Ripple partners with Riyad Bank’s Jeel on January 26, 2026 to explore blockchain for payments, custody, and tokenization in Saudi Arabia.
Blockchain leader Ripple announced a strategic partnership on January 26, 2026. This very important collaboration is with Riyad Bank’s innovation division named Jeel. Consequently, this alliance is intended to help boost the adoption of blockchain in the Kingdom. Therefore, it directly supports the ambitious Vision 2030 economic transformation goals of Saudi Arabia.
Partnership Aims to Reshape Financial Services
The collaboration will rigorously investigate a number of ground-breaking financial applications. Primarily, it will evaluate blockchain in terms of efficient cross border payments. There will be a focus on secure digital asset custody solutions subsequently.
Finally, the partnership will explore the use cases of asset tokenization in the real world. These projects will make use of Jeel’s established regulatory sandbox environment. This is an important framework that ensures that all innovation works with local standards of compliance. Moreover, it offers a controlled space for development of practical proofs-of-concepts.
Sandbox Strategy to Build Regional Leadership
Jeel is a financial technology incubator of Riyad Bank. It is actively promoting Banking as a Service and Open Banking solutions. This partnership is a strategic way in which Jeel utilizes its powerful market position.
Furthermore, it includes Ripple’s proven enterprise blockchain infrastructure. This joint effort aims at modernizing the national financial architecture. Ultimately, it makes Saudi Arabia a clear regional fintech leader.
Reece Merrick is Ripple’s Middle East and Africa Managing Director. He praised the Kingdom’s leadership of digital transformation ahead of the curve. He confirmed the exploration of important use-cases of blockchain with Jeel. These initiatives provide a firm support for the broader Vision 2030 agenda for economic diversification.
George Harrak is the Chief Executive of Jeel. He said this partnership is reflective of their responsible sandbox approach. He stressed the importance of building foundations to test for use cases of scalable financial use cases.
Additionally, he emphasized the use of a combination of regulated experimentation and world knowledge. This approach goes straight to the Kingdom’s long-term digital ambitions.
The regulatory sandbox approach should exhibit the scalable digital infrastructure. This infrastructure could really change the banking ecosystem of Saudi Arabia for the better.
Ultimately, this partnership is a huge step for blockchain in the region. It features proactive adoption by leading Saudi financial institutions. Last but not least, it sets a good precedent for future technological collaborations across the Gulf region.