By Akanimo Sampson
Saudi Payments is collaborating with IBM and MasterCard to launch Saudi Arabia’s first instant payments system ‘sarie’.
Operating under the supervision of the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA), Saudi Payments will enable the adoption of faster payments and accelerate improvements to banking reconciliation in the Kingdom’s financial ecosystem.
‘sarie’ system is expected to support local government, business, and consumer payment needs across various payment flows, creating a more convenient and accelerated economic activity across the Kingdom.
Saudi Payments has selected the services and consultancy arm of IBM to lead the project as the system integrator partner and end-to-end digital payments solutions provider.
As the SI partner, IBM Global Business Services designed and architected the solution through its complex system integration methodology, built a technical platform and integrated Mastercard’s instant payments platform into Saudi Payments’ existing infrastructure while connecting it to the IT systems of locally operating banks.
Highlighting this collaboration as a means to further the ongoing smart solutions and payments modernisation strategy at Saudi Payments, Managing Director Fahad Al-Akeel said, “the instant payments system ‘sarie’ can help us to drive usage and engagement across the Saudi payments ecosystem of banks and businesses.
‘’It can help lay the foundation for new payments business initiatives, encouraging financial inclusion and banking reconciliation of Saudi banks. It is a huge step forward that aligns with our, aimed towards achieving the assigned goals in vision 2030.”
IBM has been helping financial institutions worldwide continually meet growing demands to improve their customer experience and innovate to respond to fierce competition.
Only recently, IBM announced that Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB) selected IBM hybrid cloud solutions to provide its customers with improved digital banking experiences and bring new services to market faster.
Dina Abo-Onoq, Managing Partner, IBM GBS, Saudi Arabia, said, “In order for banks and financial institutions to remain current, they should be prepared to adapt to the changing and on-the-go customer needs, using the latest innovations.
‘’This launch is another step towards the advancement of the payments and banking landscape in Saudi Arabia and the region. The new payments solution is designed to provide the citizens and residents of Saudi Arabia with Mastercard’s real-time capabilities and help promote financial innovation.”
With the new ‘sarie’ system, bank customers will be able to send and receive money in real-time using a wider range of services and transfer options.
Customers of local banks can make instant transactions of up to SAR 20,000 (USD 5,300) through the system. Further, “sarie” users can benefit from the quick transfer service to send up to SAR 2,500 (USD 660) using aliases, such as mobile number, email address, ID number, or IBAN number.
“The initiative can significantly contribute towards digitising and modernising transactions in line with the goals of Vision 2030, and can also help increase the efficiency of the financial systems and offer consumers access to a wider range of financial services, positively impacting the Saudi economy and its citizens”, said Maria Medvedeva, Vice President and Country Business Development Lead, Saudi Arabia, Mastercard.
