Multiple initiatives taken by the Qatar Central Bank to enable safe, fast and affordable digital payments, in conjunction with Qatar's hosting of the FIFA World Cup in November and December.

One of the most important initiatives launched by the bank is the issuance of the first license in the country to provide digital payment services through “Google Pay” last month, with the publication of many guidelines that regulate and license various payment activities in the country.

At the Innovation Forum held on Wednesday in Doha, Qatar Central Bank Governor Sheikh Bandar bin Mohammed bin Saud Al Thani stressed the importance of digital transformation and climate change in recent years on the interest of the real economy, the financial sector and the private sector, as these two trends are transforming the role of banks and central banks in The financial services industry to a role that enables market empowerment, digital acceleration and innovation.

He stressed that national banks have started their own digital transformation strategies, which indicates the importance of financial digitization as the future of the banking industry, as it falls within Qatar Vision 2030.

The Talent Management Center for Training and Development organized a security risk management course for the World Cup in cooperation with the United Visa Company, and a number of representatives of the financial and banking sector participated in it.# Qatar_Central Bank pic.twitter.com/G2lBXRLLSm

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new services

The new services include the issuance of electronic wallets through the Qatar mobile payment system and its uses (payment service for merchants and local money transfer), in addition to providing international money transfers through the electronic wallet, through a licensed bank or exchange shop in the State of Qatar.

In late August, the Qatar Central Bank issued the first license in the country to two companies that provide electronic payment services, Ooredoo Money, a subsidiary of Ooredoo, and iPay, a subsidiary of Vodafone Qatar, to provide electronic payment services.

The bank indicated that the issuance of the first license for the two companies is an initial step to bring together companies that provide electronic payment services under the supervision of the Qatar Central Bank to contribute to the development of the financial technology sector and to enhance financial inclusion.

These licenses coincide with the State of Qatar’s announcement of its intention to launch the new financial technology strategy (Fintech) in the last quarter of this year, by implementing a fully integrated payments platform, as part of the current modernization of the payment system program, including a central infrastructure system for an instant payments network. At the state level.

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Qatar Central Bank announces the imminent launch of the new financial technology strategy Fintech

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digital alternatives

Financial technology strategies are based mainly on technological research and development, to shift from traditional channels to digital alternatives in banking, and preparations are underway to launch digital banks, or what is known as new banks that provide banking services through mobile phone applications and others.

In this context, the Qatar Central Bank has drafted and published many regulations related to financial technology, including electronic insurance guidelines, payment services regulations, and principles of electronic “know your customer” controls, and the number of companies providing experimental financial technology services has been increased in the pre-virtual environment. Licensing them, ensuring that these companies have safer, more efficient and effective payment options.

Commenting on the Qatar Central Bank's steps to facilitate payments for World Cup fans, financial analyst Ahmed Aqel said that the next stage in the State of Qatar is important at all levels due to the country's hosting of the FIFA World Cup, which is expected to witness a large number of visitors to the country, as expectations indicate that The arrival of 1.2 million people, and all of them will have a constant need for financial transactions, buying and selling, and then there will be a basic need for multiple payment methods.

Akl: Qatar has provided the infrastructure capable of providing all services easily (Al-Jazeera)

diagonal readiness

Akl added - in a statement to Al Jazeera Net - that the State of Qatar realized this a long time ago and provided the infrastructure capable of providing all these services with great ease, pointing out that many football fans who will come to Qatar are accustomed to electronic payment in their transactions outside their country for reasons It relates to the ease of this transaction compared to converting currencies and dealing in fiat currencies.

Aqel explained that "in light of the pressure on stores and others, it will be easy to adopt electronic payment," pointing out that the Qatar Central Bank issued two licenses to the two telecommunications companies in the country in order to provide the electronic payment feature, as they now have this feature to their customers, and "it is characterized as facilitating payment from without waiting."

Akl continued, "One of the most important features is that the payment services that are used today in the State of Qatar are advanced services and advanced payment methods, such as Google Pay services, which maintain the confidentiality of their users' information by using virtual accounts of the customer, not using his personal account number in The process of paying for more information protection.

Aqel concluded that "electronic payment services are inexpensive, easy, fast and maintain confidentiality, and can be done at any time and from anywhere where there is an Internet connection," noting that if electronic payment methods are not adopted, this will constitute a great pressure on paper currencies and will cause Too crowded in stores, because people from different countries depend on different currencies.