RIYADH, 3 July 2006 — A leading bank of Saudi Arabia, Al-Rajhi Bank, has launched a new remittance service called “Cash Click”, which ensures delivery of funds to the beneficiaries abroad within a few seconds. “This innovative service, available at all Tahweel Al-Rajhi centers across the Kingdom, will enable customers to transfer their remittances instantly without any hassle”, said Sami Al-Rajhi, chief of Tahweel Al-Rajhi, here yesterday. Sami said that the “Cash Click” is the latest product introduced by Al-Rajhi on the basis of its 40 years of its experience in the field of remittances. “At the moment, Cash Click facility is available for only 10 countries out of the total 54 countries, where Al-Rajhi has its correspondent banks or have facilities to remit money”, said Al-Rajhi official. These countries include India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Pakistan, Sudan, Morocco, Yemen, Jordan and Syria.
Presently, there are 60 Tahweel Al-Rajhi centers and more than 62 bank branches, which receive remittance transactions. Al-Rajhi, he said, had emerged as the leading bank in terms of the volume of remittances. Al-Rajhi also offers services like Cash Online, demand draft checks, express remittance, internal remittance, foreign guaranteed drafts, traveler’s checks and foreign currencies exchange. The customers can also use electronic channels like Internet and ATM for remittance.
Spelling out the salient features of the new “Cash Click” remittance service, Sami said that “Tahweel Al-Rajhi had joined hands with a financial organization in the UAE to launch this innovative service, which will ensure hassle-free global transfer of funds.” “At the outset, the Tahweel Al-Rajhi is offering this new services for customers hailing from the Middle East and Asian countries only,” said the Al-Rajhi official, while revealing plans for the expansion of its services.
He said that “as a popular service for worldwide instant transfer, Cash Click offered more value for customers on very nominal charges. The beneficiaries, on the other hand, will not be charged under this service.” The move, he said, was mainly to tap the growing remittance market of the Kingdom with the help of competitive products and services. Foreign workers in Saudi Arabia remit over $16 billion a year to their home countries. This figure does not include funds transferred by Saudis to foreign destinations.
Al-Rajhi has grabbed a major share of the remittance market of the Kingdom, from where expatriates have remitted about SR585.4 billion during the past 10 years, according to a study. The amount was equal to the funds required by the Kingdom for infrastructure projects until 2020. Moreover, the remittances by the country’s 7.5 million expatriates have increased by two percent annually despite the Saudization drive. The money sent abroad by expatriates from 1993 to 2002 was almost double the amount they sent from 1983 to 1993.
