SAMA says share of e-payments reaches 57% in 2021, exceeds FSDP target

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The Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) announced that the share of electronic payments in retail exceeded 57% of total transactions conducted in 2021, surpassing the 55% target set out by the Financial Sector Development Program (FSDP), one of the main programs of Vision 2030, the apex bank said in a statement.

SAMA Governor Fahad Almubarak stated that the central bank is working on promoting electronic infrastructure, expanding electronic payment activities and accelerating the electronic transformation of transactions.

He added that this most recent achievement was driven by FSDP and the implementation of the bank's strategic plans for the payments sector, primarily aiming to reduce dependency on cash, and increase the rate of electronic payments to 70% by 2025.

The governor also noted that joint efforts between the government and private sectors to increase payment choices and implement many payment digitization initiatives together with private sector innovation and expansion initiatives as well as opening financial services to a new class of Fintech stakeholders in the Kingdom.

SAMA also noted that there were several jumps in the number and value of payments made through the national "Mada" payment system during these past few years, as the number of transactions made through this system exceeded 5.1 billion transactions during 2021, with a growth rate of 81% compared to 76% in 2020, the statement said.

The central bank further observed a sizable increase PoS terminal numbers and commercial sector coverage, with more than a million PoS terminals deployed by the end of 2021 compared to 721,000 terminals deployed in 2020.

Additionally, contactless payments (NFC) methods witnessed a tremendous increase in utilization as they accounted for 95% of all PoS transactions in 2021, alongside other electronic payment methods such as e-commerce payments, "SADAD" system payments and the new Instant Money Transfer through "Sarie" system and others.

Corporate payments in the business sector marked a significant increase in electronic payments, with 84% of the sector's total payment transactions being electronic in 2021, compared to just 51% in 2019, marking a 65% increase in electronic payment share during these past two years.

Results have also shown that major corporations rely on electronic payments to complete 99.6% of their transactions, while the same metric stood at 78% for SMEs and 76% for micro enterprises, SAMA noted.