Palestine Monetary Authority Pushes National ePayment System

The Palestine Monetary Authority (PMA)—considered the Central Bank of Palestine—announced it is working with BPC Banking Technologies to improve the retail payments infrastructure in Palestine, reported Finextra. PMA reported it aims to promote a reduction in use of cash and paper checks in order to move towards electronic payments.

According to the article, BPC’s SmartVisa payment technology will be deployed to create a combined ATM network. The initiative will allow customers in Palestine to begin using any cash machine, regardless of which banks they are registered with. The second phase of the initiative will include a domestic routing and settlement of POS transactions with debit cards issued by any bank in the country.

“The project will reflect positively on the national economy, as it will inevitably achieve the PMA’s efforts to shift from a society reliant on cash money to one which utilizes modernized non-cash payment instruments in its daily transactions in order to expand the use of the latest electronic payment methods,” said Jihad Al Wazier, governor, PMA.

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