NBAD's "SMS Money Transfer" wins CIO award 2008

The newly established regional award celebrates top organizations that are using information technology in innovative ways to deliver business value whether by creating competitive advantage, optimizing business process, enabling growth or improving relationships with customers.

SMS Money Transfer, NBAD's wining project, was identified by the jury committee as an outstanding and was selected to be presented as a case study based on complexity, innovation, business impact and success.

SMS Money Transfer, launched by NBAD last year as the first of its kind in the Middle East, allows NBAD customers to transfer money through SMS to any person who has a mobile phone, local or foreign, even though they are not NBAD customers.

To avail the service, the customer needs to call NBAD's Call Centre Toll Free Number, enter the beneficiary's mobile number, the amount to be transferred and select the account to be debited.

NBAD System will verify the request and send an SMS message to the beneficiary's mobile number notifying him/her of the transfer and provide a temporary PIN to be used on any NBAD ATM. With this PIN, the beneficiary can receive the cash from any NBAD ATM without needing an ATM or credit card. At the same time, the customer will be notified by an SMS message of the transaction completion.

"We are delighted that NBAD has been awarded the CIO Award 2008 in its first year" said Mr. Michael Tomalin, NBAD's Chief Executive.

"We consider this award to be valuable recognition of NBAD's efforts to keep pace with advanced IT usage in the banking sector. In its pursuit to satisfy our esteemed customers, NBAD has also been a recipient of many other awards over the years"

he added.

"We wish to thank the award authority for this honor, and we look forward to pursuing the ideals of the award by continuing to provide our customers and stakeholders with the best services" NBAD's Chief Executive said.

"This prestigious award adds a new chapter to NBAD's book of achievements as our continuous efforts to meet the demands of our esteemed customers has made NBAD an award winning leader in the UAE and GCC financial services industry" said Mr. Srood Sherif, NBAD's Chief Information Officer (CIO), after receiving the Award from Mr. Bashar Kilani, Head of IBM's Software Group, Egypt, Pakistan and Middle East, at the glittering award ceremony in Dubai.

"The fact that NBAD is the first bank in the Middle East to launch SMS Money Transfer service illustrates our progressive mentality in adopting highly advanced technologies to better serve our customers. The service meets the high demand for a reliable and secure modern transactions system in an age characterized by rapid growth of mobile phone use. It also represents a part of NBAD's initiatives to provide our customers with more electronic banking solutions" Mr. Sherif added.

"NBAD's SMS Money Transfer service makes effective use of three channels- IVR, ATMs and SMS. This solution is innovative as it uses ATMs in a new way, i.e. without requiring ATM cards and delivers a one-time PIN via SMS. This process is completely automated without any human intervention" NBAD's Chief Information Officer (CIO) said.
"At the back-end, SMS money transfer is integrated in real-time to the bank's core system, ATM system and our SMS gateway. In turn, these interfaces are supported by applications that enforce business rules, ATM authentication of the one-time password and various exception handling mechanisms" he explained.

"NBAD has won numerous awards such as the Middle East Excellence Award 2008, the Mohamed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Business Award 2007, the Sheikh Khalifa Excellence Award, Dubai Quality Award, 'Best Bank in UAE' from Euromoney and Banker publications, 'Human Resources Development Award' from the Emirates Institute for Banking & Financial Studies, the 'Middle East e-Banking Country Award', the 'Outstanding use of IT in Financial Services Award, and excellence award for 'Best use of Technology' from Banker Middle East" he added.

"Since its inception in 1968, NBAD has been playing significant and leading roles in the economic and social development of the UAE, and winning a prestigious award like CIO Award 2008 encourages us even further to leave no stone unturned in meeting and surpassing the expectations of our valued customers" Mr. Sherif concluded.