Saudi Central Bank launches government banking services digital platform ‘NQD’

Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) has announced the launch of a government banking services digital platform named ‘NQD’.

The platform provides ‘easy access’ for government entities to their accounts at SAMA to conduct financial transactions through a ‘secure and unified’ digital platform,’ according to the announcement.

The central bank describes NQD as part of its strategy to ‘deliver banking services to government entities, as well as supporting digital development’.

The platform is designed to ‘facilitate access to their [government entities] account information at all times’, as well as enabling efficient management of accounts and providing ‘instant monitoring of transactions to and from government entities.’

​NQD offers electronic banking services that support government financial transactions, improves user experience, enhances efficiency and productivity in financial transactions ‘using the latest technologies’ and reduces the time required to complete government-banking procedures, the relatively brief announcement (14 July) continues.

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Saudi’s fintech push

The launch of NQD is the latest development by an authority on a drive to embrace the possibilities of digital finance – both in respect of its own operations but also in encouraging the private sector.

For example, in January last year it introduced an ‘Open Banking Lab’ as part of a strategy to speed up open banking’s development.

Open banking refers to the use of open application programming interfaces (APIs) to enable developers to build new services and enable customers to put their banking data to use by making it easily and securely electronically accessible to alternative providers. SAMA issued a roadmap for open banking’s rollout at the start of 2021 and published an open banking framework in November 2022. SAMA’s ‘Lab’ constitutes a ‘technical testing environment’ to enable established banks and fintech companies the opportunity to ‘develop, test and certify’ open banking services to ensure compatibility with the framework.

Authorities’ open banking plans are ultimately part of ‘Saudi Vision 2030’, a strategy to diversify the oil-rich economy, and Saudi’s Financial Sector Development Programme (FSDP). The FSDP has spawned a ‘FinTech Strategy Implementation Plan’, which aims to elevate Saudi Arabia to a position ‘among the leading countries’ in fintech and make capital city Riyadh – where SAMA is located – a ‘global fintech hub’.

SAMA was known as the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (hence the acronym SAMA) until a name-change in 2020.