A recent study by Mastercard pointed out that 51% of people in Saudi Arabia believe that online cross-border payments helped their relatives and friends overseas tackle financial difficulties in the previous year.

More than half of those who carried out the transactions in the kingdom claimed that without cross-border payments, the receivers would have had monetary hassles. In the last year, 30% of people in KSA made or received more cross-border payments. As the pandemic impacted the economy, 73% of customers in the country transferred money overseas.

“The report has highlighted how these payments offer consumers an easy, quick and safe way to send, receive and manage their funds,” said Maria Medvedeva, Mastercard’s vice president and country lead in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.

Mastercard has also partnered with the fintech-focused venture capital investment platform Nclude to help advance Egypt’s fintech ecosystem and digital transformation path.

Fast Company’s World Changing Ideas comes to the Middle East on 23 November 2022. Click here to know more.