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Electronic payments in Saudi Arabia account for more than 36 percent of all available payments, exceeding the government’s non-cash utilization targets, a recent study has shown.
Card payments accounted for the largest share of payments at around 30 percent, according to the study conducted by Saudi central bank and Saudi national payments company.
Earlier this month, the Saudi cabinet approved the central bank’s request to establish Saudi Payments Company as an independent entity to increase financial inclusion through the organisation and development of the payments sector in the kingdom. Read more here
The national payments company aims at increasing financial inclusion through the organisation and development of the payments sector and the establishment of an independent entity
Points of Sale (POS) of Saudi Payments Network (Mada), the domestic network for online payments, grew close to 53 percent at the end of October 2019, to reach more than one billion and two hundred million operations, according to the study.
The total number of Mada devices in operation by the end of September 2019 increased to more than 421,000 from 107,000 at the end of 2013.
The Kingdom's economic overhaul plan, Vision 2030, aims to raise the rate of non-cash utilisation from 18 per cent in 2016 to 28 per cent in 2020 and 70 per cent by 2030.
(Writing by Nada Al Rifai nada.rifai@refinitiv.com, editing by Seban Scaria)
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