March 28, 2024

Central Bank of Saudi Arabia provides banks with liquidity using blockchain

06/08/2020

Alex Kondratyuk

Central Bank of Saudi Arabia provides banks with liquidity using blockchain

Central Bank of Saudi Arabia provides banks with liquidity using blockchain

Cash agencySaudi Arabia Circulation (SAMA) has applied blockchain to boost local banks' liquidity. Reported by The Block.

The funds allocated will support lendingthe real sector in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The amount was not disclosed, but it is known that in the previous week the volume of such transactions amounted to 50 billion riyals (~ $ 13.35 billion).

The ministry stressed that the use of blockchain is part of its ongoing efforts to study and experiment with new technologies.

In 2019 SAMA announced the launch from the Central BankUnited Arab Emirates project Aber - a mutual digital currency that will be "used in financial settlements between Saudi Arabia and the UAE through blockchain and distributed ledger technology (DLT)." It was assumed that in the absence of any technical obstacles, the economic and legal requirements for future use cases will be considered.

SAMA signed a partnership agreement in 2018with Ripple. The terms of the agreement assumed that the country's banks would use the xCurrent solution to improve the efficiency of domestic and cross-border payments.

As a reminder, a regulated cryptocurrency exchangeDeCurret, the three leading banks UFG Bank, Mizuho Bank and SMBC, and several other organizations have joined forces to develop a digital clearing and settlement infrastructure in Japan.