With a target of doubling its customer base to six million by 2021, Saudia Arabian digital wallet STCPay will operate through banking software company Temenos to expand its payments and mobile banking reach throughout the Middle East.
API-driven real-time payments platforms Temenos Payments and Temenos Transact will operate on a private cloud to provide a single platform for STCPay to innovate and update digital services for retail customers and consumers.
Temenos Payments provides straight-through processing rates on most transactions and will integrate with Temenos Transact, a next-generation core banking product. STCPay says the arrangement will help it scale as digital payment volume grows and help it move toward cashless banking in the wake of COVID-19.
"We are excited to partner with Temenos and unlock the vast opportunities of digital payments in the Middle East," Ahmed Alenazi, CEO of STCPay, said in a Tuesday press release. "With Temenos' market-leading technology and rich banking functionality, we aim to redefine payments, and offer digital experiences that integrate into our customers' lifestyles."
STC Group launched STCPay in 2018 to operate as a mobile wallet app in Saudia Arabia with digital payment experiences and secure real-time payments to businesses and consumers.
The Temenos Saudi model bank will deliver pre-configured, country-specific capabilities and regulatory compliance to support the STCPay rollout to a new platform in the coming months. With model bank capabilities for more than 150 countries, Temenos says its software will support onboarding of new geographies across the Gulf Cooperation Council and scale as STCPay's business grows.
"We are seeing a significant increase in demand for digital payments across the Middle East and Africa region, and COVID-19 is only accelerating this trend," Jean-Paul Mergeai, managing director of Middle East and Africa at Temenos, said in the release. "Our cloud-native, AI-driven software supports the exceptional digital experiences that our customers want, but it also provides the business resilience and security that banks need now more than ever."
