MEA Finance magazine

Let’s look into one of the latest trends which has been on the rise in recent months — paying in installments. According to the Mastercard Index majority of MENA customers have heard of Buy Now Pay Later, with nearly half (45%) of the population already comfortably using it. Consumers want the flexibility and convenience of BNPL, but with the sense of security associated with a trusted provider like a bank or payment network.



Those that have used BNPL find it useful for emergency and big-ticket purchases, as well as increased purchasing power. Consumers also find BNPL useful for unique use cases, including as a budgeting and financial planning tool.



Mastercard Installments can now be integrated by acquiring banks as their own technology, allowing them to retain and generate revenue from buy now, pay later transactions and strengthen their merchant customer relationships.



The solution leverages existing Mastercard acceptance for quick and easy integration across an acquirer’s entire merchant base, providing fast speed to market at scale.

Open banking has been a very important part of the global payment ecosystem for many years now. Born in Europe, it is now also being introduced in the Middle East and Africa, with many steps taken to adapt basic frameworks to meet the needs of local markets and conform to their specific regulatory and business environments.



Consumers across the world are starting to appreciate the benefits of open banking, including transparency, speed and convenience, so we can only expect the demand for this payment method to continue to grow. According to our research about three quarters of population know about open banking, and are using it to pay their bills, do their banking, secure or refinance loans, and make BNPL payments.



Six in ten MENA consumers also confirmed that they feel safe using apps to send money to people or businesses from their phone. Four in ten are willing to share financial data information with apps to have access to payment tools that help them manage their money.

We have all been surprised to see how quickly consumers of all generations adopted secure payments using fingerprint scanning or facial recognition. There is no doubt that this form of payment authentication takes convenience and security to another level. According to our study 64% of consumers agree that it is easier to make payments using biometrics than a card or device. The potential for security optimization is also evident to consumers, with two thirds agreeing biometrics tech for payments is more secure than two factor authentication.



While consumers do have some concerns about what entities have access to their biometric data, they are still open to using it given the time it saves, and nearly two thirds have used biometrics for at least one purchase in the last year.

Whatever opinions there are on cryptocurrencies — from a fanatic to utter skeptic — the fact remains that these digital assets are becoming a more important part of the payments world.



We are seeing this fact play out on the Mastercard network, with people using cards to buy crypto assets, especially during Bitcoin's surge in value. We are also seeing users increasingly take advantage of crypto cards to access these assets and convert them to traditional currencies for spending.



The poll — conducted before crypto’s latest drop in value — reveals mixed feelings among consumers. Just more than half feel pessimistic about the value of digital assets, but nearly equal amount feel they could be good investments. Consumers would like to see more stability in the industry — with 59% agreeing that they would feel more confident about crypto if they knew it was issued or backed by a reputable organization.



I think it is fair to say that cash is becoming less critical to all generations of shoppers, digital payments are a daily occurrence for nearly everyone and even the magnetic stripe is going away. We have reached the moment when payment technologies of the future are no longer hypothetical. Tapping, it turns out, was only the tip of the iceberg.



Just like the payments landscape is constantly shifting, our gateway technology has been specifically designed to expand with the industry and provide our partners with the latest innovations and expertise.