diff --git a/CHANGES.rst b/CHANGES.rst
index 802e7539cde35bf18d1e1d59a9a0c9bd591e2b2b..0ef7501b8af36badcec78409ad296b1985e8b1d0 100644
--- a/CHANGES.rst
+++ b/CHANGES.rst
@@ -143,6 +143,9 @@ Smart Rollup node
 - Fix issue where setting for ``l1_monitor_finalized`` would be ignored from the
   configuration file. (MR :gl:`!20239`)
 
+- Fix issue where finalized blocks would not be notified when using
+  ``--l1-monitor-finalized``. (MR :gl:`!20256`)
+
 Smart Rollup WASM Debugger
 --------------------------
 
diff --git a/src/lib_smart_rollup_node/rollup_node_daemon.ml b/src/lib_smart_rollup_node/rollup_node_daemon.ml
index 01443d56da9beab53d849caddaf41e01c08119fb..3c82da3fea126e3bfd54b4aca7ad51e660defe70 100644
--- a/src/lib_smart_rollup_node/rollup_node_daemon.ml
+++ b/src/lib_smart_rollup_node/rollup_node_daemon.ml
@@ -203,6 +203,7 @@ let process_unseen_head ({node_ctxt; _} as state) ~catching_up ~predecessor
   let l2_block =
     Sc_rollup_block.{header; content = (); num_ticks; initial_tick}
   in
+  let* () = Node_context.save_l2_block node_ctxt l2_block in
   let* () =
     if finalized then
       Node_context.set_finalized node_ctxt header.block_hash header.level
@@ -212,7 +213,6 @@ let process_unseen_head ({node_ctxt; _} as state) ~catching_up ~predecessor
       let finalized_hash = predecessor.header.predecessor in
       Node_context.set_finalized node_ctxt finalized_hash finalized_level)
   in
-  let* () = Node_context.save_l2_block node_ctxt l2_block in
   let end_timestamp = Time.System.now () in
   let total_time = Ptime.diff end_timestamp start_timestamp in
   let process_time = Ptime.diff end_timestamp fetch_timestamp in