FinTra Holding‘s Universal Payment Network (UPN) has launched a consortium that lets banks, wallets and other payment firms help steer the network, according to a press release on Wamda.

Unveiled at Money20/20 Middle East in Riyadh, the UPN Consortium gives members a say in the network’s strategy, roadmap and pricing principles.

Dr Waleed Sadek, Founder and CEO of FinTra Holding, said many payment systems still run on their own tech, business and settlement setups. This makes them hard to link and slows firms entering new markets.

He also said UPN was designed to tackle this by acting as a neutral bridge between these systems.

Under the model, institutions that connect to UPN keep their local identity, customers and regulatory duties. They can also reach payment networks abroad.

The company says this reduces the need for many separate one-to-one links.

The network is designed to support transfers between people, payments to merchants and trade between businesses.

UPN will remain responsible for operating the network, while members help shape its strategic and market priorities.

Banks, card networks, national payment switches, mobile money operators and remittance firms are among those that can apply.

Each will be judged on factors such as its standing with regulators, compliance controls and technical readiness.

UPN also said it had completed its first live transaction through the network, sent from a local wallet in Africa. It called this a step in the network’s shift from development to live operations.

Sadek invited payment and remittance leaders worldwide to join the talks and help build the network.

Featured image: Edited by Fintech News UAE, based on image by vecstock via Magnific.