It Ain't No Big Thing (But It's Growing)
Real-time payments and digital wallets in the Middle East
Nation building requires infrastructure, both physical and digital. Nowadays, digital infrastructure includes a real-time payment system and an ecosystem of digital wallets that use it. Wherever you see physical infrastructure being built to transform a nation, such as the modern rail network and urban development in China, or airports, ports and roads in Cambodia, you see a modern real-time payments system.
The same is true of the Middle East where a surge of massive infrastructure projects is underway.
These include, among many, the Burj Bighatti residential tower in Dubai, the Etihad Rail network in the UAE, the Red Sea Project tourist resort in Saudi Arabia and Lusail City in Qatar. They are accompanied by investments in digital infrastructure, including a range of new real-time payment systems in the region.
Real-Time Payments Landscape in the Middle East
Table 1 lists the real-time Account-to-Account (A2A) clearing systems and digital wallets in eight countries (out of 15) in the Middle East (excluding North African countries)1, covering 79m people or 26% of the region’s population (302m).
Table 1 – Countries with real-time clearing systems and A2A digital wallets in the Middle East
Table 1 shows that many countries in the Middle East operating real-time A2A payment clearing systems also have a diverse set of A2A digital wallets. In common with many other countries elsewhere in the world, especially Asia, these wallets are becoming very popular, such as STC Pay in Saudi Arabia (part of STC Bank, the country’s first Fintech bank) and Zain Cash in Jordan.
Real-Time Payments per Capita
Figure 1 shows the real-time payments per capita for four countries where data is available (leaving out Bahrain, Kuwait, Lebanon and the UAE where data is difficult to find).
Figure 1 - Real-time payments per capita Middle East, including on-us bank payments
Saudi Arabia has the highest usage in 2024 at 21 real-time payments per capita, followed by Jordan at 14 real-time payments per capita.
International Comparison
Table 2 compares the real-time payments per capita for the Middle East with the regions covered in previous articles. It shows that the Middle East is a long way behind the other regions, including Europe.
Table 2 – Real-time payments per capita regional comparison (averages weighted by population for countries with a real-time payment system)
Qatar launched its Fawran real-time payment system just over a year ago and is just starting but the other countries shown in Figure 1 have had a real-time payment system for at least four years and adoption has been slow.
The reasons for this are probably due to relatively low use of bank accounts – Saudi Arabia at 74% of the adult population and Jordan at 47% for example2, high card usage by those with bank accounts and slow adoption of A2A digital wallets using QR codes for in-store and ecommerce payments. The average also excludes the UAE (due to lack of published data), one of the most developed economies in the region, which is likely to have higher usage of real-time A2A payments than most of the countries in Figure 1.
However, as shown by the latest annual growth rates in Figure 1, real-time payments are growing rapidly and the Middle East looks poised to adopt real-time payments at scale.
Cash Withdrawals per Capita
A further reason for low usage of real-time payments in the Middle East may be high cash usage. In analysing other regions, I have used cash withdrawals per capita as a proxy for cash usage.
However, data is very difficult to find for cash withdrawals in Middle Eastern countries and where available, figures are very low and insufficient to include in the graph format I use normally. I suspect this may be because most cash is withdrawn from bank branches rather than ATMs.
25 years ago, I recall colleagues saying that introducing online banking in the Middle East was slow, as visiting the local bank branch and queuing to get served was a sociable activity, especially for women. I have no idea if the same is true today but if so, preferences for branch banking may also be a factor in the lower adoption rate of digital wallets and real-time payments.
UPI International
The Middle East has a large number of migrant workers, mainly from Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and the Philippines and is a major source of outbound remittances to these countries. There is little interoperability between remittance services and national real-time payment systems, so migrant workers have little impact on real-time payment volumes.
However, UPI International, operated by NPCI in India, is in operation in Oman, Qatar and UAE. This allows non-resident Indians working in these countries and Indian tourists/visitors to use a UPI wallet linked to their Indian bank account to pay local merchants with A2A payments. Settlement is usually through the merchant’s local acquirer and is unlikely to be real-time but this could change as acceptance of real-time A2A digital wallet payments (and QR code usage) increases. UPI International has ambitious expansion plans and its usage across the Middle East is likely to increase.
Conclusion
Real-time payment systems have been implemented in a number of countries in the Middle East over the past five years, although there is no sign that the three largest by population – Iran, Iraq and Yemen will do so for low value/retail payments in the near future.
Adoption in the countries with real-time payment systems has been slow but looks to have accelerated recently. As nation building in the region gathers pace, expect to see real-time payment volumes increase significantly over the next few years, in particular in Jordan, Oman and Qatar.
This time next year (May 2026), I will report back on progress.
Turkey is excluded as well. I have covered Turkey under Asia Pacific. North African countries will be included under Africa.
Global Findex 2021 data: https://www.worldbank.org/en/publication/globalfindex/Data