The Saudi Hollandi Bank announced the launch of the Kingdom’s very first Visa smart or chip card payment program. As part of a global migration to smart payment cards, Saudi Hollandi Bank has implemented the technology on all new Gold and Silver Smart cards providing their cardholders with added security when making payments around the world in shops, restaurants, hotels, or at ATMs.
Existing Saudi Hollandi Bank Gold and Silver cards will be replaced with the new smart cards over the coming months. Commenting on the launch of the new product, Peter Baltussen, managing director of Saudi Hollandi Bank said, “Chip cards mark the beginning of a new revolution in the world of electronic payments and we are delighted to be the first in making it a reality in Saudi Arabia.”
“As a mature market, the Kingdom is quick to embrace the latest in technologies, which makes it increasingly important for us to deliver a sophisticated product to suit modern payment needs.”
“Chip cards have a definite edge over the traditional magnetic stripe, most important of all being in combating any potential fraud. The microprocessor embedded in the card, carries only encrypted data therefore making it almost impossible to decipher when in wrong hands,” he added.
Furthermore, the chip can contain pre-determined security limits determined by the bank thereby allowing many transactions to be authorized safely off-line, without the need to be routed through the issuing bank. This will facilitate faster transactions.
“At the end of 2002, there were over 90,000 chip cards in the Middle East and we are confident that with members such as Saudi Hollandi Bank who have set the trend in moving to chip, we should cross over 120,000 Visa chip cards across the region by end of this month,” Scriven added.
Running parallel with the growth in smart card issuance, Visa acquiring banks are investing in chip compatible technology for point of sale terminals worldwide. From an existing 700,000 chip enabled terminals as of 31 December 2002, Visa expects a 215 per cent rise by end of 2003 to reach nearly 2.5 million retail locations worldwide that are capable of processing chip cards. In the Middle East alone, chip enabled terminals are predicted to double from 10,000 at the end of 2002 to reach almost 20,000 by the end of this year.
Saudi Hollandi Bank, the first bank in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, was founded in 1926 as the Netherlands Trading Society. Today, Saudi Hollandi Bank is a Saudi joint stock company, established by Royal Decree in 1976, with a capital of 945 million Saudi riyals.
Saudi Hollandi Bank is a full-service bank, headquartered in Riyadh with regional headquarters in Jeddah and Al-Khobar. The Bank has 39 branch offices in the Kingdom, a network of 125 in-branch and stand-alone Automated Teller Machines (ATMs). — (menareport.com)
© 2003 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
