Nepal’s fast-growing FinTech sector has received a major boost with Nepal Electronic Payment Systems (NePS) being elected to the PCI Security Standards Council Advisory Board through a global voting process.
Nepal Electronic Payment Systems (NePS) has now joined an elite group of major technology and financial services companies serving on the Advisory Board for the next two years (2023-2025), including Amazon, Apple, Bank of America, Barclays Bank, European Payment Council, HDFC Bank, IBM, JP Morgan, Microsoft, NPCI, PayPal, Samsung, Saudi Payments and Walmart.
NePS CEO Sanjib Subba said the election reflects growing recognition of Nepal’s rapidly developing payment ecosystem. “This is a historic achievement for Nepal,” he said. “Serving on the Advisory Board will give us an opportunity to learn from global best practices and collaborate with industry leaders to continuously improve our security standards.”
NePS provides services like card issuance, transaction processing, ATMand POS management to 14 member banks in Nepal. It currently manages over 2,000 ATMs and 12,000 POS machines across the country.
Subba said the victory provides a huge impetus to Nepal’s fledgling FinTechindustry. “We hope this major milestone will boost our efforts to promote financial inclusion in Nepal through digital payments and collaboration with international partners,” he said.
Nepal’s FinTech sector has seen explosive growth in recent years. NePS has signed agreements with LankaPay for Nepal-Sri Lanka payments and with NPCI of India enabling Cross-Border Digital Payments between India and Nepal. Fintech company fonepay also recently signed an MOU with LankaPay for cross-border digital payments.
Industry experts say Nepal’s election to the PCI Security Standards Council Advisory Board is a strong recognition of the country’s rising capabilities in payments technology and data security. As a PCI certified organization, NePS complies with the PCI Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), considered the global benchmark for data security in the payments sector.
The achievement is expected to significantly boost Nepal’s digital payment ecosystem and catalyze further growth and innovation across the FinTech sector.
About NePS
Nepal Electronic Payment Systems is a payment service operator (PSO) in Nepal that has been operating nearly 3.3 million cards, 2000 ATMs and 20,000 POS machines in Nepal. With a mission to provide a robust, reliable and secure payment services to financial institutions and business houses in Nepal, this company has contributed in replacing paper based financial transactions by electronic and digital systems.
What are the benefits of being a member of the PCI Security Standards Council Advisory Board?
- Access to best practices: Members get access to industry best practices and the latest information on data security threats and solutions. The Advisory Board helps shape the future direction of the PCI DSS and other PCI security standards.
- Collaboration with leaders: Members get to network and collaborate with leading organizations in the payments and technology sectors. This provides opportunities to learn from the experiences of industry leaders.
- Influence: As members of the Advisory Board, organizations get a say in shaping PCI security standards and policies. This provides an opportunity to give input that reflects an organization’s needs and perspective.
- Enhance security capabilities: Participation helps organizations keep up to date with the latest threats and security improvements. This enhances their own security capabilities and compliance with PCI standards.
- Boost credibility: Membership boosts an organization’s credibility and recognition as a leader in payment security. This helps win customer trust and confidence.
- Drive innovation: The knowledge and experience gained can help drive security innovation within the member organization. This contributes to the members competitive advantage.
