National ID ‘can’t be used as ATM card’

The national ID cannot be used as an ATM card to carry out banking transactions and there is no plan to adopt that system in the near future, Talaat Hafiz, secretary-general of Media and Banking Awareness Committee of Saudi Banks (MBAC), was quoted yesterday by the local media as saying .
He said despite the technical developments experienced by most government departments in the Kingdom and an earlier report by the Agency of Civil Status of its plan of making the national ID card act as an ATM card, the plan is impractical.
The Agency of Civil Status in the Eastern Region earlier said the national ID card would work as a multipurpose card in the near future, including its usage as an ATM card.
But Hafiz said this procedure necessitates a series of steps and there is no plan to adopt such measures in the near future.
On complaints of customers, the MBAC chief said there had been a marked decline in the complaints. He attributed this to the improvement of banking awareness among customers.
He said the value difference between the GCC currencies makes it difficult for their nationals to use ATMs in other GCC countries but that a single currency will be the solution to that problem. Hafiz appreciated the efforts undertaken by GCC central bank governors for the realization of the unified currency. If the goal of single currency is achieved,GCC citizens could easily use ATMs in any GCC country without paying withdrawal charges as the ATMs will be fed with the same currency in all GCC countries, he said.
In a related development, Saudi banks last month warned against a new method of banking fraud involving the use of fake key number pads at ATMs to obtain the PIN of card users. “There are gangs outside the Kingdom who put fake keyboards made creatively and precisely to look like the original one, which enable crooks to get the personal information of card holders, but fortunately we have not spotted such cases in the Kingdom so far,” the MBAC chief said.