International Payment Gateway for MENA: A Cross-Border Guide
An international payment gateway for MENA lets one merchant accept cards, wallets and national payment schemes from shoppers in several Middle East and North Africa countries, then settle the money into an account the merchant controls. For cross border sellers, connecting the gateway is the easy part. Local methods, licensing and currency take most of the work.
Each Gulf market runs its own domestic rails. Saudi shoppers pay with mada, Kuwait has KNET, Bahrain has BENEFIT and Qatar has NAPS. A checkout that shows only Visa and Mastercard still takes payments in all of them, but it skips the schemes local shoppers use every day. The Saudi rules are covered in full in our guide to payment gateways in Saudi Arabia.
What does an international payment gateway in MENA need to handle?
A MENA payment gateway has four jobs. It must accept international card brands, connect to the domestic scheme in each country you target, satisfy the regulator wherever it collects or settles your money, and pay you in a currency your finance team can use. Providers differ most on the second and third.
International brands such as Visa, Mastercard, American Express, UnionPay, Apple Pay and PayPal work across borders with little extra setup. Domestic schemes do not. Your provider has to be connected to each national switch, usually through a local license or a local acquiring bank.
KNET was set up in 1992 by Kuwait’s banks, connects ATMs and point-of-sale terminals across the country and runs an online payment gateway, as Kuwait Times reported. Qatar Central Bank introduced NAPS in 1996 for debit and prepaid cards at ATMs, terminals and e-commerce checkouts, and it accepts cards from QCB-regulated banks and from GCC and Egyptian banks, according to QCB data reported by Gulf Times.
How digital are payments across MENA already?
Gulf shoppers already pay digitally as a habit. The measures differ by country, so read the figures below side by side, not as a ranking.
Electronic payments made up 85% of retail payments in Saudi Arabia in 2025, on 14.6 billion transactions, according to the Saudi Central Bank. In Qatar, e-commerce accounted for 26% of the QR13.9 billion processed through the national payment system in April 2025 (QCB via Gulf Times). Bahrain’s BENEFIT recorded 467.9 million Fawri+ transfers in 2025, up 11.3% on 2024 (BENEFIT). The UAE e-commerce market reached AED 32.3 billion in 2024, according to EZDubai’s report with Euromonitor International.
Which local payment methods matter in each MENA market?
Most markets below have a domestic card scheme or a central bank payment rail that local shoppers use daily. The table lists the regulator, the local methods worth planning for and the currency.
| Market | Payments regulator | Local methods to plan for | Currency |
|---|---|---|---|
| Saudi Arabia | Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) licenses providers; Saudi Payments certifies for mada | mada cards, mada in Apple Pay, SADAD, STC Pay, Tabby and Tamara | SAR |
| United Arab Emirates | Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE) | Jaywan national card scheme; Aani instant payments with QR | AED |
| Kuwait | Central Bank of Kuwait | KNET debit cards and online gateway | KWD |
| Bahrain | Central Bank of Bahrain | BENEFIT services: BenefitPay app, Fawri+ transfers, Fawateer bills | BHD |
| Qatar | Qatar Central Bank (QCB) | NAPS debit and prepaid cards; Fawran instant payments | QAR |
| Jordan | Central Bank of Jordan | JoPACC rails: CliQ instant payments, JoMoPay wallets, eFAWATEERcom bills | JOD |
| Iraq | Central Bank of Iraq | International cards; ask your provider which local options it connects | IQD |
| Lebanon | Banque du Liban | International cards; ask your provider which local options it connects | LBP |
Some of these rails are new. Al Etihad Payments, a CBUAE subsidiary, launched the Aani instant payments platform on 16 October 2023 with phone-number transfers and QR payments at merchants (CBUAE announcement). Nationwide issuance of Jaywan cards began in July 2026, and Network International added Jaywan to its e-commerce gateway (Gulf News). In Qatar, Fawran instant payments already carried 15% of payment system value in April 2025 (Gulf Times).
In Jordan, the national rails are run by JoPACC, owned by the Central Bank of Jordan and the country’s banks (JoPACC). CliQ, launched in June 2020, moves money instantly between bank accounts and mobile wallets, and merchant acquirers can connect to it directly (JoPACC).
CliQ, Fawran, Fawri+ and Aani were built for account-to-account transfers. Ask your provider whether it supports a rail as an online checkout method before you plan around it.
Who regulates payments in each market, and why should a merchant care?
Each MENA market has a central bank that decides who may collect and settle payments there. A merchant selling its own goods does not need a payments license. Its provider does, in every country where it holds or settles the merchant’s money, and the two largest Gulf markets draw that line in the same place.
In Saudi Arabia, SAMA Circular 46004436 of 24 July 2024 says a provider offering only technical linkage needs Saudi Payments permits but no SAMA license, and it may not contract merchants, run KYC and AML checks, or finalize settlement into merchant accounts. In the UAE, the Retail Payment Services and Card Schemes Regulation excludes technical service providers that never take possession of the money, while payment aggregation (receiving shoppers’ payments, pooling them and passing them on to merchants) is a licensed service.
The practical test follows from that. Ask every provider which legal entity collects and settles your funds in each country, then check that entity on the regulator’s public register. SAMA publishes its list of licensed payment service providers, and the CBUAE’s licensing page has a register you can filter by license type, including Retail Payment Services.
