Victor Chatenay, Co-Chair of the MENA Fintech Association’s Saudi Arabia Chapter, joins FinTech TV’s Raghda Ibraheem on Wall Street to MENA to unpack Saudi Arabia’s fast-moving fintech sector, where the legal architecture for tokenised assets is being built in real time rather than announced in outline.
Chatenay’s priority as Co-Chair is direct: make MFTA Saudi the forum where fintechs, financial institutions and regulators surface opportunities and challenges together. Vision 2030 has placed fintech and digital payments among its core pillars, but from outside the Kingdom, he notes, the market can still look opaque. Closing that perception gap, rather than chasing momentum the Kingdom already has, is where MFTA Saudi is focused.
On regulation, his account is pragmatic. Saudi Arabia has no single digital asset law, relying instead on existing securities and banking regulation: a tokenised security remains a security, a tokenised deposit remains a bank deposit. Regulators are engaging the private sector directly on where that existing framework holds and where bespoke rules are genuinely needed.
On sequencing, Chatenay expects the Kingdom’s tokenisation adoption to mirror more mature markets. Real estate tokenisation is generating attention, including a live regulatory sandbox, but legal ownership structure and secondary market questions remain open. Bonds, bank deposits and funds are more likely to lead.
He closes on distribution: fintech growth in the Kingdom is not confined to Riyadh. The Western Province is building on trade, logistics and tourism. The Eastern Province is building around Aramco’s supply chain finance and working capital needs.
Topics discussed: Saudi Arabia’s fast-moving fintech sector, MFTA Saudi’s convening role, existing securities and banking law applied to tokenisation, regulators’ engagement with the private sector, the real estate tokenisation sandbox, sequencing of asset classes for tokenisation, regional fintech distribution across the Kingdom.
Guest: Victor Chatenay, Co-Chair, MENA Fintech Association Saudi Arabia Chapter
Interviewer: Raghda Ibraheem, FinTech TV, Wall Street to MENA