Lean Technologies onboards the personal finance management platform Wally as its first live client in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA).
The open banking platform welcomed its first KSA client after both received permits from Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) to carry out their services.
Lean became the first Saudi technical service provider to receive a letter of approval to operate open banking-related services within the Central Bank’s regulatory sandbox in August of this year.
Following this, its UAE client Wally tested with the company to then also receive SAMA’s regulatory approval to officially launch in the Kingdom a month later.
“As we lay down the infrastructure to enable financial innovation in the Kingdom with support from SAMA, we are thrilled to have Wally as one of our first key clients,” said Lean’s CEO and co-founder, Hisham Al-Falih.
“After Lean’s success in the UAE, we will be working with numerous innovative businesses, like Wally, that share our commitment to deliver financial freedom in Saudi Arabia and the broader MENAP region.”
The integration between the two companies will see Wally enabling its Saudi users with accurate transaction categorisation features for tailored financial insights.
Lean hopes that its application of open banking APIs will make this task of delivering innovation and personalised customer experiences all the more efficient.
With a population of over 35 million people with half between the ages of 25 and 50, the Saudi market presents, on paper, a key opportunity for the two companies to strengthen their footing in the Middle East.
Furthermore, the Saudi Vision 2030 goal is to increase the savings of Saudis from 1.8 per cent to 10 per cent, which means there will be opportunities for the government, banks, businesses, schools and universities to work together to reach that goal.
“Wally has been excited to expand into Saudi to be part of Vision 2030 since early 2021,” said Wally’s founder and CEO, Saeid Hejazi.
“Having launched in the UAE with Lean in the summer of 2021, we knew first-hand the quality of their bank connections and transaction categorisation.
“This partnership allows Wally to focus on its…user experiences while leaving the heavy lifting of managing bank connections and transaction categorisation to Lean.”
