Thunes has signed an agreement with Aljazira Bank to expand international remittance capabilities for the Saudi lender, giving retail customers access to more overseas bank accounts and mobile wallets through Thunes’ Direct Global Network. The partnership arrives as Saudi Arabia rapidly expands digital payment infrastructure under Vision 2030 and electronic payments account for an increasingly large share of retail transactions.

Thunes is expanding its footprint in Saudi Arabia through a new agreement with Aljazira Bank that will upgrade the bank’s international remittance infrastructure and broaden the destinations available to retail customers.

The partnership will connect Aljazira Bank to Thunes’ Direct Global Network, allowing customers to send money to bank accounts and mobile wallets across international corridors. Thunes says the arrangement will improve transfer speed and reliability while expanding payment endpoints across Asia Pacific, Europe and the Gulf Cooperation Council.

The development is significant in a market where cross-border remittances are closely tied to the financial lives of a large expatriate workforce and where digital payments have become a central component of the country’s financial-sector transformation.

Saudi Arabia’s digital payments infrastructure has expanded rapidly in recent years. The Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) reported that electronic payments represented 85% of total retail payment transactions in 2025, up from 79% in 2024. The number of electronic transactions reached 14.6 billion during the year, compared with 12.6 billion in 2024.

That shift creates a more demanding environment for cross-border payment providers. Customers accustomed to instant or near-instant domestic digital payments increasingly expect international transfers to offer similar convenience, transparency and availability.

Thunes’ model is built around connecting financial institutions to local payment infrastructure rather than requiring each bank to establish individual integrations with payment systems in every destination market. The company says its Direct Global Network provides access to bank accounts and mobile wallets across numerous markets.

The agreement with Aljazira Bank follows a series of Thunes partnerships with Saudi financial institutions. In 2024, the company’s Direct Global Network was adopted by TeleMoney, the international remittance arm of Arab National Bank, to facilitate transfers to digital wallets and bank accounts across key Asian and African markets.

Thunes also announced a strategic alliance with Banque Saudi Fransi in 2025 aimed at enabling faster international money transfers for consumers and businesses.

The pattern points to a broader shift in Saudi banking: established institutions are increasingly using specialist payment infrastructure providers to extend international reach without building every cross-border connection themselves.

Aljazira Bank’s customers will be able to access additional payment destinations through the new arrangement, while the bank gains an infrastructure layer intended to simplify expansion into new corridors.

Mobile wallets are particularly relevant to this strategy. Digital wallets have become increasingly important endpoints in cross-border payments, particularly in markets where consumers can receive funds without relying exclusively on traditional bank accounts.

Saudi regulators have simultaneously been widening the country’s digital payments ecosystem. In 2025, SAMA announced the launch of Google Pay through the national mada payment system, while also announcing an agreement with Ant International to enable Alipay+ acceptance in Saudi Arabia.

Those developments demonstrate that Saudi Arabia’s payments transformation extends beyond domestic card transactions. The infrastructure is becoming increasingly interoperable with global payment networks, wallets and financial technology providers.

SAMA’s regulatory activity is also evolving. In March 2026, the central bank issued an updated oversight framework for payment systems and their operators, aligning supervision with the Kingdom’s Payment Law and implementing regulations.

At the same time, SAMA began licensing fintech companies to provide open banking services in March 2026 following completion of the regulatory sandbox phase. The central bank said open banking should strengthen collaboration between banks and fintech companies while improving the use of customer financial information under a regulated framework.

This regulatory direction matters for cross-border payments because the next phase of fintech competition is increasingly about interoperability. Banks need to connect customers to a growing range of domestic and international payment methods while maintaining compliance, security and predictable settlement.

Thunes has also been expanding its Middle East network. In September 2026, it announced new cross-border payout capabilities across Bahrain, Lebanon, Oman, South Yemen, Syria and the UAE, adding access to bank accounts, mobile wallets and cash-pickup locations in those markets.

The company’s Saudi strategy therefore fits into a larger regional push to build payment corridors around interoperable digital rails.

For Aljazira Bank, the immediate objective is customer experience: more destinations, faster transfers and greater access to digital payout endpoints. For Thunes, the agreement adds another established Saudi financial institution to its network and strengthens its position as an infrastructure provider connecting banks to international payment systems.

The company cites research conducted with Juniper Research indicating that 56% of Saudi residents sent money internationally during the previous year. That figure is a Thunes-sponsored research finding rather than a government statistic, but it illustrates the importance of cross-border transfers in the Saudi consumer payments market.

The larger trend is clear regardless of that individual estimate. Saudi Arabia’s digital payments adoption has already moved well beyond the government’s original target of 70% of consumer payment transactions by 2025. SAMA’s 85% figure for 2025 shows how quickly the market has progressed.

As domestic payments become increasingly digital, cross-border remittances are likely to face similar expectations around speed, accessibility and interoperability.

For GlobalFinTechEdge, the Thunes-Aljazira agreement highlights the convergence of Digital Payments Platforms, Open Banking Infrastructure, Embedded Finance Infrastructure and Banking Technology Innovation. The competitive question is no longer simply whether banks can offer international transfers, but how quickly they can connect customers to the global network of accounts, wallets and payment rails that modern remittance users increasingly expect.

Market Landscape

Saudi Arabia has become one of the region’s most digitally advanced payments markets. Electronic payments reached 85% of total retail payment transactions in 2025, up from 79% a year earlier, according to SAMA.

The Kingdom is also broadening the infrastructure available to fintechs and banks. SAMA’s 2026 licensing of open-banking providers and updated payment-system oversight framework demonstrate an effort to build regulated interoperability between financial institutions and technology providers.

For cross-border payments, this creates opportunities for network providers such as Thunes to act as infrastructure intermediaries. Banks can use external payment networks to expand international reach while focusing internal resources on customer experience, compliance and financial products.

The trend extends beyond Saudi Arabia. As mobile wallets, instant payments and API-based financial infrastructure expand globally, cross-border interoperability is becoming an increasingly important competitive layer for banks, fintechs and payment processors.

Top Insights

• Thunes will connect Aljazira Bank customers to additional international bank accounts and mobile wallets through its Direct Global Network.
• Saudi electronic payments reached 85% of total retail payment transactions in 2025, highlighting the Kingdom’s rapid shift toward digital financial infrastructure.
• The partnership expands Thunes’ growing network of relationships with established Saudi financial institutions seeking international payment connectivity.
• SAMA’s new payment oversight and open-banking initiatives are creating a more interconnected regulatory and technical environment for Saudi fintech.
• Mobile wallets are becoming increasingly important endpoints as banks and payment providers seek faster and broader cross-border remittance coverage.

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