Open banking, APIs, and financial data sharing
Money20/20 Middle East, a run of large funding rounds, Salla's acquisition of Paylink and new payment-acceptance announcements from Alipay+ and Apple all came in the same month. Here is everything that changed in Saudi fintech in September 2026.
Mal is hiring UAE nationals from Abu Dhabi and will hold an open house on 19 October 2026 at Sky Tower, Al Reem Island. The firm has CBUAE in-principle approval and a $230 million seed. IPA is not a full banking licence.
From mada and Apple Pay to newly arriving Alipay+ acceptance and Tarabut's open banking rails, Saudi Arabia's payment infrastructure is becoming steadily more interoperable through a series of incremental additions.
Between Abwab.ai's lending infrastructure, Mozn's financial-crime AI and Tarabut's open banking rails, Saudi fintech is already putting AI into working infrastructure.
Beneath the week's headline funding rounds, Money20/20 Middle East 2026 points to a Saudi fintech market shifting from consumer apps toward lending infrastructure, open banking and interoperable payment rails.
Tarabut's $50 million strategic financing, backed by Riyad Bank, X-Tech Fund, GIB Saudi and the Zamil and Kanoo groups, will fund deeper embedded finance expansion on top of a platform that has processed more than 5 billion API calls.
HSBC Kuwait and Tap Payments have launched a merchant acquiring proposition letting corporate clients accept card payments on Tap rails, with consolidated reporting, better receivables visibility and simpler settlement.
Five things about Saudi payments are agreed but not yet demonstrated, from Alipay+ acceptance through mada to open banking usage. None of them requires a new announcement to resolve. They require a number.
SAMA moved open banking from sandbox to licensed activity in March 2026, and licences have followed. What has not followed is a single published figure on how many consumers or businesses have actually connected an account.
SAMA has licensed Mala'a Information Technology for payment account information services, taking Saudi Arabia's licensed payment providers to 33. On its own it is routine, but as part of a steady sequence it shows a financial system being deliberately rewired around open banking.