DATA SECURITY PAYMENTS
Progress by Payments Describing the recent development of payments systems in the Kingdon of Saudi Arabia and the wider region, Abdulrahman M. Khan, Products & Innovation, Liquidity and Cash Management, Banque Saudi Fransi shows how this progress brings clear all-round benefits
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here does our region rank in payments modernisation when compared with the rest of the world?
In GCC region, especially in Saudi Arabia, payments have undergone a major revamp and re-structure, and is currently under process of being developed to keep up and match with the needs and demands of the public. As of today, there are 3 major strong points in payments (Retail) in Saudi Arabia: 1. Internal Transfers: With the addition of Wallet solutions, and banking applications, clients are able to use unique services, such as: Instant Payment Service (IPS) a service provided and mandated by our payments regulator (Saudi Payments). This service allows individuals and companies to transfer instantly (Up to a certain amount) to their beneficiaries using certain proxies (Mobile number, ID, etc…) 2. International Transfers: Using various MTO (money transfer operators) and partnering with them, we as banks are able to allow additional offerings to our partners and our clients by allowing them to use these gateways to transfer money internationally.
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Abdulrahman M. Khan, Products & Innovation, Liquidity and Cash Management, Banque Saudi Fransi
3. Open Banking: With the introduction of Open banking payment initiation that is aimed to go live in Saudi Arabia by 2024, we will be able to utilise Payment Service Providers and open APIs in order to conduct payment on behalf of the client using their consent. However, when we look at it from the corporate side, there are other aspects that we can find, such as: Payment Gateway providers (PTSPs) and merchant payment options. These consist of the following:
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1. POS (Point of Sale): Currently there are many POS (Point of Sale) providers in the market, and they all provide various services in order to enhance the offering to the clients. Partnering with banks to help with the reconciliation and settlement. Banks today work with these Fintechs and service providers to quickly settle the payments and ensure that the merchants are able to receive their payments quicker. 2. Payment Gateway: Online payment gateway in the KSA region utilises over 80% to almost 90% via MPGS (MasterCard Payment Gateway Service), and there are many PTSP (Payment Technology Service Providers) in the region that provide value-added services to help merchants enhance their offerings to clients, by having a faster settlement period to help with cash flow, in addition to adding additional payment service to help clients with different options (such as: Buy now pay later). 3. B2B: Business 2 Business or Host 2 Host allows us to integrate with corporate clients and support t h e m w i t h t h e i r d a y-to - d a y business transactions and needs by providing them with APIs to allow the companies to make direct payments from their ERP systems and will help enhance the business speed and allow efficiencies.
Beyond the convenience and helpfulness of settlement speed, what other notable benefits of the payment›s revolution have there been? The security and efficiency that the roles plays in banks as well as for the clients. The Region had noticed a spike of challenges related to fraud and due to this, the central