Anthony Butler, the Chief Technology Officer for IBM MENA region who was based out of KSA, and is a blockchain, AI, metaverse expert has joined Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) as a senior advisor. He announced the new position on LinkedIn saying, “I’m happy to share that I’m starting a new position as Senior Advisor at Saudi Central Bank – SAMA! As a senior advisor to SAMA I will be focused on   first of a kind applications of emerging technology, such as artificial intelligence, distributed ledger technologies, quantum, and advanced cryptography in support of payments innovations (such as CBDC, stable coins, and tokenization), transformation of Suptech/Regtech, green finance,   open finance, decentralized finance (DeFi), and cybersecurity. Anthony Butler had spent 15 years as chief technology officer for IBM in the Middle East and Africa working in emerging technologies, with a specific focus on the application of artificial intelligence, blockchain and metaverse technologies.

The Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) released a press release where it confirmed that the Central Bank is continuing to experiment on Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC).  SAMA is currently working on a project that focuses on domestic or national wholesale CBDC use case in collaboration with local banks and FinTech's. Experts explained to LaraontheBlock that this is a CBDC for local wholesale bank settlements.  This project is part of SAMA's ongoing research and experimentation on CBDC. SAMA is seeking to research and explore the economic impact, market readiness, and  potential robust and fast applications of a CBDC based payment solution.  As per the news, SAMA seeks to review policy, legal and regulatory considerations before moving to the next phases of the CBDC journey to contribute to achieving the objectives of Saudi Vision 2030. H.E. Fahad Almubarak, Governor of SAMA stated "Local banks and payment companies will always be a cornerstone of this project and its implem

  During the World Economic Forum’s session ’ Financial Institutions innovating under pressure’ The Saudi Minister of Finance Mohammed al-Jadaan stated that while CBDCs have privacy issues they are a fantastic tool in developing countries. While the panel discussed the risks that crypto and new technologies were posing especially given that crypto losses were over $1 trillion in 2022, most agreed that the regulation was a key element in mitigating these risks. Saudi Finance Minister Al Jadaan also believes that the real risks of these innovations haven’t even been seen yet, and the one incident with the loss of 12 zeros has triggered a lot of thinking of what needs to be done. He believes that Central Banks, traditional financial institutions and even innovators in Fintech need to discuss how to deal with Anti Money laundering issues, terrorism financing and entities that use these technologies to circumvent the regulatory framework. When discussing CBDC (Central Bank Digital C

  Saudi Arabia’s Information and Communication technology Commission has  launched  a blockchain enabled identity tracking management system for Bulk SMS messages in an effort to decrease fraud and enhance trust in Bulk messaging service offerings. The CITC utilized blockchain technology in both the governance and management of the system. The solution was launched during the Digital Technology Forum 2022 in KSA. CITC explained that this system will track 34,000 trusted SMS service providers  as well as decrease the operational cost for sending bulk SMS by these service providers by 66 percent. The blockchain enabled system will also  decrease the time needed to process requests by 60 percent. In addition 20,000 governmental and private sector entities will benefit from this system. The Blockchain enabled digital tracking management system will serve more than 46 million people as well as 25 local SMS service providers. The innovative solution aims to protect users and instill trust in