Saudi Arabia to build new testing and certification scheme for payments
Saudi Arabia in paytech modernisation
Consultant and testing services provider FIME has been selected by mada, Saudi Arabia’s domestic payment scheme, to develop a bespoke cloud-based testing platform and certification process.
The new portal will make the certification process “quicker, more cost efficient and convenient” for member banks, points of interaction and payment instrument vendors, FIME says.
“As the project will fully automate and streamline the testing and certification process, the costs and resources required to manage the scheme will also be dramatically reduced for mada,” it adds.
Ziad Al Yousef, general director of payment systems department at the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA), says “FIME’s expertise in supporting payment schemes made them stand out as the partner”. FIME also has a partnership with a local payments services provider, Alhamrani Universal.
The new self-service platform will operate 24/7 and enable stakeholders to:
- log into a private, secure mada network;
- create a certification project;
- perform testing in-house on payment terminals and cards;
- submit test logs to the cloud;
- monitor validation progress in real-time;
- completely remove the need to send hardware for certification.
“Our current certification processes are complex, as a result they can be time and resource intensive for everyone involved,” says Al Yousef. Greater automation will “give member banks and vendors the accessible service that they need to innovate”, he believes.
“All of this work ties into supporting the Saudi Vision 2030 goal of a cashless society,” he says.
“This is certification for the digital age,” states Lionel Grosclaude, CEO of FIME. “It is a hugely ambitious project that’s leading the way in our cloud-based strategy and will be the first system of its kind.”
