RIAD – The Central Bank of Saudi Arabia (SAMA) has announced that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has the highest acceptance of contactless payments via Near-Field Communication (NFC) at 94%, the highest in the Middle East and North Africa, above the European Union average . and before Hong Kong and Canada.
SAMA made it clear that the successful rollout of contactless payments in the Kingdom is part of the Saudi Central Bank’s strategy, which builds on the Kingdom’s Financial Sector Development Program (FSDP) goals of Vision 2030, which aims to reduce cash transactions while reducing electronic payments to 70 % increase. of all transactions by 2025.
To achieve these goals, the Saudi Central Bank has been fully using NFC payments since 2016 and is taking strategic steps to authorize and facilitate e-payment transactions after ensuring the highest level of security in accordance with international standards and best practices.
The Saudi Central Bank further indicated that the appropriate infrastructure to support NFC payments was provided in close cooperation with Saudi Payments, payment service providers and banks to provide uniform and interoperable specifications that make these transactions accessible to everyone.
These operations included revising the national payment ecosystem and replacing all bank cards and point-of-sale terminals, as well as ensuring that all devices supported the technology.
Key initiatives that paved the way for the rapid adoption of contactless payments in Saudi Arabia included the Saudi central bank’s decision to raise the NFC transaction limit from SR100 to SR300 and enable smart device payments, as well as the National Anti-Concealment Decision of the program to require all commercial activities to install POS terminals.
This is in addition to the awareness-raising efforts of introducing NFC payments to the public and eliminating misunderstandings about the security of such transactions.
The Central Bank of Saudi Arabia also indicated that public transport projects and the Riyadh Metro project would incorporate NFC into their payment operations to align the Saudi public transport system with the latest payment technologies.
The ranking of Saudi Arabia in the introduction of contactless payments was first announced in a white paper published by Saudi Payments, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA), in collaboration with Visa, the world leader in digital payments.
The whitepaper, titled “Contactless NFC Adoption in Saudi Arabia 2020”, looked at NFC penetration in the European Union (80%), Hong Kong (79%) and Canada (76%), alongside MENA, where Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates an 81% acceptance rate. – SPA
