The Bank of Saudi Arabia and Awal Bank of Saudi Arabia (SAB), a Riyadh-based Saudi co-solid corporation, owns minority stakes by the global banking group HSBC, has announced the world’s first Islamic repository in partnership with OUMLA.
Blockchain-enabled Islamic Repos allowed SAB to use blockchain to lend to other banks in compliance with Islamic finance principles, making the process faster, safer and more transparent. This implementation comes months after SAB’s virtual asset summit.
We are proud to provide KSA’s first Islamic repository with Oumla and our major partners on blockchain. Test instant payments, liquidity boost, real-time reporting.
This milestone, born from the Virtual Assets Summit on November 24th, promotes our mission to accelerate financial innovation. And we’re…pic.twitter.com/o6ylpogmavsab | First (@Alawwalsab) August 19, 2025
SAB taps KSA blockchain growth
According to Oumla’s website, “It replaces paperwork and manual procedures with smart digital contracts, ensuring that all transactions are safe and immutable records, helping banks to make assets and liquidity easier, less risky and manage risk.”
“Oumla definitely understands blockchain technology. Their team has supported us with guidance,” said Victor L. Phillipe, SAB’s virtual assets and currency lead.
This year, Oumla, a Saudi-based layer 1 blockchain platform, partnered with Avalanche with the aim of creating Saudi Arabia’s first layer 1 blockchain, fully hosted by KSA. According to X post, “This collaboration will promote innovation across Saudi Arabia and the Mena region and support startups and small businesses.”
In July 2025, the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Commerce announced in its quarterly business sector bulletin that out of 80,000 new business commercial licenses registered in the second quarter of 2025, most of Saudi Arabia’s 80,000 new business commercial licenses are in high-growth industries such as blockchain, AI and big data analytics.
The total number of valid business records for KSA reached 1.72 million. Saudi Arabia witnessed a 34% growth in AI commercial registration and a 51% growth in blockchain commercial registration, with over 4,000 companies currently registered in the country.
