The inaugural Money20/20 Center East opened on September 15, 2025, on the Riyadh Exhibition and Conference Centre in Malham. The occasion drew over 45,000 attendees, greater than 450 exhibiting manufacturers, and upwards of 600 buyers to the Saudi capital, positioning it as a brand new fixture on the worldwide fintech calendar.

The occasion’s theme was “The place Cash Does Enterprise.” the gathering was about tangible outcomes, strategic deal-making, and the forging of coverage. Day one featured bulletins from a neighborhood fintech firm and international fee corporations, set towards the backdrop of Saudi Arabia’s Imaginative and prescient 2030 nationwide transformation plan.

The selection of Riyadh because the host metropolis is a part of an effort to draw international capital, expertise, and know-how to assist the Kingdom’s purpose of turning into a digital hub. the occasion is the place “coverage meets progress”.

The state of the dominion: a imaginative and prescient for a digitally-driven financial system

The convention started with addresses from the Kingdom’s monetary policymakers, who outlined Saudi Arabia’s current achievements and future ambitions.

H.E. Mohammed A. Aljadaan, the Kingdom’s Minister of Finance and chairman of the Monetary Sector Growth Programme Committee, delivered a gap keynote. He addressed the significance of integrating digital innovation to construct a resilient and sustainable financial system and famous that the Saudi monetary market has grown to surpass SR2.4 trillion.

Following him, H.E. Ayman M. Al-Sayari, governor of the Saudi Central Financial institution (SAMA), supplied metrics on the nation’s fintech sector. “The extraordinary development of this sector has been in line with our nationwide ambitions and dedication to international excellence,” Al-Sayari said, revealing that the variety of fintech firms working within the Kingdom expanded from 82 on the finish of 2022 to roughly 281 by August 2025.

The governor highlighted that the sector has attracted “market main cumulative investments of round SR9 billion ($2.39 billion), cementing its standing as probably the most enticing sectors for buyers”. Within the funds sector, Al-Sayari famous that Saudi Arabia has surpassed its Imaginative and prescient 2030 purpose for cashless transactions, with “digital funds, for instance, has accounted for 79 p.c of complete retail funds in 2024” —exceeding the 70% goal two years forward of schedule.

H.E. Dr. Khaled W. Al-Dhaher, SAMA’s vice governor for supervision and know-how, additionally delivered a keynote on “The Function of the Regulator in direction of a Fintech-Pushed Economic system,” which lined the central financial institution’s strategy to oversight.

Highlight on landmark offers

Day one included a big financing spherical for a neighborhood firm and the entry of two international fee platforms into the Saudi market.

Tamara’s financing facility

Tamara, a Saudi buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) platform, introduced a brand new asset-backed financing facility of as much as $2.4 billion. The Shariah-compliant facility is backed by a consortium together with Goldman Sachs, Citi, and funds managed by Apollo. It upsized a earlier $500 million association and is meant to fund the corporate’s subsequent part of development.

In a keynote deal with, co-founder and CEO Abdulmajeed Al-Sukhan said, “This landmark facility with our international financing companions accelerates our development trajectory, empowering us to take a position additional in constructing essentially the most customer-centric monetary super-app on earth.”

The financing is structured as an asset-backed facility, which makes use of the corporate’s current mortgage e book as collateral. This type of financing is usually utilized by firms with predictable income streams.

World fee platforms enter the market

SAMA made two bulletins relating to international fee platforms. The central financial institution confirmed the nationwide rollout of Google Pay, which can be built-in into the Kingdom’s nationwide fee system, mada.

In a parallel transfer, SAMA signed an settlement with Ant Worldwide to allow the acceptance of Alipay+ by 2026, additionally leveraging the mada community. This may permit worldwide guests utilizing digital wallets related to the Alipay+ ecosystem to make transactions throughout the Kingdom. The bulletins align with Imaginative and prescient 2030’s objectives of boosting the digital financial system and monetary inclusion.

The nice fintech reroute

A panel titled “The Nice Fintech Reroute” mentioned the concept monetary programs are being constructed otherwise exterior of Western markets. The session’s premise was that areas just like the Center East and Africa are constructing monetary programs from a “cleaner slate, digital-first, mobile-native, and more and more decentralised,” whereas the Western world contends with “outdated infrastructure, compliance-heavy legacy banks, and sluggish regulatory innovation”.

