News
Tarabut Opens Riyadh HQ To Drive Saudi Open Banking
MENA’s leading regulated financial platform has opened a regional headquarters to support Saudi Arabia’s open banking rollout in line with Vision 2030.
Tarabut, a leading regulated financial technology platform in Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain, has opened its regional headquarters in Riyadh, underlining its commitment to the Kingdom’s financial transformation agenda.
The new base will anchor Saudi-focused product development and client delivery, cementing Tarabut’s role as the main infrastructure and intelligence layer of this burgeoning financial technology.
The inauguration drew senior figures from partners including SNB, SAB, Alinma, Bank Aljazira and GIB, alongside board members and Tarabut leadership. Their presence showed the company’s close work with local banks and its role in the fintech ecosystem.
“Saudi Arabia has shown that transformation is not a buzzword, it is a blueprint,” said Abdulla Almoayed, founder and CEO of Tarabut. “Establishing our headquarters in Riyadh is a long-term commitment to the Kingdom, and our pledge to build, to serve, and to grow alongside our regulator, partners, shareholders, and team.” He credited the Saudi Central Bank and Tarabut’s Saudi talent for supporting the rollout of the fintech transformation.
Also Read: A Guide To Digital Payment Methods In The Middle East
With a permanent base in Riyadh, Tarabut will accelerate open banking and embedded finance use cases at a pivotal moment in the Kingdom’s rollout. The platform has already achieved full connectivity with all major Saudi banks and signed partnerships with SNB, Alinma and SAB. The company says its infrastructure will help financial institutions and fintechs tackle challenges in financing, credit decisioning and customer experience, while aligning with Vision 2030 goals.
The Riyadh HQ will also serve as a collaboration hub for regulators, banks and fintechs. By embedding itself locally, Tarabut aims to strengthen trust in the market and drive adoption at scale.
News
YouTube Rolls Out Supervised Children’s Accounts Across MENA
An industry-first feed timer lets parents cap Shorts scrolling. Access can also be switched off entirely ahead of exam season.
YouTube has launched supervised kid accounts across the Middle East and North Africa, giving parents a way to hand their children the main YouTube app without handing over all of it. Announced in Dubai on July 2, the accounts are built directly into the platform rather than the standalone YouTube Kids app, and are aimed at families who feel a child has outgrown the curated library but isn’t ready for the open feed.
Parents can choose from three content settings, each broadly aligned with international content ratings. Explore covers educational videos, tutorials, arts and crafts, and dance. Explore More adds gaming and live streams. Most of YouTube opens up almost everything except videos rated 18+ or deemed inappropriate for supervised accounts.
The standout tool is an industry-first Shorts feed timer, which lets parents set daily limits on short-form scrolling. Set it to zero and Shorts disappears altogether – a lever YouTube suggests parents might pull ahead of exam season. Other protections are on by default for all users under 18: “Take a Break” and “Bedtime” reminders, no personalized ad targeting, autoplay switched off, and no ability to upload videos or write comments. The accounts are optional, and parents can end supervision at any time.
The kid accounts join supervised teen accounts already available across the region, which notify parents by email when a teenager uploads a video or starts a live stream.
“YouTube has been a huge part of families’ lives across this region for over 20 years,” said Javid Aslanov, head of YouTube Middle East and North Africa, citing Kantar research showing 95% of viewers in Saudi Arabia and the UAE agree YouTube has top content in education and learning.
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“It’s essential that we protect young people in – not from – the digital world,” added Garth Graham, YouTube’s head of health.
The new settings are rolling out gradually across the MENA, including the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, and Iraq. The latest features can be set up through Family Center in the YouTube app or via Google Family Link.
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