The Central Bank of Kuwait has asked the banks to conduct the economic feasibility study before establishing a joint stock company specialized in the field of electronic payment, in order to develop and operate the company’s retail payment systems, Arabic daily Al Rai reported
The Central Bank has stressed on the need for banks to attract highly qualified personnel to manage and operate retail payment systems efficiently and effectively in accordance with security standards, in addition to its keenness to keep abreast with the latest global technological developments to meet market requirements and customer needs characterized by high flexibility.
The sources pointed out that some banks have recommended modifying the proposed company’s business model, indicating that they do not object to the new company being independent of the shared automated banking services company ‘K-Net’, and that it be entrusted with the basic business task of developing and operating retail payment systems, but they do not prefer the new company to be services cloned on K-Net pattern.
The Central Bank has told the banks that after reviewing the proposed timetable to establish the company, operate it, and carry out its work, the company must be established according to the initial plan that has been submitted, taking into account the following:
— Submit a monthly report on the developments.
— Presenting the results of the economic feasibility study for the establishment of the company, before the procedures for incorporation
— Presenting a proposal for the governance of the retail payments systems
— Ensure that the project schedule includes an assessment of security systems and products before releasing them to the public, based on the cyber security strategic framework for the banking sector in Kuwait.
— Presenting the policies and work procedures related to teaching the electronic payment of funds before starting the procedures for registering the company as a practitioner.
New company’s business will include
- Automated clearing system to provide retail payment transfer services, which are characterized by a large number of low-value operations, resulting from bill payments, government services, salary payments, etc.
- The clearing system for payments via smart devices: one of the fast payment systems and allow continuous provision of the service to customers through immediate payment and the settlement of participants’ payments automatically with the automated clearing system.
- The electronic system for displaying and paying bills and offering several options to the beneficiaries, by sending the bills to the users and then settling them with the automated clearing system.
- Financial Claims Management System — to create and exchange dispute cases over payments between banks, in addition to managing the case from beginning to end in a secure and flexible manner.
- Reporting and follow-up system — to display data in an illustrated form such as charts, graphs, and summary figures to facilitate monitoring, analysis and preparing reports for decision makers.