The Bankwatch

The Dubai Stock Exchange has launched an effort to purchase the Nordic/ Baltic market.  This is reminiscent of the issues last year, with the UAE firm trying and being blocked from managing the American ports.

Finextra: Borse Dubai launches $4bn bid for OMX

Borse Dubai has launched an unsolicited $3.98 billion (SKr27.7bn)
bid for OMX, trumping Nasdaq’s offer for the Nordic and Baltic market
operator.

Shares in OMX were suspended on Friday morning
amid frenzied speculation that Borse Dubai was gearing up to launch a
formal takeover bid.

Borse Dubai – a holding company for
the Dubai International Financial Exchange (DIFX) and the Dubai
Financial Market (DFM) – is offering SKr230 in cash for each share of
OMX. The exchange says it already “controls” 28.4% of the
Stockholm-based firm.

As much as we think we have issues with marketing in North America, its not as bad as elsewhere, and indications are that it will only become more irrelevant to follow old methods.  Within the Banking industry there generally remains a resolve to ignore the evolution that is happening, and its useful to watch reactions in other countries as a reminder.  Within the Middle East, particularly UAE, and Saudi Arabia, where internet is relatively newer, there are lessons in watching and listening.

Consumers in Saudi Arabia have more devices per household that US, and even India is close, despite being relatively, poorer, than either country.

Gulfnews: Media targeting a divided audience

The average internet-accessing family in Saudi Arabia owns 11.9 electrical devices per family (3.4 TVs, 1.4 computers and 7.1 other devices such as mobile TVs) – the highest per household of the 17 countries included in an OMD study on the modern family unit.

The US in comparison has 11.1 while India has eight.

This article refers to the fragmentation of mass communication, and the impossibility in using old methods of mass marketing to achieve realistic goals.

Consumers have more viewing options, greater control over the content they watch and a shorter attention span on one source, say marketing analysts. People who once turned to newspapers, magazines, the radio and TV for entertainment are now being presented with alternatives such as the internet and mobile devices.

Technorati Tags: middle+east, online+banking, UAE, saudi+arabia

Mobile payments around the world continue to evolve more rapidly than North American or European Banks, with a few exceptions, are adapting to.

This example, form Emirates Bank in Dubai, is aimed at unbanked in the Middle East is a classic example. It is provided by a North American company.

Emirates Bank Group

In a pioneering effort to provide financial services to the thousands of un-banked people across UAE, Emirates Bank has signed an agreement with Infospan Inc, a California based technology company, to launch a unique global service that will enable users to send and receive money instantly around the world. Emirates Bank is planning to reach-out to a large, underserved and fast growing market offering competitive rates. The service will be available through a variety of channels including SMS, call centers, and ATMs.

Note the multi channel delivery including ATM’s.

Some startlingly high statistics from Habib Bank AG Zurich on their online banking in UAE. The market there is interesting to watch, because they got a later start that North America and Europe, but they are generally going straight to what we might consider full multi channel solutions.

UAE MONEYworks – Online Banking

MW: Do you have any up to date figures on how many people in the UAE are using online banking? Or any form of online financial transaction? SP: What we can tell you is 65.22 per cent of HBZ credit customers and 55.06 per cent of the HBZ deposit customers are using our e-services.

The market there is interesting to watch, because they got a later
start that North America and Europe, but they are generally going
straight to what we might consider full multi channel solutions.

By using a combination of services in the push / pull format, events and alerts are delivered to cell phones via HBZgsm as they occur. Based on the information revceived, users can use HBZweb tofurther query accounts or initiate new transactions. Similar functionality can be achieved on the road via HBZpda or HBZwap.

Some startlingly high statistics from Habib Bank AG Zurich on their online banking in UAE.  The market there is interesting to watch, because they got a later start that North America and Europe, but they are generally going straight to what we might consider full multi channel solutions.

UAE MONEYworks – Online Banking

MW: Do you have any up to date figures on how many people in the UAE are using online banking? Or any form of online financial transaction? SP: What we can tell you is 65.22 per cent of HBZ credit customers and 55.06 per cent of the HBZ deposit customers are using our e-services.

The market there is interesting to watch, because they got a later
start that North America and Europe, but they are generally going
straight to what we might consider full multi channel solutions.

By using a combination of services in the push / pull format, events and alerts are delivered
to cell phones via HBZgsm as they occur. Based on the information revceived, users can use HBZweb to
further query accounts or initiate new transactions. Similar functionality can be achieved on the road
via HBZpda or HBZwap.

 Interesting perspective that the mainstream Western News has missed. 

