JEDDAH, 10 June 2008 — The National Commercial Bank (NCB) recently launched money transfer service “Quick Pay” coinciding with the opening of its first Center for the Quick transfer of funds in Jeddah. This was affirmed by Omar Hashem, NCB head of mobile banking and remittance business, who indicated that the total volume of remittance market in the Kingdom currently reaches SR65 million annually and the estimated total revenues of this market is SR2.3 million at annual growth rate of 3.8 percent.
Hashem expected that the total volume of the market for transference in the Kingdom to reach SR70 Billion by 2011. He added that the Kingdom ranks second at an international level in terms of the volume of remittances after the United States, while Switzerland occupies third place internationally.
He added that remittance systems and mobile NBE sector transfers of funds to individuals is one of the sectors that are of paramount importance to the banks that allows them to serve as a large segment of customers the highest degree of quality and speed.
The new service allows implementation of international cash transfers securely 24-hour, seven days a week either from the transfer center of funds or through alternative service channels such as ATM, telephone banking and AlAhli Online.
Hashem stressed that the staff of the Center for the Quick transfer at the bank master several languages which allows them to offer services to a wider range of sectors at competitive prices.
He added that the transfer of funds is currently available to Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, India, Egypt, Indonesia, Philippines, Nepal and Yemen.
Hashem said that the money transfer service gives the customer an opportunity to choose between conversion methods, either through direct deposit or receipt at transfer centers or delivering transfers to the beneficiary’s home.
The customer can also transfer through the participation of other banks using the Smart Card Money, which keep the sender and the recipient aware of the course of the transfer by sending a message alerting the beneficiary party.