How we pay in the UAE is changing at the checkout. In June, Network International launched Slice, letting shoppers split a card purchase into zero cost installments, with about 55% of UAE credit cards already enabled. Murat Cagri Suzer, Group CEO of Network International, explains why the company built Slice and how merchants are using data to understand a changing consumer. He also shares what the UAE’s first in-store pilot of dirham backed stablecoin payments at Marks and Spencer and Lulu has shown so far, and why faster settlement and lower cross border costs matter to businesses.
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How Zero Cost Installments and Dirham Stablecoin Payments Are Reshaping the UAE Checkout
Why did Network International build Slice?
Network International is the biggest payment infrastructure company in all of the Middle East and Africa. We process 500 billion dollars of payments volume every year, around a couple of hundred transactions every second, so we can observe consumer behaviour and the needs of the merchant. Our job is to enable different types of payment alternatives so customers can pay however they prefer and merchants can accept all of those payments. Slice is an attempt at that, because in multiple markets customers are more and more willing to pay through installments because it is easier. There are already many buy now, pay later players integrated into our terminals and e-commerce, so they are part of our ecosystem. But credit cards in the UAE were not doing installments at the point of sale. The way it worked was that after the transaction you would receive a notification from the bank, and it happened later, when you were doing something else at home. We brought that experience to the moment of shopping. Your credit card is in your pocket, at a Network International merchant you tap it, and you see the installment options right there.
How are consumer expectations in the UAE changing when it comes to paying?
It is a very dynamic market, a mixture of a lot of things, and that is what makes it beautiful and very interesting for payments. On one hand you have high end hospitality and restaurants, where customers want to try new things, and as long as there are new things there is repeat behaviour. The important thing is loyalty. Our businesses are curious about the loyalty of their customers. Even a small restaurant that is about the quality of the food, not luxury, is curious about what kind of customers are coming in and what nationalities. We provide that information through our app. A small restaurant can see that 20% of its customers are international, which nationalities they are, and how its performance and average ticket size compare with any other restaurant in the country. That is how businesses are using data to understand the changing consumer.
How is merchant appetite for accepting regulated stablecoins evolving?
The UAE has advanced on its regulations around stablecoins. We humbly did the first dirham backed retail stablecoin transaction a couple of months ago, which was a historic moment for the country. A stablecoin gives consumers and merchants a lot of options. Consumers can pay however they want, with cash or card, in what is already a very digital economy. Merchants are used to the transaction happening today and getting paid the next day. With stablecoins they get paid immediately, in that second. And if a business is paying another business in Africa or somewhere else, it first has to convert dirhams into another currency and then pay fees and commissions to send the money abroad, and sometimes the cost is up to 7%. With a stablecoin infrastructure that cost goes to 0.1%, which is 70 times better than what we have today. That is why we have been investing so much in this, and why I think the infrastructure and ecosystem will lower costs and be more convenient for both consumers and businesses.
You ran the dirham backed stablecoin pilot in store. What did it show you?
First, it creates excitement because it is something new. Second, the supply of stablecoins in the world is around 300 billion dollars, but 85% of that supply comes from just two players, and the remaining 15% is very distributed. I think the UAE, together with stablecoin infrastructure, has a big chance to start building for the overall Middle East and Africa region, and that is the main reason behind the excitement. We are in 56 countries, which means our merchants anywhere, from South Africa to the UAE to Saudi Arabia, can use that infrastructure to pay each other in a very cost convenient way.
How do regulated digital assets fit into the future of commerce across the UAE and the region, and into your vision?
When you think about the region, what comes to mind first is how healthy it is in terms of the growth of financial technology companies. A recent announcement said that last year there were around 1,600 companies and this year there are more than 1,900, 15% growth in just one year, 300 new companies. The investment is still coming in and the innovation is still coming in, and that innovation will keep bringing new ways of paying and accepting payments. Our role, as the biggest payments player, is to make sure the ecosystem runs in a way that is 100% up there, with no risk for anyone not to get paid.