The Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA) monthly bulletin revealed the rise of assets 2.6 percent in March on a monthly basis, an increase of around SAR48.4 billion (USD12.9 billion), compared to February, totaling SAR1.893 trillion (USD504.8 billion).
SAMA assets relapsed 0.9 percent on an annual basis compared to March 2018 when it was SAR1.91 trillion (USD509 billion).
SAMA works on increasing the level of financial inclusion in the Kingdom. It is one of the strategic goals that it seeks to accomplish through enabling accessibility of individuals and establishments to the authorized financial services and products and to incorporate them in the official financial system, ensuring the protection of clients and overseeing fairness and transparency among clients.
The 27th of April coincides with the Arab Day of Financial Inclusion for the Arab countries under the theme 'Sustainable Development'. On the occasion, SAMA affirmed the importance of Financial Inclusion in the development of the financial sector and the necessity of exerting efforts to promote it in the Arab countries in order to contribute to achieving sustainable development plans.
In this context, SAMA, in cooperation with other concerned parties, is working to enhance the financial inclusion in the Kingdom, especially to enhance the access of individuals and SMEs to financial services and to facilitate access to them.
Among the prominent goals that SAMA wishes to obtain are: the increasing of SMEs contribution up to 35 percent of GDP, raising the percentage of funding to 20 percent as well as increasing the number of adults with a bank account to 90 percent.
One of the most notable efforts to this end is the issuance of bank tariff that specified the fees for banking services and the upper limit of charges and commissions that banks are entitled to apply when providing services and products.
In addition, it prevents requesting financial charges or depositing funds to open bank accounts to encourage individuals to open their accounts and benefit from it.
Moreover, SAMA issued the rules governing banking agency activities, which allows banks to use qualified agents to provide financial services on their behalf in areas where there is no bank cover or with limited availability of banking services, with the aim of diversifying channels of access to financial services by different sorts of society members.
SAMA has also launched recently the experimental regulatory to understand and assess the impact of new technologies in the Kingdoms' financial services market by allowing local and international companies wishing to test new digital solutions to enter into an actual environment in order to launch them in the Kingdom in the future.
This initiative contributes to the promotion of innovation in the delivery of financial and digital payment services and assists financial institutions and financial technology companies to experience their innovative products with reduced controls, which will have a positive impact on the financial sector to improve and facilitate the transaction procedures, reduce the cost and enhance financial inclusion.
One of the important outcomes of the initiative were allowing the bank account to be opened electronically without the need to visit bank branches and allowing the use of digital portfolios that enable customers to carry out financial operation via mobile phone.
In conclusion, on this occasion, SAMA stressed the importance of enhancing the level of financial inclusion in the Kingdom for its role in the promotion of financial stability and the diversifying of the financial system and its role in supporting opportunities for economic growth.
Finally, SAMA assured that it will continue its efforts to achieve these strategic goals in line with the Saudi Vision 2030 and contributes to the realization of its development programs and plans.
