Smart partners with top Middle East bank for remittance service

MANILA, Philippines- Smart Communications Inc. has partnered with the Middle East's largest bank, the National Commercial Bank of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for an international remittance service utilizing its Smart Money platform. In a statement, Smart said that the Quick Pay Remittance Service, NCB's remittance offering, will utilize Smart Money as the beneficiary account for funds sent to the Philippines. This means Filipino workers based in Saudi may now send funds directly to their beneficiary's Smart Money account. Beneficiaries, in turn, may withdraw the remittance from over 7,000 ATMs in the Philippines, more than 100 Smart Wireless Centers, and thousands of third-party Smart Money partners across the country, Smart said. The telecom firm said the partnership will benefit over 1.2 million Filipinos in Saudi Arabia. "The exclusive business partnership between Smart and NCB for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is very strategic as it boosts Smart's efforts to offer mobile money transfer services in various regions of the world particularly in the Middle East where there are large numbers of Filipinos," Napoleon L. Nazareno, Smart president and chief executive said in a statement. Saudi-based Filipinos may send funds through NCB's Quick Pay Remittance Service channels--phone banking, internet banking (Alahli Online), remittance centers, cash deposit machines, over-the-counter transactions at any of NCB's 266 branches, and fund transfers via the bank's more than 1,000 automated teller machines. Smart said the channels are open to all NCB account holders. Non-account holders may choose to send funds via NCB's remittance centers in Saudi Arabia. NCB is the largest bank in the Middle East in terms of capital with total assets amounting to SR208.7 billion ($55.7 billion) and total paid-up capital of SR15.0 billion ($4 billion). As of the end of 2007, NCB's total customers surpassed the 2-million mark, 15 percent of which is comprised of Filipino payroll accounts. - GMANews.TV