DATA SECURITY PAYMENTS SOLUTIONS
Consumer Led Change Payments and the way they are made in the region are changing rapidly with consumers spurring demand. Martijn Van Os Senior Vice President, Mastercard Payment Gateway Services explains how and why
corporations and financial institutions pledging digital-first strategies. The trend towards increased digital adoption has continued despite lockdowns being lifted. According to the Mastercard New Payments Index, 95% of consumers in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) are considering emerging payments such as wearables, biometrics, digital wallets and currencies, and QR code, in addition to Contactless. It revealed that 88% of MENA consumers have access to more ways to pay compared to 2020, while 3 out of 4 MENA consumers said digital payments methods helped them save money. At the government level, many countries are driving forward their digitization agendas. In the UAE there is the National Digital Government Strategy, and the National Strategy for Digital Transformation in Saudi Arabia. This is helping to create an attractive and sustainable environment towards digitization and, as a result, we are witnessing a proliferation of fintech entrepreneurs calling MENA home.
How much further can retail payments go in terms of innovation and what might we expect to see next?
Martijn Van Os, Senior Vice President, Mastercard Payment Gateway Services (MPGS)
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escribe what makes payments such fertile ground for innovation in Middle East banking.
In a world coming to terms with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, farreaching business digitalization has been the bridge between the old and the new normal. As countries implemented measures to contain the pandemic, meetings went online, more transactions
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became contactless, experiences became virtual and shopping morphed into e-commerce, enabling the world to maintain a business trajectory while also setting the foundation for the future. It is difficult to imagine how a pre-digital world would have coped with the extreme level of mandated physical distancing, without the option to digitalize. Payment innovation in the region had already been flourishing, with larger
Banking and Finance news in the MEA market
As a multi-rail company that serves merchants, banks, telcos, fintechs and governments, we at Mastercard are redefining the future of payments. Our vision for the future of payments is one that doesn’t only improve current payment systems, but also takes them to a whole new level. Mastercard Installments, launched in the UAE and Saudi Arabia in January 2022, is a perfect example. It uses the power of our trusted network to make Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) available to millions of consumers and merchants worldwide. It enables banks, lenders, fintechs and wallets to offer a variety of flexible instalment options to consumers, including a zero percent interest, pay-infour model.
