SAMA launches instant payment system “sarie”

Logo of Saudi Central Bank

The Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) launched, on Feb. 20, the instant payment system “sarie”, under the patronage of its governor, Fahad bin Abdullah Al-Mubarak, through a virtual event organized by Saudi Payments, and attended by a number of financial and banking sectors experts.

According to a statement by SAMA, Al-Mubarak highlighted the utility of the new instant payment system in empowering the national infrastructure for digital payments, tracking the growth the Kingdom's payment sector has been undergoing for over 30 years.

"The launch of sarie comes as part of a series of SAMA-led initiatives to promote the national payments' ecosystem and to enhance its infrastructure, aiming to achieve financial inclusion,” the governor said.

National payment systems are fundamental in strengthening the Kingdom's pioneering position in the financial sector. They offer secure and innovative payment solutions, meet the needs of various segments of the economy, and increase the effectiveness of the liquidity circulation in the financial system, through reducing the operational costs of cash handling, facilitating sending and receiving payments, and driving the digital transformation in the Kingdom by increasing the volume of digital financial transactions.

"The launch of sarie is the result of several months of meticulous efforts with all the partners. Despite the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the speed of the instant payment system's deployment across all the local banks is the fastest of its kind worldwide," Saudi Payments' managing director, Fahd Al-Akeel, commented.

The services by sarie will allow the banking clients to send and receive low-value local transactions around the clock for a low fee, not exceeding SAR 1. Additionally, the system will provide beneficiaries with other services and transfer options, including using the mobile number as an identifier instead of the IBAN for transactions between banks, and the ability to verify the validity of the recipient's bank account before completing the transaction.

Further, any financial transaction of less than SAR 20,000 will be instantly credited to the recipient account by the system.

The system will also offer the quick transfer service, which, upon activation by the account holder, will allow the banking clients to send payments of amounts less than SAR 2,500 without adding and activating the beneficiary.

“The system serves as an essential milestone in the process of developing payment systems in the Kingdom, and as one of the most significant indicators of advanced digital infrastructure, and reveals its outstanding operational capacity, especially with respect to digital payment systems,” Al-Akeel said.

Likewise, the system will enable banks and Fintech companies, in particular, to develop innovative financial services that align with the requirements of the digital economy goal adopted by the Kingdom as part of its nationwide digital transformation strategy, he added.