SAMA overachieves e-payments target before 2020

The Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA) announced that the rate of e-payments for the retail sector-individual payments reached more than 36% of all payments available, including cash by the end of July 2019.

The authority noted that it exceeded the target percentage of the financial sector development program, under the Kingdom's Vision 2030, according to SAMA’s statement on Tuesday.

The program targets increasing the share of non-cash transactions by 28% by 2020.

“This achievement falls within SAMA's strategy for payment systems and the Financial Sector Development Program, which aims to enhance electronic payment and reduce cash handling to reach 70% of total payments in the Kingdom by 2030,” SAMA said.

The Kingdom’s central bank added that it conducted a detailed study to review and develop indicators related to measuring the percentage of e-payments out of the total transactions taking place in the Kingdom.

The study included payment methods currently used in the individual sectors in accordance with international practices, in addition to government and business sectors.

E-payment methods varied, with card payments contributing to the largest share of nearly 31.3%.

Meanwhile, other means included payments platform "SADAD" and remittances, among others.

The program recorded unprecedented spikes in the number and value of purchasing transactions in the past few years, as POS operations grew by 33% in 2016, compared to 50% by the end of September 2019.

The growth indicators in the POS service were also accompanied by a noticeable expansion in the number of devices that exceeded more than 407,000 by the end of September 2019 compared to 107,000 devices by the end of 2013, the statement added.