SUSTG.com / Research

Discover stories, topics, and more about Saudi Arebia faster.

Recent stories from sustg

MUST-READS

  • What key trends are driving banking in the Middle East?

    “The Middle East region has advanced exponentially in the financial technological ecosystem mirrored with our focus on investing in strategic partnerships, emerging technologies and our people to help solve our client’s biggest problems,” said Ghazali. “We firmly believe that the future of the industry is heading towards a brighter path, one filled with innovation and inclusion.”

  • Gulf stocks rise as sentiment improves amid easing banking fears

    Most Gulf stock indexes rose in early trading on Tuesday, led by the gains in banking shares as worries of banking contagion eased and demand recovery in China improved investors' sentiment. Oil prices - a major driver for Gulf economies - retreated on Tuesday after rallying in the previous session, with Brent crude futures falling 19 cents to $77.93 a barrel by 0651 GMT. The prices are likely to draw support from indications of demand recovery as China's crude imports are expected to rise 6.2% to 540 million tonnes in 2023, according to an annual forecast by a research unit of China National Petroleum Corp on Monday.

  • Oil tumbles to lowest level since December 2021 as banking crisis routs markets

    Oil prices fell sharply Wednesday, as traders feared a brewing banking crisis could dent global economic growth. West Texas Intermediate futures fell more than 5% to settle at $67.61 per barrel, reaching its lowest level since December 2021. Brent crude , the international benchmark, slid 4% to $74.36 per barrel.

  • Lab Paves Way for Saudi Arabia Open Banking Launch

    The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has launched an Open Banking Lab for banks and FinTechs. The new lab, announced by the Central Bank of Saudi Arabia (SAMA) earlier this month, will create a technical testing environment for the development of new open banking services ahead of the launch of open banking services in the first quarter of 2023. This move follows the launch of an open banking framework by SAMA in November, proposing a set of regulatory guidelines and technical standards aimed at supporting banks and FinTechs’ ability to provide open banking services in the country.

  • Saudi Central Bank Establishes Open Banking Lab

    SAMA’s open banking lab aims to foster innovation and accelerate the development of open banking services across Saudi Arabia. The lab is to provide a “technical testing environment” to enable the development and testing of open banking services. The tests will also look to ensure compatibility with SAMA‘s open banking framework.

  • SAMA launches Open Banking Lab to facilitate financial innovation 

    Launched in November, the Open Banking Framework includes a comprehensive set of legislation, regulatory guidelines and technical standards based on international best practices to support banks and fintechs in the Kingdom. The first version focused on account information services, and the second will concentrate on the payment initiation service. The implementation of open banking services is one of the initiatives of the Fintech Strategy, one of the pillars of the Financial Sector Development Program under Saudi Vision 2030.

  • PwC Middle East identifies top trends driving the region’s banking ecosystem

    The one area that is likely to continue to be a growth constraint for financial services in the region is the regulatory structure around cloud services. Current regulations require cloud service providers to be based in the country where it plans to offer its services. Authorities in the region are aware of this issue and are moving ahead on this front. Once this constraint on cloud services is resolved,it has the potential to tremendously expand the scope of financial services in the region.

  • Saudi Arabia unveils open banking framework

    Saudi Arabia's central bank has published an open banking framework, setting out legislation, regulatory guidelines and technical standards. The framework is part of the Kingdom's open banking programme which the central bank says is designed to not only let customers share their data with third parties but also strengthen partnerships between banks and fintechs, and improve financial infrastructure.

  • SAMA issues open banking framework

    The Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) announced the issuance of the open banking framework as one of the key outputs of the Open Banking Program, which includes a comprehensive set of legislation, regulatory guidelines and technical standards based on international best practices to enable banks and Fintechs to provide open banking services in the Kingdom. The first version of the open banking services focused on the Account Information Service (AIS), and the second version will focus on the Payment Initiation Service (PIS). SAMA is also tracking the development of banks and Fintechs to ensure their readiness to launch open banking services within the first quarter of next year 2023.

  • Saudi, UAE Banking Sectors Face Contrasting Liquidity Dynamics

    We expect higher oil prices and rising interest rates to lead to strengthening profitability for Saudi and UAE banks in 2022–2023. We calculate that a 200bp increase in interest rates would boost Fitch-rated Saudi banks’ operating profit by 14%, and their operating profit/risk-weighted assets ratio (our core profitability metric) by 50bp, on average, based on the banks’ 2021 interest-rate sensitivities. For Fitch-rated UAE banks, the respective figures are 11% and 40bp.