Tech-driven payment processing industry set to grow in big way

By Satish Kanady / The Peninsula

Payment processing business is fast becoming an integral part of Qatar’s financial ecosystem. The industry is growing at an exponential rate in Qatar and is quickly becoming the backbone of Qatar’s critical micro small and middle enterprises (MSME) sector, according to an industry leader.

QPAY, the country’s pioneer Fintech solution provider, which process a high-value money every month, is witnessing over 300 percent year-on-year growth in its businesses.

The homegrown company, which is the preferred Fintech partner for several leading local and international banks and financial institutions, and premier solutions provider for the crucial SME sector, was crowned the Banking Technology leader and the Middle East’s leading Payment Enterprise, recently.

Launched in 2014, QPAY is now the largest Fintech solution provider in Qatar, with high-profile partnerships with MasterCard, VISA, AMEX and Union Pay as well as the top five largest banks in Qatar. Today, QPAY offers a suite of electronic payment solutions to more than 10,000 Qatari businesses and 280,000 consumers. QPAY’s Fintech solutions and electronic payment offerings focus primarily on servicing Qatar’s MSMEs, business markets, and low-wage labour markets.

“We are a technology platform that helps banks issue the cards, transact and check the balances in the accounts. At the end of the day, money moves from banks to banks. We don’t touch the money”, QPAY International CEO & Founder Nebil Ben Aissa (pictured), told The Peninsula in an interview.

Nebil, a veteran in electronic payments, mobile banking, cloud computing, social commerce, and virtual currency, says cash is fast giving way to virtual money across the world. Qatar’s electronic payment industry is poised for a great stride. The industry will witness steady growth in the run up to FIFA 2022.

“We have a system to deal with companies all the way to the back and to the banks. The banks come to us ask us to outsource the service. QNB, Mashreq and UBL are some of our major banking partners”, Nebil said.

According to Nebil, QPay is playing a significant role in Qatar’s efforts for ‘financial inclusion’ of people in the local economy. With the FIFA 2022 fast approaching, the size of Qatar’s low-income labour force is set to increase manifolds  in the coming years. The banks believe they cannot make money out of serving this crowd and they don’t want their branches to be crowded by this section of customers. These banks will be forced outsource more services to the payment processors.

The QPAY Payroll WPS (wage protection ssystem) cloud based solution is fully compliant with Qatari labour laws and makes payroll hassle-free and we are getting great response to this service. Powered by Mastecard, the QPAY Card has it’s own. The QPAY Payroll solution is the only solution in Qatar that offers free Salary Information File (SIF) submission in compliance with the Qatar Department of Labour & Social Services’ WPS.

QPay’s business model demands lot of security,and  lot of technology infrastructure. QPAY is the only entity in Qatar which has the highest data security point that you can see in visa, MasterCard and American Express.

On QPay’s future plans, Nebil said : “QPay is looking to reinvent its business by bringing the innovative blockchain into its security stream. The technological side of blockchain is important for me as one who is in the business of payment industry. Just like the internet, blockchain will challenge many of our business models; don’t fight it; embrace and leverage it.”

“As of now, I can tell you our system is 100 percent secure, But as a techie, I am looking to bringing the advantage of blockchain into our model. Lot of banks has already taken ideas from blockchain solution. We are trying to put in some blockchain ideas into our system, which would make our security system one billion-times more secure”, he said.