SAMA: Saudi Central Bank

SAMA - the Saudi Central Bank - holds the licensing and supervisory mandate over the full spectrum of Saudi financial services. That includes retail and wholesale banks, money exchange houses, payment companies, insurance firms, and fintech operators. Any business that adds payments, wallet functionality, merchant settlement, customer credit, instalment arrangements, or data-driven scoring to a Saudi-facing product may fall inside SAMA's regulatory perimeter, even if the company did not start as a financial services firm.\n\nSAMA also maintains a cybersecurity framework that applies to every entity it licenses. The framework uses six maturity levels to measure compliance, and banks, insurance companies, and fintechs are expected to demonstrate progress against those levels through gap assessments and compliance roadmaps. Reaching Level 3 is a practical benchmark for licensed institutions operating at scale in the Kingdom.\n\nSAMA's regulatory perimeter sits alongside that of the Capital Market Authority (CMA), which covers securities, asset management, and investment products. The two regulators divide the Saudi financial sector between them: broadly, banking and payments fall to SAMA, while capital markets activity falls to the CMA. A business embedding both payments and investment products into the same platform may need authorisation from both bodies.

For English-speaking expats living and working in Saudi Arabia, SAMA licensing is the first thing to check before opening a bank account, sending money home, or using a payment app. A provider licensed by SAMA is subject to conduct rules, capital requirements, and consumer-protection obligations set by the central bank. If a remittance company or neobank is not listed on SAMA's public register, it is not authorised to take your money in the Kingdom.\n\nExpats who transfer salaries abroad should also note that SAMA supervises the foreign exchange and remittance corridor from the Saudi side. The implied FX margin on any transfer - not just the headline fee - determines what your recipient actually receives. SAMA-licensed exchange houses and banks must operate within the regulatory framework, but the FX rate offered is still commercial and will vary between providers. Always compute the recipient amount at the same quoted rate before committing to a transfer.