French digital payments company IDEMIA snaps up Saudi company

Dubai: A digital payment enabling company, IDEMIA, has acquired Pcard, a card personalisation bureau in Saudi Arabia. The former will now be able to offer an "expanded" range of card payment services and solutions to the Kingdom’s banking and payment sector.

The International Smart Card Factory Company - or Pcard - was founded in 2008 and offers smart card personalisation, mobile banking, digital wallets, and card inventory tracking and management. It currently serves nine domestic banks.

“This acquisition stems from our commitment to improve the lives of hundreds of millions by enabling trusted and secure access to financial services for everyone," said Julia Schoonenberg, Senior Vice-President for MEA territory, Financial Institutions, IDEMIA, which is headquartered in France. "We do this by providing innovative solutions that enable a unique, secure and convenient payment experience to the end consumer.

"Pcard is the perfect fit for us.”

It was in 2016 that the Saudi government announced the move towards a cashless economy. As a result of these efforts, the number of cashless PoS (point-of-sale) transactions in 2019 reached 1.6 billion, a rise of 57 per cent over the previous year, while contactless PoS transactions hit 918.5 billion in 2019, an increase of 442 per cent in 2018, with bank cards and smartphones representing 57 per cent of these.

The kingdom is expected to have over 6.4 million credit cards and 28 million debit cards in circulation by 2023.