STC Pay, a leading mobile wallet based in Saudi Arabia and a subsidiary Saudi Telecom Company (STC) and fintech company Geidea have become the first two companies to earn the non-bank financial institutions license from Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA), the authority announced.

Geidea was founded in 2008 and has been providing electronic payment solutions to customers in Saudi Arabia since 2008.

STC Pay was founded in 2018 and connects merchants with their customers through a secure digital wallet solution, to complete their transactions quickly, easily, and securely.

“The announcement comes as part of SAMA’s efforts to achieve the objectives of the financial sector development program, which is one of the pillars of the Kingdom’s 2030 vision, in enabling financial institutions to support private sector growth by opening financial services to non-banking actors (payment services providers and financial technologies), supporting development of the national economy,” SAMA said in a statement.

STC Pay has been licensed as an electronic wallet company and Geidea as a payment services company. Both have received the licenses after the success of the trial period in the experimental environment.

If you see something out of place or would like to contribute to this story, check out our Ethics and Policy section.