The Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA) on Tuesday announced the completion of a number of initiatives to develop the Saudi Payment Network (SPAN) in its new identity "Mada." The central bank has upgraded Mada infrastructure to process more than seven-fold its Point of Sale (POS)/ATM transactions as well as to increase its speed and service range, in addition to reducing associated fraud risk, according to a SAMA press statement. SAMA has completed reviewing and developing the technical aspects of the system in line with domestic market needs and global trends. Accordingly, it has developed a set of standards that will raise the service level to cope with the economic growth of the Kingdom. The great capacity expansion of Mada system has enabled banks to scale up the provision of POS terminals. The number of terminals increased by 86,000 to 225,000 In 2015, up 62.4% from 2014. In 2015, other sectors were included in Mada such as fuel stations, cafes and fast food restaurants in addition to the expansion in retail sector in general. This was in the context of expanding POS terminals and reducing dependence on cash. Growth in terminals was accompanied with a growth 22.2% of in transactions to reach to 443 million transactions. The value of transactions also increased 12.8% to SR191.7 billion in the same period. This reflects the trust established in Mada as a secure and fast payment means. The expansion and upgrading of Mada system has helped in time-efficiency, as the time consumed for completing transactions through Mada has fallen to 6 seconds from 25 seconds in the pre-upgrade period. SAMA has highlighted that it devoting great attention to raising card data security and reducing the risk of fraud by applying the highest security standard as one of the key pillars of Mada. The number of cash withdrawal transactions through Mada totaled 754.5 million in 2015, up 20.3% from 2014. Transaction values increased 19.5% in 2015 to SR435 billion from SR364 billion in 2014. The upgrade of Mada has also involved additional features, such as allowing cardholders to raise their daily purchase limit through POS terminals from SR20,000 to SR 60,000 upon request. Atheer service is also a new service that allows cardholders to make contactless payments in a secure, flexible and fast manner without inserting the card into the POS terminal device for any purchase with an amount of no more than SR100. This service is currently on trial at some merchants and is expected to be officially launched at the end of September 2016. — SG
