Lean Technologies Makes History as First to Get Open Banking License in Saudi Arabia

Lean Technologies, a leader in financial infrastructure across the Middle East, has just received a payment services provider license from the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) to offer Open Banking services. This makes them the very first company to get this kind of license in Saudi Arabia! This license is a huge milestone for the Kingdom's financial sector. It officially moves Open Banking services from a trial phase within the regulatory sandbox to a fully licensed activity, really boosting the maturity of Saudi Arabia's FinTech ecosystem. Lean Technologies started its journey by joining SAMA's regulatory sandbox. During that time, while sticking to the highest standards of governance and oversight, the company successfully connected over one million bank accounts and analyzed more than one billion financial transactions. This truly cemented its role as a key player in the Kingdom's Open Banking system. Hisham Al-Faleh, the company's CEO and co-founder, shared that getting this license is the result of years of hard work developing solutions that securely and systematically make financial data available. He emphasized that this step will allow the company to expand its services to meet the needs of thousands of merchants, tens of thousands of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and millions of individuals across the Kingdom. He added that since its beginning, the company's vision has been to build a financial infrastructure that supports the next generation of financial services. He pointed out that moving from the experimental environment to a full regulatory framework shows just how successful this approach has been. When it comes to partnerships, Lean Technologies has expanded its collaborations to include several major institutions in the Kingdom, such as Tabby, Tamara, Abdul Latif Jameel, Sukuk, and Tas'heel. This really highlights how diverse the uses of Open Banking are across various sectors, including consumer finance, real estate, investment, and government services. Abdulmajeed Al-Sikhan, CEO and co-founder of Tamara, confirmed that their partnership with Lean has improved how they assess customers by using accurate financial data. This has helped them grow their customer base and increase approval rates for financing requests, especially for groups that used to struggle with credit assessment, like freelancers and those with irregular incomes. These exciting developments show the growing importance of digital infrastructure in reshaping the financial services sector. Open Banking solutions are helping to make things more transparent, improve risk management, and enable institutions to offer more efficient and flexible services, all of which supports Saudi Arabia's move towards a fully integrated digital economy.