The Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) held an Open Banking Forum on Wednesday, 16 September 2026, on the sidelines of Money20/20 Middle East. The forum brought together open-banking leaders from banks, and SAMA published its account on 17 September. The regulator said it reviewed progress in the Kingdom’s open-banking ecosystem and highlighted banks’ role in developing secure and innovative financial services for individuals and businesses. Priorities for the next stage included banks’ readiness for Payment Initiation Services and wider use of open-banking services by businesses. SAMA described a discussion about industry readiness; it did not announce a new licence, product launch or go-live date.

According to the central bank, participants also discussed improving service quality, strengthening coordination between banks and fintech companies, and delivering a more consistent customer experience. Open banking generally involves customer-authorised sharing of financial data and connected services, but this forum notice gives no technical details about a specific implementation, transaction count or commercial provider. Payment initiation is described as a next-stage priority. That wording does not establish that the service is entirely absent from Saudi Arabia; it shows that SAMA placed bank readiness for the area on the forum’s agenda. The announcement does not set out the service’s operating scope or customer access conditions.

For businesses, broader use of open banking can raise practical questions about consent-based access to financial data and the integration of bank-fintech connections into existing workflows. SAMA placed security, service reliability and customer protection alongside the regulatory framework. Those considerations matter when data access and payment functionality are combined. The notice, however, does not publish a new API standard, technical eligibility requirements, data scope, fees or a timetable applying to all banks. It should therefore not be read as a compliance change taking effect immediately for companies. Any such requirements would need to be confirmed in a separate regulatory or technical publication.

The forum reflects SAMA’s stated approach of coordinating with banks and fintech companies as the open-banking ecosystem develops. In the bank’s description, the next stage focuses on readiness for payment initiation and expanding use among businesses. The source does not say how many banks are ready, when a service will go live or whether existing usage has produced a measurable economic benefit. There is consequently no basis here for claims about macroeconomic impact or the launch of a particular banking product. The verified event is the 16 September consultation and the agenda SAMA reported. Further steps depend on future technical and regulatory notices from SAMA or participating banks.