The government of Dubai has enacted the Dubai International Financial Centre’s (DIFC) new Payment System Settlement Finality (PSSF) Law that creates the legal foundation for building a regional transaction processing hub in DIFC that will provide payment systems and other ancillary services.
Reportedly, the new PSSF Law paves the way for the launch of the Real-time Automated Payments in DIFC (RAPID), a new service that will provide transaction processing services from within DIFC to banks and their customers both in DIFC and the wider Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.
However, the benefits of the PSSF Law will not be restricted to RAPID and will be available for all payment systems designated under the conditions of the law. However, the PSSF Law particularly supports payments that involve participants from multiple jurisdictions. In developing this law, DIFC said that it has adopted legal practices from Europe, Hong Kong and New Zealand, among others, to ensure finality of designated payments. Apart from the development of RAPID, the PSSF Law will assist GCC-based companies in conducting legally sound payments within the region instead of having to use infrastructures outside of the region, which often do not settle within the region’s own operating hours.
Omar Bin Sulaiman, governor of the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), said: The enactment of the PSSF Law forms part of a comprehensive infrastructure that DIFC is creating to catalyse the development of the financial services industry in the region.
