Ripple and Jeel, the innovation arm of Riyad Bank, signed a memorandum of understanding to explore blockchain-powered cross-border payments, digital-asset custody and tokenization.
The MOU centers on three use cases: improving cross-border payments, developing digital-asset custody, and exploring tokenization of real-world assets. Ripple’s platforms will be tested within Jeel’s sandbox to evaluate transactional speed, transparency and security in live or simulated bank workflows. Jeel will leverage Riyad Bank’s network and local expertise to run those proofs of concept under a supervised environment.
The partnership is explicitly framed as a controlled experiment to assess practical integration with existing banking infrastructure and regulatory requirements, according to the announcement.
The deal places Ripple’s technology inside Jeel’s regulated sandbox, aiming to speed up international settlements and create secure custody solutions while aligning with Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 modernization push.
Cross-border payments are targeted for latency and cost reduction. Custody work aims to produce secure storage and operational controls for a growing range of digital holdings. Tokenization experiments will examine how representing assets on ledger technology could change market access and settlement mechanics.
Regulatory context and practical challenges
The initiative is positioned as part of Saudi Arabia’s broader economic diversification plan, Vision 2030, and complements earlier pilot work involving the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority on blockchain-enabled payments.
Operating inside a regulatory sandbox is intended to reconcile innovation with compliance: testing can surface how KYC/AML controls, data-privacy requirements and supervisory reporting map onto distributed ledger architectures.
However, the announcement also highlights predictable frictions. Integrating ledger-based systems with legacy banking back-ends, guaranteeing on-chain/off-chain data privacy, and navigating an evolving rulebook will be key technical and legal hurdles. Success will depend on proving operational resilience and clear compliance pathways rather than purely technological performance.
For regional markets, the partnership signals continued interest from global blockchain firms in the Gulf, where regulators and banks increasingly pair experimentation with formal oversight. Unlike unconstrained rollouts, this approach prioritizes compliance-first piloting to limit operational and legal risk.
Market participants will now watch outcomes from the sandbox trials and any subsequent coordination with Saudi regulators and the earlier SAMA pilots. Those results will determine whether the tests can scale into live services that meaningfully reduce settlement times and provide regulated custody solutions for institutional clients in the region.
