Saudi Arabia: Sama Grants Micro-Financing License to Zain Subsidiary

Saudi Arabia: Sama Grants Micro-Financing License to Zain Subsidiary

This makes Tamam the first entity in the Kingdom and the region to be licensed by a regulator to offer consumer micro-loans via a fully digital customer experience, through a mobile app.

The licensing follows the completion of an 18-month testing period within Sama's Regulatory Sandbox. The rigorous process saw the app and the service vetted for functionality, security, and compatibility with customer user profiles in Saudi Arabia, in line with the Sandbox's guidelines. The platform displayed high product viability and strong demand throughout testing and obtained PCI-DSS accreditation which protects the security of the digital infrastructure and data.

Established in 2019, Tamam aims to increase financial inclusion in the Kingdom in line with the Financial Sector Development Plan, which forms part of Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030. The platform provides individuals requiring financing the opportunity to immediately avail a Shari'a-compliant consumer micro-finance. The end to-end Shari'a approved process takes less than 5 minutes from downloading the app to receiving the financing amount based on the user credit profile.

Tamam, Bader Al-Kharafi, Zain Vice-Chairman and Group CEO, Zain KSA Vice-Chairman and Tamam Chairman said: "We are extremely proud of the teams at Zain Group, Zain KSA and Tamam in the successful delivery of this