operational model to keep up with the anticipated increase  according to the international best practices efficiently.