The Qatar Central Bank (QCB) has granted licence to Noqoody Payment Service Company, a Qatari online payment services provider that supports online payment gateway and serves as an electronic alternative to traditional paper methods like cheques and money orders.
With this, the number of companies licensed by the QCB in the fintech sector now stands at five, indicating the country’s growing encouragement to financial technology or fintech companies.
Skip Cash was granted a licence by the QCB in November 2022. The central bank had granted licences to Ooredoo Money and Vodafone Qatar's iPay.
The QCB recognises the importance of the fintech as a key tool to achieve long-term development prospects for the financial sector in the country.
Highlighting that issuing licences is an initial step to include all companies providing digital payment services under its own supervision; QCB had said the step will “contribute to the development of the financial technology sector and enhance financial inclusion” in the country.
Noqoody manages the authorisation and transfer of funds between customers’ credit card and bank account. With its payment gateway, it ensures that credit card data is transmitted securely from website to internet merchant accounts and card providers.
It is empowered by its edge, scalable IT platform and advanced technology that processes millions of transactions daily and has the capacity to process 10 times more. Noqoody offers a comprehensive statistical online report and a transparent view of all transactions in real time.
In August 2022, the central bank announced the launch of Google Pay in the country after completing the necessary tests. It had tweeted that all global electronic wallet services for cards such as Apple Pay and Samsung Pay are accepted in the country.
The QCB recognises the importance of the fintech as a key tool to achieve long-term development prospects for the financial sector in the country.
