Money20/20 Middle East Day Two Brings Saudi-Qatar Payments Link, barq’s USD 329.5 Million Round, and Network International’s Saudi Launch

Day two of Money20/20 Middle East in Riyadh delivered the kind of announcements PSPs, acquirers, and banks actually care about: a cross-border card acceptance deal between Saudi Arabia and Qatar, a large fintech fundraise, and a new merchant acquiring launch in Saudi Arabia. The common thread is simple enough: the market is getting deeper, and the plumbing is being built to match.

1. The headline item was an agreement between the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) and Qatar Central Bank that will allow the cross-border use of the national payment cards mada and HIMYAN. In practice, mada cardholders will be able to use their cards in Qatar, and HIMYAN cardholders will be able to use theirs in Saudi Arabia, with the stated aim of doing so “seamlessly and securely.” For payment operators, this is the sort of bilateral link that turns domestic schemes into a regional acceptance story.
2. H.E. Ayman M. Al Sayari, Governor of the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA), used the opening keynote to frame Saudi Arabia’s financial ecosystem around growth with stability. He said the Kingdom now has 371 fintech companies operating across the country, electronic payments account for more than 85% of retail payment transactions, and more than 307 entities are currently operating under the open banking framework. He also said investment in the sector exceeded SAR 30 billion by the end of H1 2026.
3. barq, the digital payments company, announced the close of a Series A funding round worth USD 329.5 million at a valuation of USD 1.85 billion. That puts another large capital raise into Saudi Arabia’s payments stack, and gives the company a louder seat at the table in a market where scale and regulation tend to matter more than slogans.
4. Network International announced the launch of its merchant acquiring services in Saudi Arabia, including point-of-sale (POS) and e-commerce payment solutions for merchants operating across physical and digital channels. For merchants and PSPs, that means another acquiring option is now on the board in a market where both in-store and online acceptance are clearly part of the same conversation.
5. The rest of the programme focused on what usually sits behind the announcements: attracting global capital, balancing technology and trust, the growing influence of AI on financial decision-making, and the role of regulation in building resilient financial systems. Mohamed Alaadin, General Partner at Development Partners International, said Saudi Arabia has shifted “from being an interesting market to being an investable market,” pointing to clearer regulation, deeper pools of capital, follow-on funding, and a more credible path to liquidity and exits. Karim Samakie, General Manager – Fintech Sector at the Ministry of Investment, Saudi Arabia, said there is a “vast range of opportunities” for international investors, especially in fintech and technology.

For high-risk operators and their payment providers, the useful signal here is not just that Saudi Arabia is still spending on fintech. It is that the ecosystem is expanding across scheme interoperability, open banking, acquiring, and capital formation at the same time. That is usually what a market looks like when it starts becoming easier to route payments through it rather than around it.