Dubai to construct real-time payments system

[SysOp]

Sound like a really good thing, it will make it way easier for merchants in Dubai to open a merchant account to accept card payments.

The first such legislation in the Gulf, the new PSSF Law paves the way for the launch of a Real-time Automated Payments platform (Rapid) in the Dubai International Financial Centre, to provide transaction processing services to banks and their customers both in DIFC and the wider Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.
Omar Bin Sulaiman, governor of the DIFC says: "The enactment of the PSSF Law forms part of a comprehensive infrastructure that DIFC is creating to catalyse the development of the financial services industry in the region."


He says DIFC has adopted legal best practices from Europe, Hong Kong and New Zealand, among others, to ensure finality of designated payments.


The legislation will assist Gulf-based companies in conducting legally sound payments within the region instead of having to use offshore infrastructures which often do not settle within local operating hours.

 

[jamesb]

This is definitely great news. I have a few friends who operate online travel sites in Dubai and it has been very hard for them to process credit cards online. They had to use more expensive foreign credit card processing companies.