Muscat – In a significant step towards achieving Oman Vision 2040 and accelerating digital transformation, the Central Bank of Oman (CBO) is soft launching its new national payment card, the “Maal” Card, on November 20, 2025, coinciding with Oman’s National Day. This initiative is set to strengthen the National Payments Ecosystem by providing low cost national payment services accessible to all segments of society, enhancing efficiency and sustainability in the financial sector, and reducing reliance on cash.
The “Maal” card is positioned as a key pillar in building a nationally managed payment system, operated through the OmanNet Switch. For consumers, the card offers substantial benefits, including zero fees with a full exemption from issuance, reissuance, and annual fees. It will be available as both a debit card and a prepaid card.
The CBO is also introducing measures to support businesses, announcing up to a 50% reduction in Payment Acceptance Costs for government entities, merchants, and SMEs compared to other cards. The card’s adoption will be further incentivised through newly introduced, more affordable capped Merchant Service Fee (MSF) limits. These lower limits apply to a wide range of merchant categories, including government entities, exchange houses, money transfer and brokerage companies, e-wallet top-ups of payment service providers, and SMEs holding the Riyada Card. Notably, charitable organisations will receive a full exemption when accepting zakat, donations, and sadaqat.
While the majority of ATMs and e-commerce payment gateways will be ready to accept “Maal” transactions immediately, users may initially encounter some POS terminals that are not yet enabled as banks progressively complete the terminal enablement phase. Several banks are expected to announce the start of issuing the card to customers soon.