Real-Time Payment System WAMD within Kuwait Records Over a Million Accounts in Its Initial Year Operation
In June 2024, Kuwait introduced WAMD, a revolutionary real-time payment system that has rapidly gained traction and become one of the world's most rapidly adopted real-time payment initiatives. Kuwait's national electronic banking company, KNET, and global payments technology leader, ACI Worldwide, collaborated to build the central infrastructure for WAMD. This interoperable, nationwide scheme enables account-to-account (A2A) payments through a bank's mobile app or internet banking service using a phone number.
With WAMD, consumers can now transfer money instantly and securely, leading to a significant shift in habits towards convenience and efficiency while reducing reliance on cash. Within the first three months of its launch, WAMD onboarded approximately 30% of Kuwait's banked population, demonstrating an impressive adoption rate. Since then, real-time transactions have experienced a more than 12-fold increase compared to 2024.
All banks in Kuwait are now part of WAMD's network, making it accessible for users nationwide. This convenience and ease of use has been highly praised by the country's banking sector. In a statement, KNET's CEO, Esam Alkheshnam, attributed the system's success to its focus on delivering a safe and reliable payment environment, enhancing existing infrastructure, and improving service efficiency.
Looking ahead, KNET plans to integrate Kuwait's fintech players into WAMD, enabling A2A real-time payments in Electronic Fund Transfer Point-of-Sale terminals using dynamic QR codes. The company is also exploring the implementation of the "Request to Pay" service and fostering digital transformation in line with Kuwait's national vision.
The success of WAMD further solidifies the Middle East's position as a leader in payments modernization. According to ACI Worldwide's Prime Time for Real-Time 2024 report, the Middle East is the fastest-growing real-time payments market in the world for two consecutive years. Real-time payments are not only fueling innovation in the payments sector but are also powerful enablers for economic growth, financial inclusion, and meeting customers' evolving expectations.
ACI Worldwide has a proven track record of powering real-time schemes globally and helping banks, fintechs, and other payment service providers in the ecosystem connect to the schemes and offer cutting-edge financial services. With solutions that move trillions of dollars through more than one billion transactions daily, ACI serves all 10 of the world's largest financial institutions by asset value.
KNET, a pioneer in electronic payments in Kuwait since 1992, continues to adopt state-of-the-art technologies and adhere to the highest global standards. Meanwhile, ACI Worldwide remains an original innovator in global payments technology, helping drive the future of intelligent, secure, and efficient payments.
- The collaboration between KNET and ACI Worldwide has been instrumental in the digital transformation of Kuwait's finance business, as they worked together to build the central cloud infrastructure for WAMD.
- The success of WAMD has positioned the Middle East, including Kuwait, at the forefront of global payments modernization, making it a fastest-growing real-time payments market according to ACI Worldwide's Prime Time for Real-Time 2024 report.
- In its continuous efforts to foster digital transformation, KNET has plans to integrate fintech players into WAMD and explore the implementation of the "Request to Pay" service, enabling more efficient digital payments in line with Kuwait's national vision.