Questions to ask before you add a new MENA market
- Which licensed entity collects and settles our funds in this country?
- Which domestic schemes are live at checkout today, and which are only planned?
- In which currency is the shopper charged, and in which currency are we paid?
- Who handles refunds and disputes on local scheme transactions?
- Which documents do you need from us: commercial registration, trade license, local bank account?
Should you start with cross-border or local acquiring?
Cross-border acquiring means a provider in your home market processes payments from shoppers abroad. Local acquiring means an acquirer inside the shopper’s country processes them. Start cross-border to test demand, then move a market to local acquiring once its order volume justifies the extra onboarding and reporting work.
| Factor | Cross-border acquiring | Local acquiring |
|---|---|---|
| Who processes the payment | An acquirer outside the shopper’s country | An acquirer licensed in the shopper’s country |
| Domestic schemes | Usually international brands and global wallets only | National schemes such as mada, KNET or NAPS become possible |
| Co-badged debit cards | Often treated as international transactions | Can route over the domestic network |
| Onboarding | One contract, lighter paperwork | More documents; some providers ask for a local entity or bank account |
| Best for | Testing a market | Markets that already bring steady orders |
The routing row has a direct cost. On a co-badged mada card, domestic transactions in SAR route over the mada network, while international or foreign-currency transactions route over Visa or Mastercard, according to processor documentation such as Checkout.com’s mada guide. A store in Dubai charging Saudi shoppers in AED therefore reaches them as an international card payment, with the cost and approval behavior that comes with it.
How should you plan currencies and settlement?
Decide three things before launch: the currency the shopper sees and pays in, the currency you are settled in, and who converts between them. Every conversion has a cost, and each extra currency adds a reconciliation stream. Our guide to multi-currency payment gateways explains the options.
If you offer dynamic currency conversion, card scheme rules apply. Visa requires the merchant to show both currencies, the exchange rate and any markup, and to let the cardholder actively choose, with no pre-selected option (Visa). Pricing natively in local currency avoids that prompt, but only makes sense where you can settle or hedge that currency.
Tax follows the market too. The UAE charges VAT at 5% through the Federal Tax Authority, and Saudi Arabia and the other markets run their own rules. Split tax, fees and refunds by country in your reports from day one.
Why choose HyperPay for cross-border selling across MENA?
HyperPay is the natural first choice for merchants who sell from or into Saudi Arabia, the region’s largest market. It is headquartered in Riyadh with offices in Jordan and the UAE, and serves merchants across Bahrain, Lebanon, Iraq, Qatar and Kuwait. A regional seller gets one provider with a licensed Saudi base and teams on the ground in two more markets.
The Saudi base is checkable. HyperPay appears on SAMA’s register of licensed payment service providers as Hyperpay Inc Saudi Information Systems Technology Company, an Electronic Money Institution, unified number 7016872546, license valid until 29/12/2029. Saudi Payments has separately permitted HyperPay as a Payment Technology Service Provider and as an eMSP Payment Gateway. HyperPay is certified to PCI DSS v4.0.1 Level 1, ISO/IEC 27001:2022 and ISO 22301.
On methods, HyperPay supports mada, Visa, Mastercard, American Express, STC Pay, UnionPay, Apple Pay, Tabby, Tamara, SADAD and PayPal. UnionPay matters for cross-border sales: in 2019 HyperPay became the first Middle East based payment service provider to let online merchants accept UnionPay cards. HyperPay has also signed a collaboration agreement with Capital Bank, whose payments and acquiring business covers Jordan and Iraq.
The HyperPay payment gateway handles online acceptance. Marketplaces that pay sellers in several countries can add HyperSplit, the payouts API for marketplaces, and HyperPay Protect adds fraud screening. For each market outside Saudi Arabia, confirm with HyperPay’s team which local schemes and settlement currencies are available for your business. UAE-based sellers can read our guide to choosing a payment gateway in the UAE.
Frequently asked questions
What is a cross border payment gateway?
A cross border payment gateway lets a merchant in one country accept payments from shoppers in other countries. It usually covers international card brands and wallets, converts or passes through currencies, and settles funds to the merchant’s home account. Local schemes such as KNET or mada normally need a provider connected to that country’s network, so check coverage market by market.
Do I need a local company to accept payments in another GCC country?
Not to start. Cross-border acquiring lets a merchant registered in one country accept international cards from shoppers in another. Local acquiring, which adds domestic schemes, often asks for more: some providers require a local entity, trade license or bank account. Ask each provider for its document list per country before you commit to a launch date.
Can shoppers in Kuwait pay with KNET on a store based in another country?
Only if your payment provider is connected to KNET’s online payment gateway for your merchant account. KNET is Kuwait’s national switch and debit network, so access goes through providers and banks linked to it. Without that link, Kuwaiti shoppers can still pay with Visa, Mastercard or Apple Pay where their cards support it.
How do I check whether a payment provider is licensed in a MENA country?
Ask the provider for the exact legal entity that will settle your funds, then search that name on the regulator’s public register. SAMA publishes a list of licensed payment service providers for Saudi Arabia, and the CBUAE register can be filtered by license type, including Retail Payment Services. Check the entity named in your contract, not the brand.
Selling into the wider region from Saudi Arabia, Jordan or the UAE starts with the right acquiring setup for each market. Talk to HyperPay’s team about the markets, methods and currencies that fit your volume.