Dubai to Create RAPID (Real-time Automated Payments Infrastructure Dubai)

Finextra: Dubai to construct real-time payments system

Dubai has enacted a new Payment System Settlement Finality (PSSF) Law that creates the legal foundation for building a regional transaction processing hub for local processing of payments and other ancillary services.

The first such legislation in the Gulf, the new PSSF Law paves the way for the launch of a Real-time Automated Payments platform (Rapid) in the Dubai International Financial Centre, to provide transaction processing services to banks and their customers both in DIFC and the wider Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

Omar Bin Sulaiman, governor of the DIFC says: "The enactment of the PSSF Law forms part of a comprehensive infrastructure that DIFC is creating to catalyse the development of the financial services industry in the region."

He says DIFC has adopted legal best practices from Europe, Hong Kong and New Zealand, among others, to ensure finality of designated payments.

The legislation will assist Gulf-based companies in conducting legally sound payments within the region instead of having to use offshore infrastructures which often do not settle within local operating hours.