Seeking to minimise the negative impact of the COVID-19, financial technology provider, SDK.finance, has announced a one-year payment deferral for all companies with financial licenses issued by the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
The announcement comes as governments and private companies roll out relief packages for the country. Reducing fees for services provided by the Ministry of Economy to individuals and companies will reduce the cost of establishing and conducting business in the country.
Alex Malyshev, the CEO of SDK.finance, stated, “Closing borders, quarantine, and closing restaurants and shops, are all actions that lead businesses to bankruptcy and people to poverty. Small and medium businesses that are the backbone of Dubai’s economy (representing 95% of all establishments in the Emirate), with around 40% of the total value-added in GDP, are particularly vulnerable today.
“By postponing the software payment until the market recovers, financial companies can decrease transaction fees for businesses and businesses can make discounts to customers. That is how all of us together, as a society, will help each other protect ourselves from this economic crisis.
“At the end of this grace period, a client can decide to rent the software or purchase it with the source code. We will still charge for the additional software development and the cost of servers. This offer is valid until the end of 2020 only.”
To support financial companies in the UAE during the COVID-19 outbreak, the payment technology vendor SDK.finance is announcing free access to the core technology for one year. The firm will offer all financial institutions with a valid license in the United Arab Emirates to acquire our software without any leasing payments for the next year.
Pavlo Sidelov, the CTO of SDK.finance, added: “We expect that contactless and online payments will become more popular after the COVID-19 crisis. The era of cashless payments is around the corner.
“With the end of cash, fraud prevention and cyber-security in all forms and social-engineering hack prevention will become as important as ever. The huge volume of transactions and data behind that will turn Machine Learning from a buzzword to the must-have functionality for all payment providers.
“With the aim to protect people from a disease we can expect significant changes in the way we operate with public devices such as ATMs, card-readers, PIN-panels, biometrics, and even how we operate with our own smartphones.
“Needless to say, ATMs and PIN-panels are not biology-safe anymore and this is a chance for NFC and RFID technologies because they can reduce the risk of spreading infections. Even traditional biometric devices such as fingerprints or short-range iris-scanner could be replaced with alternatives, such as mid-range identification and communication technologies.”
