Two Fintech companies are teaming up to develop a new banking service for young people living in Saudi Arabia, who may prefer to make cashless payments from their mobile devices.
Digital Bank challenger Moven, which was established by Brett King in 2010, will be partnering with STC Pay, a digital wallet app that lets users make online purchases, pay utility bills, and send funds to contacts via their smartphones.
Moven has expanded its operations during the past few years, by offering its proprietary technology to large banks across the globe, including Canada’s TD Bank, Westpac in New Zealand and Indonesia’s BCA.
As reported by American Banker, Ahmed Alenazi, CEO at STC Pay, and Brett King, founder and CEO at Moven, recently signed their partnership agreement.
Moven’s operations will be carried out through a license from the Electronic Money Institution, issued by the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority and is part of STC Group, a leading telecommunications company in the Middle Eastern Kingdom.
After completing its testing or pilot phase, STC Pay has reportedly managed to attract 2 million users in just 10 months. Saudi Arabia has a population of around 35 million.
Both Fintech firms said their strategic partnership will help them in growing their operations faster than they would have been able to, if they operated on their own.
King remarked:
“Moven has 10 years under its belt developing front-end architecture for challenger banks. The modern-day challenger bank is not just about the core system and front end, but it has [artificial intelligence] capabilities and data science layers.”
For instance, Moven’s algorithms are able to anticipate or predict consumers’ needs and requirements, including their inability to make payments to meet expenses or settle bills in the near term.
Moven says it is developing the user experience for everyday banking services in STC Pay, and will also offer access to a private cloud platform that’s integrated into a core banking unit and payments processing channel.
Ahmed Alenazi, CEO of STC Pay, stated:
“One of the pillars of our strategies is to be customer-centric.”
He noted that there are currently 13 local banks in and several branches of overseas banks in the Middle Eastern country. However, none of them are offering customized financial services, Alenazi claims.
He explained:
“If you go to YouTube, you want to see videos that you like. We want a unique service that meets the requirements of this generation.”
That might include messaging tied to users’ financial psychological profile.
The new banking products and services will be introduced in Saudi Arabia in the coming months and will reportedly include a bank account, online onboarding and digital and physical payment cards.
They might launch a new micro-lending service in the future, and expand operations into other areas throughout Asia.
King added:
“I think there will be more contactless and digital engagement, and we will be moving away from physical cash. This is a move to optimize customer support and service in the digital world. Under current circumstances, that is not only a good thing, but seems necessary.”