Saudi Arabian SAB Bank Saudi Awwal Bank a Riyadh-based Saudi joint stock company in which global banking group HSBC owns a minority stake, has announced the world’s first Islamic Repo on blockchain in partnership with KSA based Oumla, a secure, scalable blockchain infrastructure provider for businesses, enterprises, and governments.
A Repo is a collateralized loan involving a contractual arrangement between two parties, whereby one party sells a security at a specified price with a commitment to buy back the same at a later date.
The Blockchain enabled Islamic Repo allowed SAB Bank to lend to other banks in compliance with Islamic finance principles using blockchain to make the process faster, safer and more transparent. The implementation comes months after SAB’s virtual assets Summit.
According to Oumla website, ” It replaces paperwork and manual steps with smart digital contracts, ensures all transactions are securely and immutably recorded, and helps banks manage their assets and liquidity more easily and with reduced risk.”
This year, Saudi based Blockchain Layer 1 platform Oumla partnered with Avalanche Blockchain with the aim of creating Saudi Arabia’s first Layer One Blockchain fully hosted in KSA. As per the X post, ” This collaboration will support startups and SMEs, driving technological innovation across Saudi Arabia and the MENA region.”
In July 2025, Saudi Ministry of Commerce in its quarterly business sector bulletin noted that of the 80,000 new business commercial licenses registered in Q2 of 2025 in Saudi Arabia most of them are in high growth industries such as Blockchain, AI, and Big data analytics.
The total number of valid business records in KSA reached 1.72 million. Saudi Arabia witnessed 34% growth in AI commercial registrations, and 51% growth in Blockchain commercial registrations with over 4,000 companies now registered in the country.
