National ATM and Point of Sale Switch (NAPS) has handled nearly 120mn transactions in 2020; QCB said and noted it remains the most widely used inter-bank payment system in Qatar.
NAPS is the electronic payment gateway used for switching and settling of all local and GCC interbank debit card transactions.
While the number of transactions through the ATM channel declined substantially by 15%, the POS transactions remained at the 2019 level and QPay, the e-commerce channel, grew by 155%.
The seamless support extended by the financial institutions and the merchants in providing contactless card payments for in-store and online purchases to the consumers during the pandemic to avoid cash and contact with payment terminals attributed to such a large-scale migration from cash payments to POS and e-payments.
QATCH: The retail payment system QATCH that facilitates settlement of bulk direct credit and direct debit transactions handled nearly 8.8mn transactions in 2020.
As in the previous year, transactions processed in QATCH grew in both value (25.3%) and volume (21.4%) terms over the previous year.
The growth is partially attributed to the migration of cheque transactions to QATCH in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.