Retail Payment Systems
In the OIC Member Countries
2
[BIS] and the World Bank are in 2015-16 conducting consultations concerning
preferences, valued practices and innovative cases of retail payment systems. The
contrasting contexts explain much about these differences, but there remains a great deal
that can be learned and shared from our analysis of the most effective retail payment
systems currently deployed.
2. There is rapid growth in the use of advanced retail payment systems in the countries
under study. However, growth is imbalanced, often for reasons of inappropriate
governance problems and inefficiencies in deployment. There is also little take-up so far of
payment systems specifically applied to Islamic banking practices, with few banks offering
to replicate the experience of Bank IslamMalaysia.
3. Some countries employ state of the art technologies in the operation of retail payment
systems that are well integrated into the underlying infrastructure of payment systems
nationally and internationally. There are many lessons that can be learned from these
advanced applications.
4. Regulatory practices range widely and there is much to be learned from sharing
experiences about regulation. These might be done at the level of the OIC COMCEC but they
will need to include participation by a wide range of payment systems stakeholders.
5. Incumbent firms, most especially telecommunications network operators and banks, need
to adapt to new forms of retail payment systems.
6. Retail payment systems can be easily linked to credit access, which can be beneficial to the
economy as a whole as well as adding value to the new technologies. This is possible both
with and without traditional regulated banks and can reach individuals with or without
bank accounts or a personal credit rating.
Background and Methodology
This study was conducted during the winter and spring of 2015 with the intention of providing
the first systematic description and analysis retail payment practices in the OIC countries.
While some experts were consulted on payment practices, the key sources were from official
statistics, trade associations, the trade press, company research outputs, trade interviews and
other trade sources, along with national statistics offices, World Bank and IMF publications,
Euromonitor and the OECD. The two most important recent research efforts have come from
the Bank of International Settlements [BIS] Committee on Payments and Settlement Systems
[CPSS, and its successor, the Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures, CPMI] and
the World Bank’s Financial Infrastructure Service Line Payment Systems Policy and Research
function through the Payment Systems Development Group. These have conducted surveys,