Checkout.com secures UAE acquiring license
Checkout.com has been granted a Retail Payment Services license from the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates. This makes Checkout.com the first global payments provider to be granted an acquiring license in the country.
Securing an acquiring license allows Checkout.com to unlock its full proposition for its partners in the UAE, offering merchant acquiring solutions, payment aggregation services and cross-border fund transfers. Fundamentally, with direct acquiring, Checkout.com now has more control over processing outcomes and can drive best in class payment acceptance performance for its merchants.
In a conversation with SME10X at Seamless Middle East, Remo Giovanni Abbondandolo, General Manager in MENA for Checkout.com, added, “They (the merchants) have access to better onboarding, more transparent and lower costs as well as they now have the ability to be served better in this country, thanks to our ability to bring global expertise with a modern stack of technology.”
According to Abbondandolo, the company’s global standing and knowledge helped local authorities acknowledge its “acquiring capabilities”.
Guillaume Pousaz, CEO and Founder of Checkout.com, said, “The issuance of this license shows the level of trust, commitment and strength of the relationship we continue to have in serving both domestic and international brands to expand in the UAE. We’re proud of the small part we’ve played to increase the trust in digital payments and allow businesses in the digital economy to thrive.”
This kind of licence also offers UAE SMEs multiple options now making it easier for them to work with Checkout’s merchant partners when it comes to accepting payments through partnerships with local payment facilitators like Mama Pay that allows SME to get an account in less than a day.
Abbondandolo added, “Our license enables us to offer superior payment performance for our merchants by having more control over processing outcomes through our powerful platform.”
According to him, SMBs today definitely has more options than five years ago and, most importantly, more efficient options because thanks to modern tech companies like Checkout who are able to onboard mid-market enterprise merchants more efficiently, and quicker giving these SMBs more options and making payments more efficient.
Checkout confirmed that they are in the process of obtaining a similar license in Saudi Arabia. For the rest of the region, they will continue to work with their third party merchant partners.
While fintech and retail is a key area for them especially in the areas of cross border payments, Abbondandolo sees opportunities in travel, and streaming services. He said, “Travel used to be one of the strongest pillar in the region and we can see that is coming back very, very quickly. Another thing I want to say, we're also particularly focused on digital goods. We work with a lot of also streaming companies that from global players such as Netflix, but also local services like Angami.
Checkout.com has been serving the MENA region since 2014, with offices in both UAE and KSA to serve merchants with all major international credit and debit cards.
