Dr. Ahmad bin Abdulkareem Al-Kholifey, governor of the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA) and Mohammad bin Abdullah Al-Quaez, Chairman of the Capital Market Authority signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to establish the Fintech Saudi center in partnership with King Abdullah Financial Center during the Financial Sector conference 2019.

Under the MoU, The Saudi Fintech center will embrace those of interest and passion in financial technologies industry by providing spaces for the joint work and design of innovative models for innovative solutions, an equipped technical laboratory in partnership with largest active companies in the sector and a business accelerator program. The center aims to support entrepreneurs, small and medium enterprises. The center will embrace events and lectures related to this promising field. Noting that the Saudi Fintech is an initiative by the financial sector development program which is led and supported by SAMA and CMA to open the window for introducing innovative financial services. Fintech initiative aims to make three major goals; facilitating development of financial technology by making the Kingdom mecca of innovation, establish a comprehensive understanding of the financial technology at the local level, support development of SMEs specialized in financial technology, creating products and services to support business around the world, apart from contributing in the entry of 30 specialized companies in the field of financial technology within the first three years.

It is worth mentioning that the term Fintech means the utilization of technology to improve efficiency of financial services and its various uses. The massive development in the telecommunication and data transfer, use of smart devices had led to the development of banking and financial services. Although ATMs, Bank cards and online banking use financial technology, yet the world has witnessed an evident advancement in the field of Fintech due to the increase in demand, data use, smart-phones and clients desire to enjoy convenient financial services. Moreover, trends like artificial intelligence, the Blockhains have all pushed the wheel to new changes in financial services provision. The world witnessed recently rapid development in investments directed to the financial technology development in order to create more efficient varied means in financial services, in addition to maintain the advanced level of the financial sector in the kingdom.