Retail Payment Systems
In the OIC Member Countries
104
advanced applications. Those OIC countries with the most advancd banking systems,
including Bahrain, Turkey and the UAE can offer greater assistance on retail payment
systems to lesser developed banking systems in other OIC countries. The model of Islamic
banking in Malaysia should be more widely studied and scrutinized, and disputes about
the legitimacy of the BI Card should be considered when considering emulating this
practice.
4. Regulatory practices in the countries studied range widely depending upon local
conditions. Local regulators need to combine their efforts to regional and world initiatives
to engage in a productive and effective process of expertise sharing on achieving goals on
standardisation, reduction of irregular or corrupt practices, etc.
5. In all cases the incumbent firms, either network operators and or banks at local or national
level have different levels of adaption of payment systems. Firms that are engaged in
trading in more than one country seem to drive the changes towards electronic payment
systems, profit and simplification are at the core of its drive and needs to be coordinated
with regulators aims for effective action.
6. Although retail payment systems can be easily linked to credit access, efforts are
required—from both the public and private sector—to enhance the base of individuals and
firms with financial records that can be used to score credit access. Such a drive can only
be beneficial to the local economy and the use of new technologies might have the extra
incentive of adding value to the services to be provided.
7. For the rapidly emerging area of mobile retail payment systems, there needs to be more
consideration of questions of which legal bodies have jurisdiction over new technologies.
This will be necessary to ensure accountability and transparency, and to comply with local,
regional, national and international laws.