Qatar Central Bank and the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) announced on September 15, 2026, that each country will accept the other’s national payment card. Qatar’s Himyan card will be accepted in Saudi Arabia, and cards on the Saudi mada network will be accepted in Qatar. The two central banks unveiled the deal on stage at Money20/20 Middle East in Riyadh.
The two governors ran the first transaction themselves
Both governors attended: Sheikh Bandar bin Mohammed bin Saoud Al Thani for Qatar and Ayman bin Mohammed bin Saud Al-Sayari for Saudi Arabia. According to The Fintech Times’ report from the show, they put the first Himyan card payment through the mada network themselves. The central banks said the link is meant to enable “more efficient and seamless cross-border payments while expanding access to national payment solutions.”
The rollout will be gradual. Acceptance will open as the approved phases of technical and operational integration are completed. Neither bank gave a public timetable or expected volumes.
Because both central banks run their own national networks, the deal was simpler to sign and will be slower to deploy. No private operator sits in the middle to set the rules. Instead, two authorities must align their fee schedules, their fraud liability, and their uptime obligations before traffic flows. Both describe a gradual start. In card networks, that wording usually means opening by merchant category first, then by terminal type.
Domestic schemes are linking up to keep regional traffic
A national network protects payment sovereignty at home, but it stops at the border. A traveler who crosses it falls back on an international network, and pays the currency conversion and fees that come with it. By linking their two domestic networks, the central banks bring regional cross-border traffic back onto their own rails, with no third party in between.
The Gulf is not alone. India is linking its UPI network to several neighbors, Europe is working to connect its national solutions, and Gulf states are moving through bilateral agreements between central banks. The hard part is always the same. Messaging is rarely what holds things up. Rules, fraud liability, and revenue sharing are.
For a link like Himyan–mada, that means four pieces of work:
- Aligning acceptance rules, including for special cases such as unattended terminals and hotels
- Splitting dispute liability between two networks with different fee schedules
- Disclosing currency conversion and cardholder fees clearly
- Getting banks in both countries to certify their terminal fleets
For providers selling acceptance in the Gulf, the impact is immediate. They will need to support two more domestic networks in their certification work, and explain to merchants why a foreign card now runs over a local rail. For the international card networks, a share of regional traffic is slipping away.