‎SAMA continues Central Bank Digital Currency experimentations

‎SAMA continues Central Bank Digital Currency experimentations

The Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) continues to experiment the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) as it is currently working on a phase of a project that focuses on domestic wholesale CBDC use cases in collaboration with local banks and fintechs.

This project is in line with several central banks’ CBDC initiatives across the globe and comes as part of SAMA's ongoing research and experimentation on CBDC. During this phase, SAMA seeks to explore CBDC economic impact, market readiness, and potential robust and fast applications of a CBDC-based payment solution. In addition, SAMA seeks to review policy, legal and regulatory considerations before moving to the next phases of the CBDC journey to contribute to achieving the objectives of Saudi Vision 2030.

SAMA stressed that although no decision has been made regarding the introduction of CBDC in the Kingdom, it continues to focus on exploring the benefits and potential risks of implementing CBDC. This will contribute to informed decision-making within SAMA and to CBDC explorations within the central banking community.

SAMA Governor, Fahad Almubarak, stated that local banks and payment companies will always be a cornerstone of this project and its implementation, SAMA stated that it has engaged both local banks and fintechs, as well