HPS, a payments technology and services company, has reportedly been chosen by the Saudi Arabia Monetary Authority (SAMA) to offer a QR-based payment platform.
The HPS deal is part of the Middle Eastern country’s larger Fintech development initiative.
HPS will be overseen by Saudi Payments, a subsidiary of SAMA. The payments firm is tasked with providing a unified QR code system, which will allow local banks, digital wallet providers and Fintech firms to interact and function within an interoperable platform.
The project is part of a partnership with SAMA and will support “the continuous development of the electronic payments environment” in Saudi Arabia.
As noted by the HPS team, the QR codes are “an important step towards providing a universally consistent experience” for retailers and individual consumers in the Kingdom.
The project’s main objective is to develop and support an integrated payment environment that “allows all parties to benefit in an open-loop payment environment” based on Swift’s ISO 20022.
QR code usage in the Middle East has increased significantly. It has gone up from a 12% penetration to 18% between 2017 and 2018.
The HPS system will allow vendors to issue a request for payment to a customer, who will verify the transaction and complete the payment, or decide to reject the payment request.
Several different payment methods will be supported by the new HPS platform. The information available on the payment system may be fixed in a static QR code and can be used for conducting many different transactions, or a dynamic QR Code may be used to carry out individual payments.
Saudi Arabia has made Fintech development a top priority, as it’s part of the country’s “Vision 2030” initiative.
The nation’s Financial Sector Development Vision Realization Program will establish “a diversified and effective” financial industry in order to promote the ongoing development of the Saudi economy, diversify its revenue streams, encourage greater savings, finance and investment opportunities.
