Standard Chartered, Amazon To Offer Installment Payments In UAE

Standard Chartered and Amazon.ae, the company’s United Arab Emirates website, are launching a new installment payments method for customers, according to The Fintech Times.

Standard Chartered cardholders will now be able to convert purchases to monthly installments for up to a year without having to call a bank or fill out any forms, the report stated.

Payfort, an Amazon company set up in 2013 to help with payments throughout the Arab world, will be offering the new option through its online payment gateway, according to the report. Payfort managing director Omar Soudodi said the offering would help to bolster financial choice.

“We have seamlessly integrated this new payment option into the Amazon.ae checkout journey so that customers can avail of the new pay by installments option without needing to leave the Amazon.ae store,” he said in the report. “Trust and convenience are key when it comes to payment methods, and we will continue innovating on behalf of our customers in this space.”

Sethu Ramaswamy, regional head of Products and Segments for Africa and Middle East at Standard Chartered, noted the increasing popularity of greater flexibility and convenience in the region.

“Installment plans give consumers greater purchasing power by allowing them to better manage their cash flows,” he said, according to the report.

Such buy now, pay later (BNPL) schematics have become popular in digital payments, particularly during the pandemic while people have often been short on money. Major companies like Visa are getting involved in the new format, sometimes called alt-credit, offering the new service due to its rampant demand. Visa launched a pilot program, Visa Installments in the U.S. in July.

In separate news, Standard Chartered launched its Banking-as-a-Service solution, nexus, earlier this year, aiming to let digital platforms like eCommerce or social media sites implement their own credit cards, loans and savings accounts under their own brands.