KNET Payment Gateway (KPAY(

One of Knet solutions for the Kuwaiti market is the payment gateway. Knet introduced this solution in the year 2004 as a new payment method. The payment gateway allows companies to collect funds for their products and services over the Internet.

Knet payment gateway accepts all debit cards issued by its member banks. Each bank went through a certification process with Knet and was certified to provide payment gateway services. The purpose of the certification process is to ensure a member bank can process and settle the transactions initiated by Knet payment.

To simplify matters, Knet payment gateway is a software solution that integrates with Knet switch and connects to the Internet. Both merchants and end users can access Knet payment gateway over the Internet. Knet had taken extreme measures in providing a secure environment for its payment gateway. The system had been thoroughly audited by a third party auditing firm and several security measures like firewalls and encryption had been put in place. Knet does not permit non-encrypted communication between the payment gateway and merchants or end users accessing its payment gateway, therefore all communication between Knet merchants and end users is encrypted using Secure Socket Layer (SSL), which makes the data transmitted not readable for any third party sitting in the middle between Knet payment gateway and a merchant or an end user. Knet does NOT store the customer PIN number on its system. It simply works as a communication channel between the customer who is entering his confidential information and his issuing bank for the purpose of authorization.

Any entity that would like to accept payments over the Internet for its goods or services is referred to as Merchant. Merchants need to sign up with any of the member banks to be able to use Knet payment gateway, they can’t have a direct business relation with Knet in the form of a contract or business ties. Contracts, Non Disclosure Agreements, and the settlement will take place between the merchant and the acquiring bank with Knet providing the support for the member bank in the form of settlement and reconciliation records and in dispute records.

After a merchant signs up with a member bank for Knet payment gateway, the merchant will have to undergo a certification process with Knet to ensure that his web site can successfully integrate with Knet payment gateway. Such certification process takes about 2 weeks averaging 2 hours per day of testing. In addition to the certification with Knet, merchants will have to obtain a digital certificate from any of the digital certificate authorities. After certifying the merchant, Knet would notify the acquiring bank with the result and the date the merchant will be rolled out on Knet payment gateway. Merchants can offer their goods and services on the Internet and settle with the acquiring bank on a daily basis.