Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA) launches the instant payment system ‘Favara’ on August 26, Saturday.
The new instant payment system was launched by Vice President Faisal Naseem at a ceremony held at Crossroads Maldives. The system was developed under the Maldives Payment System Development project, and aims to “facilitate fast, convenient and secure payment services in the Maldives.”
MMA, the Maldives central bank, said that the with the launch of Favara, three banks in the country are currently onboarded as participants which include Bank of Maldives (BML), Maldives Islamic Bank (MIB), and State Bank of India (SBI).
Favara services will be initially available for customers who have an account at one of the aforementioned three banks, for transactions conducted among the banks.
MMA also said that Favara will be available for customers “round-the-clock 365 days a year” and will allow processing of inter-bank transactions instantly.
Besides instant fund transfers, two new services; Favara ID and Favara Payment were introduced on Saturday evening’s ceremony.
Favara ID & Favara Request
The Favara ID enables customers to use “easy-to-remember identifiers” like phone numbers and email addresses to “initiate payments instead of using account numbers.”
Favara Request will allow customers to request payments from other customers, and will be available for individuals seeking payments from other customers and for businesses seeking payments from their customers.
While the service will be availed from digital channels including internet banking and mobile applications of the respective bank or service provider of the customer, the current maximum limit for a Favara Transfer is MVR 50,000 and Favara Request’s maximum limit right now is MVR 5,000.