Charles Lobo, SVP, Head of Risk, CEMEA, Visa
Doha, Qatar: Visa has been deeply embedded in Qatar’s payments landscape for decades, working alongside the government, banks, fintechs, and businesses to support the nation’s digital transformation and support the development of a secure digital payments ecosystem.
In an interview with The Peninsula, Charles Lobo, SVP, Head of Risk, CEMEA, Visa highlighted Qatar’s steady strides toward building a secure, advanced digital environment by investing in its digital payment infrastructure and accelerating the development of its financial technology ecosystem.
Lobo said, a key part of this journey is the Qatar FinTech Strategy, launched by the Qatar Central Bank (QCB) to drive innovation, diversify the financial sector, and align with Qatar National Vision 2030.
In parallel, Qatar has introduced a robust regulatory framework for digital assets, covering areas like asset tokenization, smart contracts, and Islamic financial instruments. As a result of these efforts, Qatar is reducing its reliance on cash, improving payment security, and expanding access to financial services, with 100% internet penetration enabling widespread digital connectivity and the total digital payments transaction value expected to reach $38.07 trillion globally by 2030.
“We are working hand in hand with our banking partners in Qatar to make payments safer and smarter, staying one step ahead of fraud through advanced security solutions and real-time risk intelligence. Most recently, Visa partnered with Qatar International Islamic Bank (QIB) to enhance its fraud prevention and risk management capabilities, implementing advanced security solutions that help protect cardholders and ensure safer transactions.
“We are also supporting financial institutions in Qatar through its Visa Tokenized Asset Platform (VTAP), a new blockchain-based solution that allows banks to securely issue and manage fiat-backed tokens,” Lobo added.
With a decades-long presence and deep integration into Qatar’s financial ecosystem, Visa continues to roll out payment innovations like Tap to Phone and Tap to Add Card that expand access to digital payments and make it easier and safer for people and businesses to pay and get paid. Recently, Visa launched Click to Pay solution in Qatar that helps merchants offer a faster and easier checkout process for their customers.
Commenting about how Visa is raising awareness regarding digital payments he said, “We are taking a comprehensive approach to building trust in digital payments, combining consumer education with our vast tech capabilities. At the center of these efforts is Visa’s Stay Secure campaign, which focuses on raising awareness, strengthening consumer knowledge, and helping people feel confident in navigating digital payment channels.
On the tech side he added, “we have already invested more than $3.3bn in AI over the past decade to stay ahead of cyberthreats. These investments allow Visa’s AI and cybersecurity systems to operate at massive scale, blocking 90 million cyberattacks, 340 million bot attacks, and 11 million phishing attempts every month.
These AI systems now process over 22 billion events each day, stopping fraud in real time. In fact, we prevented $40bn in fraudulent transactions globally last year alone.
The past year has seen major shifts in how people pay, with real-time payments and digital wallets becoming more mainstream.
Consumers are now expecting faster, smoother transactions, and Qatar is no exception.
Our latest Stay Secure survey projects a 74% increase in digital payments usage among consumers in Qatar in the coming year.
Now in its ninth edition, Visa’s Stay Secure study reveals that 74% of consumers in the GCC expect to increase their digital payments usage in the next year.
In parallel, 97% of respondents said they know how to spot fraud and scams, which is 5% up from the previous year.
However, as fraud techniques become increasingly advanced, it has become increasingly clear that people continue to remain the most vulnerable link in the security chain.
More than half (52%) of consumers have fallen victim to scams, with 16% experiencing it more than once.
Majority (86%) admit they would respond to messages that scammers commonly use, highlighting the persistent threat of social engineering, even among digitally aware users.
Visa is using these insights to help banks, merchants, and government partners refine their fraud prevention strategies, ensuring they stay aligned with evolving consumer behavior and emerging threats.
These efforts will remain key instruments in building a more secure, resilient digital payments ecosystem in Qatar and across the region, Lobo noted.
