Regulatory Alerts2016-06-18
GCC POS Pricing Policy
The Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA) mandates a standardized 1% service fee for cross-border Point-of-Sale transactions within GCC countries, capped at SAR 37.5 per transaction and strictly prohibiting cost pass-through to customers. When Saudi MADA cards are issued in Bahrain, local banks receive 0.9% of the transaction value plus a capped SAR 2 MADA system fee, while acquiring Bahraini cards via Saudi terminals imposes a 1.5% merchant fee capped at SAR 80, distributed across acquiring banks, MADA, and the GCC network. Financial institutions and merchants must fully implement these fee structures and compliance requirements immediately upon the operational launch of the cross-border service.
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