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — “Dubai is the most Iranian of cities,” said Mohammed Reza, an Iranian expatriate who has lived in the Gulf emirate across the waters from the Islamic republic since 1998.

According to the Iranian consulate in Dubai, at least 400,000 of the UAE’s 4.1 million residents are Iranian.

The numbers have almost doubled since 2003. Iran’s status as an international pariah, which has increased since President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s election in 2005, has forced many nationals overseas.

Source: Dubai becomes Iran’s business hub – Business – Middle East Times

The reason is quite rational.

Heavy taxation and the difficulty of acquiring letters of credit have given businessmen few options but to seek opportunities elsewhere.
“If an Iranian company deals with European companies, the European side is always more comfortable dealing with a Dubai-based company as the rules and regulations are not volatile like in Iran,” said Mohammed Safavi, general manager at trading firm The Link.

BankNet 360 – Iran Debuts Online Banking

For the first time ever, Iran is offering online banking services.

The Post Bank of Iran, based in Tehran, Iran, will offer 24-hour service to its web customers, allowing them to access financial services online as well as make internet purchases accessing funds in their Post Bank accounts.

To promote and stimulate e-banking, the service will be open to one million of the best students in Iran.

Mohammad Soleimani, Iran’s minister of Information and Communications Technology, said Iran’s fiber optic infrastructure is ready to develop digital communications and electronic banking.

A specialized government group has been formed to help reinforce digital communications and internet security in the nation.

Considering the size of Saudi with 17 million population, this is an astounding number of ATM transactions reported at Al Bawaba.com.  In fact, its so astounding I think there must be an error.

Canada with 32 million population does 1.1 billion ATM transactions annually, just for perspective.  So Saudi is doing 8 times that much, with half the population!

The same report indicates this activity is handled through a mere 5K ATM machines,vs Canada with 50K ATM’s. 

ATM’s are relativley new in Saudi, and cash remains the preferred method of payment.  But the industry is enhancing rapidly, with real time clearing implemented, and cheque truncation expected later this year (2006).

albawaba.com middle east news information::Saudi ATM statistics

The Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA) announced that Saudis had withdrawn SR 68 billion worth of cash through the available ATM’s networks in the Kingdom through the first half of 2006.

According to Al-Yaum newspaper, citing SAMA report, Saudis had also executed 4,320,474,149 transactions through the available ATM’s networks in the Kingdom through the first half of 2006. The report added that the Saudi banks had issued 359,117,900 ATM cards through the first half of 2006.

The total number of the ATM machines in the Kingdom amounted to 5,377 machines. © 2006 Mean Report (www.menareport.com)

Technorati Tags: ATM

Study on payments volumes in the middle east, and reference to global trends.

CPILive.net your one-stop information portal in the Middle East.

The Middle East will also match the global trend (-3.09%) of abandoning the cheque with a 3.66% decline. Kuwait is both the highest user of cheques in 2004 (104.47m of the 151.67m recorded within the Middle Eastern countries studied) and is predicted to exhibit the fastest decline at -5.77% by 2009.The market forecast, commissioned by ACI Worldwide, a leading international provider of solutions for electronic payments, and conducted with Global Insight, a provider financial and economic forecasting, showed that only EasternEurope (21.60%) and Asia Pacific (19.19%) will experience faster electronic payments growth.

The Middle Eastern country which is predicted to have the highest growth rate is the United Arab Emirates. Already exhibiting a growth rate at 24.14%, the UAE is set to continue strongly through to 2009, increasing the number of its electronic payments by 21.11% to 189.64m. With its sizable population and mature market, Saudi Arabia is also developing strongly, and is set to see an increase of 17.45% to 897.67m.

New concept for a mall, based on financial services.

MENAFN – Middle East North Africa . Financial Network News: Kingdom’s first Financial Mall opens – Bahrain

Bahrain’s first financial mall was yesterday officially opened in Adliya at an event held under the patronage of BMA Governor Rasheed Al Maraj.

Customer convenience, and access are key considerations.

The mall has been built to offer customers increased convenience, with an accessible location, dedicated parking, longer opening hours as well as telecommunications and insurance services, such as MTC-Vodafone and BKIC respectively. The architectural design is one of open and bright space, with ample seating for queuing customers.

The facility also offers major technological innovations, including a smart deposit
machine, the first-of-its-kind in the Kingdom. This allows clients to deposit cash directly in real time, thereby eliminating the need to wait until the next business day for the amount to be transferred to the account. Financial advisors are based onsite to assist new and existing clients with BBK‘s product offerings and to provide advice regarding the best services that suit the individual customers’ needs.

Technorati Tags: banking_mall, banking_innovation