Kuwait bank may start applying higher commission rates to merchants’ points of sale devices, and impose new fees on  purchases made through the credit information network card KNET, reports Al-Rai Daily. 

The report noted that banks do not apply any commission on KNET payments yet.

KNET is the dominant card-based payment method in Kuwait.

Several sources quoting banking sources said that with the uptick in the use of digital payment technology in the local market, especially the Apple Pay service, banks are facing an additional operational cost, since Apple imposes fees on purchase payments made through its service, even if the process is carried out with a KNET card.

The fee collected for each transaction ranges between 0.05 and 0.15 per cent, in addition to the additional operational fees applied by Visa and MasterCard to merchants’ payments collected through their cards.

Card officials in local banks are considering reviewing the list of commissions imposed on merchants who use point-of-sale devices to collect payments for their sales.

Apple Pay entered Kuwait in October by going live in a number of shopping malls in Kuwait prior to a full rollout in the country.

The partial rollout came after Apple reached an agreement with Kuwait’s Ministry of Finance and the Kuwait Direct Investment Promotion Authority on the operation of the mobile payment service in the country.