H.E. Fahad Abdullah Almubarak , governor of Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) praised the efforts made by the Media and Banking Awareness Committee for Saudi Banks, aiming to spread and promote financial literacy and achieve a state of financial awareness among all members of the society, through a better understanding of banking services and products, in addition to raising awareness of the proper and safe use of banking transactions, as well as emerging issues and developments within the banking sector, at local and international levels.

Almubarak stressed that the Saudi Central Bank, in cooperation with the financial sectors, strives to raise the level of awareness and knowledge among the consumers of the local financial and banking sectors through available communication channels, with the sole purpose of serving and protecting the interests of consumers. This is a strategic objective that SAMA aims to accomplish by actively encouraging these sectors to adopt a more advanced level of fair and safe treatment of users, and ensuring access to financial services at all levels of society. The "SAMACares" initiative, launched by the Saudi Central Bank, and the accompanying awareness campaigns, has indeed contributed in promoting and raising public awareness on financial literacy.   In this context, the governor urged all financial institutions to continue to do more to develop awareness and education programs to ensure that consumers are aware of the risks associated with fraudulent activities, especially emerging fraud trends, and to continuously measure the effectiveness and efficiency of awareness methods, as well as to enhance consumers' awareness of the need to ensure that the sources of their funds are legitimate. Furthermore, it is essential to consistently remind consumers that they are subject to investigation by the competent authorities for suspected sources of funds, as well as to develop appropriate awareness practices for each categories, based on databases including all the details of financial fraud cases. It is worth mentioning that the Media and Banking Awareness Committee for Saudi Banks has been recently restructured with the appointment of Mr. Tariq bin Abdulrahman Al-Sadhan, CEO of Riyad Bank (host bank), as the Chairman of the Committee. He oversees the implementation of the Committee's new strategic trends, in line with the objectives of Kingdom's Vision 2030 and the Financial Sector Development Program. The new strategy is based on a number of key axes, including: Banking awareness, financial inclusion, social responsibility, FinTech and Islamic banking, built upon a clear vision and mission, advocating a "Conscious Society for a Responsible Generation". Since its restructuring, the Committee has organized several banking awareness lectures on various topics presented and discussed by the heads of banking product departments from various Saudi banks, as well as bringing to action several strategic initiatives and awareness campaigns, with a view to promoting financial awareness.