Real-time payments set to underpin economic growth in the GCC

Real-time payments set to underpin economic growth in the GCC

The digital transformation of our economies has given rise to an entire ecosystem of new services, new behaviours and new expectations among consumers and businesses alike. Smartphones and its new super apps have changed the way we shop, pay, travel and enjoy our free time. Our new lifestyle comes with the expectation of immediacy – consumers and businesses want to be ‘on’ 24x7x365 – and payments for goods and services is no exception. More and more consumers and businesses expect instantaneous transfers of funds to be standard. This is nothing less than a revolution in the payments industry – a major disruption and a challenge to which banks and their partners must rise. I see three main drivers that enable and accelerate the move towards real-time payments (RTP) in the Middle East: The rapid adoption of real-time schemes has often been driven by governments, regulators, and central banks; we highlight the role of central authorities in our 2022 Prime Time for Real-Time report. In 2021, the governments of Saudi Arabia and Bahrain launched real-time payments schemes, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is set to launch its IPP scheme in 2023. Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and Iraq are other countries in the