First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB), the UAE’s largest bank and one of the world’s largest and safest financial institutions, has launched a new sound-based payment system through its digital wallet payit. The sound-based payment technology is the first of its kind in the region and one of the first integrated sound-based solutions in the world. FAB is launching its new payment solution during Gitex Shopper; which is taking place from October 2-6, 2018, and customers can utilise this service for their purchases during the event.
The sound based payments offer customers a “frictionless” and “contactless” experience. Customers can now use payit across many merchants in the UAE and make secure payments using their mobile phones by listening to the sound and clicking “pay”. Payit offers customers a range of payment services through person-to-person, bill payments, money transfers, splitting the bills in addition to dedicated “payit offers” from many outlets.
Payit creates value to merchants through offering economic, real-time settlement, with no required investment in new hardware. Sound-based payments can be made through electronic cash registers, point of sales (POS) machines, POD devices or even the mobile phones of merchants. It also provides integrated solutions by enabling real-time reporting, settlements, refund capabilities, transaction level mapping and reconciliation. Furthermore, it enables merchants to market their services and launch their offers to ensure optimised reach to the customers.
FAB is continuously investing in developing innovative solutions for clients to deliver value. Solutions like payit and sound based payments align to FAB’s commitment to the UAE’s goal to become a cashless economy and to driving digital solutions that benefit both residents and merchants alike.
This innovative mode of payment utilises sound waves to enable smart device interaction, independent of the technical hardware. The interoperability allows for contactless payment and frictionless communication between devices for an omni-channel experience for payit users. FAB partnered with Tonetag and Marshal to launch this service in the UAE.
Hana Al Rostamani, Group Head of the Personal Banking Group, said: “FAB is committed to bringing innovative solutions to its customers to enable them to grow stronger. The sound-based payment technology on payit was developed in collaboration with our fintech partners. The move, yet again, demonstrates that we are open to working with the right fintech companies to provide value to our clients. The payments industry is going through an enormous evolution and at FAB we aim to be at the forefront in driving innovation”.
Ramana Kumar, Head of Payments, said: “Payit is a lifecycle solution for all our customers’ needs and is an easy, secure and convenient alternative to cash. After successfully rolling out the UAE’s first QR-based payment system in March, we focused on launching a game-changing UAE-wide solution that is built around communication between smart devices. We look forward to expanding payit’s acceptance across all merchants in the UAE. Our objective is to enable UAE-wide usage of payit utilising existing infrastructure and delivering a safe, secure and forward-looking payment experience”