The dialogue, with audio system from Backbase, Paymentology, and Onafriq, explored how this “leapfrogging” of legacy programs is enabling the adoption of applied sciences like blockchain, APIs, and open finance. The position of sovereign funding from Gulf sovereign wealth funds was additionally mentioned as a consider scaling homegrown fintech firms.

The panel additionally touched on completely different innovation fashions. In lots of rising markets, identity- and mobile-first monetary programs are being constructed, the place the first monetary relationship is usually with a cellular pockets or a super-app. M-Pesa, whose CEO Sitoyo Lopokoiyit was current in a later roundtable, was talked about as a pioneer of this mannequin. Different classes mentioned innovation fashions centered on embedded finance and using various information for credit score scoring, as seen in a session with inDrive.

The position of synthetic intelligence

Synthetic Intelligence was a recurring subject on the day’s agenda, mentioned as each a defensive instrument and an engine for development.

The panel “Fraud Has Advanced. Can The AI Protection Line Maintain?” framed the present surroundings as one the place an clever AI protection is important to fight more and more refined fraudulent assaults.

The offensive capabilities of AI had been additionally a spotlight. Dr. Mohammed Rahim, group Chief Knowledge Officer at Commonplace Chartered Financial institution, delivered a keynote titled “Contained in the AI Supercycle,” which broke down the structure required to energy AI in buying and selling, compliance, and buyer expertise. Different classes explored how “Agentic AI” is getting used to drive enterprise outcomes and improve strategic decision-making.

Simon Taylor, founding father of Fintech Brainfood, gave a keynote on “The Age of Agentic Commerce”. He described a future the place AI brokers act as autonomous private buyers. “What was a search, plus purchasing cart plus checkout is now a single dialog,” Taylor defined. “This adjustments every part about how we safe funds on-line, who wins and who loses”. A separate panel titled “Sync or Spy” requested whether or not the mix of AI and open banking information is “empowering clients or hijacking consent”.

Tokenization and monetary infrastructure

Day one’s agenda additionally included discussions on the way forward for monetary market infrastructure, specializing in institutional-grade tokenization.

Audio system on this subject included senior leaders from BlackRock, JPMorgan, Syz Group, and SWIFT A hearth chat on “The Digital Infrastructure of Capital” introduced collectively institutional representatives to debate the practicalities of rebuilding treasury, FX, and portfolio methods for a tokenized financial system.

The discussions centered on effectivity, safety, and interoperability. Tom Zschach, Chief Innovation Officer of SWIFT, spoke on “Scaling Digital Property,” masking the necessity for trusted, international infrastructure to make sure regulatory alignment and settlement certainty. A panel on “Finance With out Border” explored how tokenization is reshaping cross-border worth switch, referencing international experiments just like the BIS’s mBridge mission.

Investing in monetary inclusion

Monetary inclusion was a constant theme all through the day’s discussions. Classes explored the deployment of enterprise capital on this space.

A panel titled “Monetary Inclusion: From Margins to Mainstream- Who’s Investing within the Unbanked?” hosted a “candid change” on whether or not inclusion stays a core funding thesis or has turn out to be “only a pitch”. The dialogue “From Open Finance to Honest Finance” confirmed how various information sources—such because the experience historical past and revenue patterns of gig staff on platforms like inDrive—can be utilized to create a “fairer credit score ecosystem” for populations exterior of conventional credit score bureaus.

The “From Oil to Possession” panel mentioned monetary literacy as a “cornerstone of Saudi Arabia’s Fintech Revolution”. With over 70% of the Saudi inhabitants underneath the age of 35, audio system argued that embedding monetary training into fintech merchandise is necessary for sustainable development. The ceos of firms like MNT-Halan and Flutterwave additionally participated in discussions on the subject.

Additionally on the agenda

Different classes passed off throughout the venue all through the day. The MoneySurge Pitch Competitors kicked off, the place 15 founders pitched their startups to a panel of enterprise capitalists from corporations like Antler and Rally Cap VC.

The agenda additionally included a fireplace chat on the creator financial system, exploring how fintech instruments are being utilized by impartial creators, freelancers, and influencers. The “Off The Report” stage hosted conversations equivalent to “When Unicorn Backers Discuss ‘OFF’ The Report, You Hear,” offering attendees with further business insights.