Payments in the Middle East: The Next Frontier
For businesses in the region, this presents huge opportunities, as well as challenges.
Ten years ago, the Middle East had no real-time payment networks. Today, every GCC state runs one, Jordan has CliQ, Egypt has its Instant Payment Network, and AFAQ connects every GCC central bank. Inside the region, money moves in seconds. Cross a border and it drops back into the correspondent banking chain, where the old cost, delay and opacity are waiting.
The question is no longer whether to connect to real-time cross-border infrastructure. It is how fast you can.
This report traces how the region built the world's fastest-growing real-time payments market, maps the gaps that remain for businesses moving money in and out, and sets out the role infrastructure partners now play in closing them.
What you'll learn inside
- The full picture of the region's real-time networks, and what actually connects to what today.
- How much cost, delay and opacity return the moment a payment leaves the region.
- What regulators have put in place, from AFAQ to open finance mandates to the Digital Dirham.
- Where the growth is: remittance corridors, B2B flows and record fintech investment.
- How infrastructure partners extend reach beyond the region's own rails.
GUIDE UPDATE
Coming soon.
We are still preparing this guide. Talk to our team in the meantime.
