Saudi Arabia’s National Commercial Bank (NCB) has launched the Kingdom’s first mobile banking service. With the AlAhli MobileBank service, NCB customers can now make inquiries on their bank accounts, pay their phone bills, transfer funds between various accounts, all through a WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) enabled mobile phone.
Visa cardholders may view their last five complete and five pending credit card transactions and pay their card account bills on-line. The service is provided in both Arabic and English and is currently being offered free of charge to all account holders. It can be used at any time and in any country in the world that supports WAP service.
NCB became a joint stock company in July 1997. In 1999, the Public Investment Fund (PIF), an arm of the Saudi government, acquired a 50 percent shareholding in the bank. Subsequently, PIF sold 10 percent of the shares to the General Organization for Social Insurance (GOSI). — (menareport.com)
© 2002 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
