How does an STC Pay payment work?
At checkout the shopper chooses STC Pay and enters the Saudi mobile number registered to their account. The provider asks STC Pay to start a payment, which sends a one-time password to that number. The shopper types the code into the checkout page, the provider submits it with the payment, and STC Pay debits the balance and confirms in real time. One acquirer requires the payment to be submitted within two minutes of requesting the code, after which it expires. In mobile apps, a provider SDK can run the same phone and code steps natively. STC Pay only appears for SAR transactions and requires a valid Saudi phone number, and it does not support a separate authorisation and capture: the payment is taken in one step.
Why does STC Pay matter for merchants?
STC Pay grew into a widely used Saudi wallet for transfers between people, remittances, bill payments and online shopping, and its conversion into STC Bank gives users a full digital bank account behind the same app. stc group’s results put STC Bank at more than 8.5 million customers in the first half of 2026, up from more than 8 million in the first quarter, since its launch in January 2025, with STC Bank revenue up 13.8% year on year. For shoppers who keep money in the app, paying with their phone number is faster than typing card details and passing a 3-D Secure challenge. For merchants it adds a local wallet next to mada and international cards, which matters for shoppers who keep their everyday balance in the app rather than on a card. Because each payment is confirmed with a code sent to the account holder’s phone, fraud exposure is low. The method also works through hosted payment pages and payment links at several acquirers, so a merchant can collect STC Pay on invoices sent by message as well as at an online checkout.
What can go wrong?
Most failures happen around the one-time code. SMS messages arrive late or not at all, shoppers type the wrong code, or they take too long and the payment context expires. Shoppers who changed numbers or whose wallet was converted to an STC Bank account without completing the switch may find their account unavailable; STC Bank’s notice says existing wallets stay active for a limited period after the customer is notified. Insufficient balance and account limits cause declines, and a shopper who leaves checkout to top up may return to an expired payment context. Integrations built on older provider APIs may need updating: Checkout.com no longer accepts new STC Pay integrations on its Payments API and points new ones to its Payment Setup API.
The brand also exists in Bahrain, but as a separate wallet. stc pay Bahrain is a subsidiary of stc Bahrain, licensed by the Central Bank of Bahrain since 2023, according to The Fintech Times. The checkout flow on this page covers the Saudi wallet in SAR.
How would Omno handle STC Pay?
A merchant would run the phone number and one-time code steps inside the hosted checkout, or through Direct Links on its own checkout, without handling each provider’s two-step protocol. An expired code could be requested again without creating a new order. The final status would reach the merchant by webhook, which is the source of truth for fulfilment. Rules could show STC Pay only for SAR payments to customers in Saudi Arabia, and routing rules set by the merchant would choose among providers that support it. In the hosted checkout, if a provider is unavailable or rejects the request, the payment moves to the next provider in the rule until one accepts. The routing-decision log would record every step.