Salt Edge brings Open Banking solutions to Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan

By Gloria Methri

Open Banking API solutions provider Salt Edge has announced its expansion to a new market – the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. The company aims to assist Jordanian banks and other local financial institutions in offering innovative solutions and contributing to the Kingdom’s efforts toward a digital future through Open Banking.

Salt Edge’s solutions will help financial institutions assist their customers in sharing their financial and banking data with third parties using API technology and become Open Banking compliant in one month.

Jordan issues Open Finance Framework

The Central Bank of Jordan (CBJ) is convinced that Open Finance is crucial for innovation and competition to flourish in the Kingdom. Therefore, in December 2022, the CBJ issued the Open Finance Framework that all banks operating in the region must act in accordance with.

As per the new instructions, local banks, and electronic money institutions are mandated to allow authorised third parties open and secure access to accounts and customer data through an application programming interface (API). Within this framework, institutions must develop the technology necessary to become regulatory compliant by the end of 2023.

Alina Beleuta, Chief Growth Officer at Salt Edge said, “As the Middle East is taking confident steps to accelerate its position as a global financial hub, we are thrilled to see countries like Jordan taking proactive measures to achieve this. With Salt Edge’s ready-to-go solution, Jordanian banks can comply with Open Banking within one month. Instead of focusing on compliance, banks operating in the Kingdom will be able to set up procedures and strategies to build a myriad of successful business use cases.”

Salt Edge has been providing financial technology solutions to banks, credit unions, lenders, accounting companies, and FinTechs for over a decade. Hundreds of institutions including Jordan Ahli Bank, Byblos Bank, and Habib Bank have already adopted its Open Banking solutions.

“Salt Edge has all the tools and expertise to help financial players such as banks, SMEs, lenders, and various financial service providers, kick start their Open Banking journey. Compared to other countries in the region, Jordan has a slightly different regulatory approach toward the interaction between banks and third parties. To establish the relationship, banks will need to find a mechanism for identifying and verifying the third party, another task that can be handled by Salt Edge” added Alina.