Lean Technologies onboards Wally as its first client

Lean Technologies and Wally have both launched in Saudi Arabia after receiving their Letters of Approval (LoA) from the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) to carry out their services within the Central Bank’s regulatory sandbox. After Lean became one of the first Technical Service Providers to receive a LoA from SAMA, its UAE client, Wally, tested with Lean to receive regulatory approval to officially launch in the Kingdom.

Wally, a personal finance management app with 700,000 users on iPhone in 70 countries, integrated with Lean to provide its Saudi users with accurate transaction categorisation features for tailored financial insights. Lean enables companies building financial products to deliver more innovative and personalised customer experiences utilising Open Banking application programming interface (APIs).

With a population of over 35 million with 50% between 25-50 years old, both the companies see the Saudi market as an opportunity to strengthen their footing in the Middle East. Furthermore, the Saudi Vision 2030 goal is to increase the savings of Saudis from 1.8% to 10%, which means there will be opportunities for the government, banks, businesses, schools, and universities to work together to reach that goal.

Saudi Central Bank’s regulatory sandbox

Lean Technologies is one of the 38 permitted fintech companies operating under the central bank’s regulatory sandbox.

This step completes a series of actions to conquer a stack of strategic objectives, including activating SAMA's sandbox environment role to realise the Kingdom's Vision 2030 goals through the Financial Sector Development Programme (FSDP). The prominent FSDP is a reportedly ambitious programme that aims at promoting economic growth, savings and investment activities, and financial inclusion.

It is worth noting that SAMA is currently working – alongside other participants in the financial sector including banks and fintech companies – on developing and implementing an integrated high standard network to carry on Open Banking Solutions in the Kingdom with innovative and best practices within a predefined timetable. This phase should contribute to inspiring other participants within the sector to start planning and developing new financial products and services based on Open Banking practices.

Open Banking regulation in Saudi Arabia

In 2021, SAMA launched a framework for Open Banking that sets out the regulator’s ambitions and a timeline for development, implementation, and go-live of Open Banking in the country.

Open Banking regulations require banks to open up their customers’ data to regulated third parties when consent is granted. By using open APIs, these third parties can provide more tailored services, and financial processes can be improved. Open Banking also lowers the barriers to entry for startups, thus resulting in increased competition and innovation.

Open Banking in Saudi Arabia has been characterised by incredible speed when it comes to ecosystem and regulatory innovation in 2022. Observing and learning from the UK’s regime on Open Banking, SAMA has moved boldly in recent months, drawing up comprehensive fintech regulations and gearing its financial services towards innovation. An AIS and PIS licensing regime is expected very shortly.

The kingdom has already become a viable centre of peer-to-peer (P2P) lending ventures, with P2P players benefitting from novel digital banking infrastructure, e-KYC standards, and a Credit Bureau.