New Riyad Bank, Alhamrani agreements underline Diebold's growth in Middle East

The installations will be maintained and serviced by the Alhamrani Universal Company (Universal/AU) that has also just reinforced its exclusive distribution agreement with Diebold to extend its commercial reach in Saudi Arabia to other markets in the Gulf, including Dubai, Bahrain, Oman and Qatar.

One of the largest financial institutions in the Middle East, the Riyad Bank is a modern, financial-services company with a strong and growing retail and corporate banking franchise in Saudi Arabia and has a full-service approach, delivered through an accessible network of 200 branches, now including more than 650 ATMs.

About 30 ATMs will be installed this month (December 2004) and the remainder during 2005. This will expand the bank's automated branch network, providing added convenience to its recently enhanced telephone, Internet and mobile banking services.

Innovation, accessibility and convenience are all part of the Diebold Opteva family. Riyad Bank has purchased a mix of Diebold Opteva 720 advanced-function lobby ATMs and Opteva 740 advanced-function, through-the-wall, drive-up ATMs. Both run on Agilis™, Diebold's multi-vendor software platform.

With the expansion of its ATM network, Riyad Bank will now provide its customers with a variety of options for electronic financial transactions (EFTs). When the bank implements Diebold's Deposit Automation solutions, its customers will also have the ability to deposit cash directly into their personal accounts without the need to wait for access to a bank teller.

Diebold's Deposit Automation solution enables Opteva to count notes in bulk and read checks, processing both as a single-deposit transaction displayed on the screen and verified with a receipt.

"Our retail customers are attracted to the bank's innovative approach to consumer finance products and investment products alike," said Riyadh Al-Zahrani, vice president and remote banking manager for Riyad Bank.

"For example, we offer the best deal on credit cards in the Kingdom as a result of an industry-leading initiative. Accessibility and convenience are also key benefits of being a Riyad Bank customer, and this was the reason for choosing Diebold Opteva ATMs. After a full evaluation of both our customers' needs and those of the bank, we picked Diebold's Opteva ATMs because of their unique functionality and potential for expansion."

Since the 1980s, Alhamrani has been Diebold's exclusive distributor of ATMs and physical and electronic security products in Saudi Arabia. Diebold ATMs are supported and maintained by Alhamrani's network of 20 service-support centres. More than 120 qualified technical and engineering staff members are deployed to service ATMs through the company's centralised ATM help desk in Jeddah.

Diebold and Alhamrani are also both poised to further develop a more competitive and professional customer-service oriented business.

They will expand their partnership by leveraging Alhamrani's expertise in the service area, strengthening Diebold support in the Gulf and Middle East region, when and where required. Diebold customers within the region can expect higher-quality maintenance and support for terminals and software in their ATM networks.

The geographic proximity of Alhamrani's support centres will enable the company to provide faster response to requests for service. Response time will be optimized due to better availability of spares stock, shorter shipment distances for parts, access to a more sophisticated repair center and more qualified technical staff that are already familiar with and experienced in specific ATM configurations in the region.

The expanded partnership, which comes as the result of years of collaboration between the companies, is intended to increase Diebold's business and consolidate sales operations in the region. The growing collaboration will provide considerable improvements in the support services available to customers in the Gulf and Middle East region, leveraging the infrastructures of Alhamrani and Diebold as reputable and well-positioned companies.