Global: UAE Central Bank Approves Direct Debit System Marketplace Launch

Residents and citizens of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) can now use a paperless direct debit marketplace.

The UAE Central Bank has approved the launch of the marketplace developed by Direct Debit System, enabling payers and merchants to use it to make recurring monthly payments and including it in the UAE Direct Debit System (UAEDDS), the Khaleej Times reported Friday (March 17, 2023).

“We are delighted to be given the official go ahead and are grateful to the Central Bank and its leadership for allowing us to be part of its digital payments transformation agenda for the country,” Direct Debit System Founder and CEO Ummair Butt said in the report.

The direct debit marketplace provides a place where consumers can make all their payments, is accessible only through UAEPASS and is compliant with the Dubai Electronic Security Center (DESC), according to the report.

It is free of charge for payers and is expected to be used for a variety of recurring expenses and subscription-based services, the report said.

For merchants, it provides a solution that does not impact their relationship with their banking services provider, offers a cost-effective, fixed-fee structure and provides time-saving digital reconciliation, per the report.

“Although UAEDDS has the capability of payer-driven payments, taking that route poses an incredible challenge for merchants to identify and reconcile a payment popping up in their bank,” Butt said in the report. “It is our belief that because direct debit is an instrument to execute a contract of payment, the merchant must have control over the terms, therefore initiate the DD payment process and retain the control. DDMP offers exactly that.”

This news comes on the heels of other FinTech partnerships in the UAE.

On March 8, Mashreq, a leading financial institution in the region, said it will leverage i2c’s software-as-a-service (SaaS) payment and banking solutions to provide new products to consumers, merchants and FinTechs.

Three days earlier, on March 5, a partnership was announced that will provide Huawei’s FinTech and mobile money platform to Ooredoo’s operating companies in the information and communications technology (ICT) space in the region to simplify everyday transactions.