Dubai, UAE - Al Rajhi Bank (ARB), the world’s largest Islamic Bank, has completed a secure, cross-border money transfer using Ripple Blockchain Technology. This successful transaction marks the first time the technology has been used in Saudi Arabia.
The recent transaction was a money transfer between Al Rajhi Bank’s Head Offices in Riyadh and Jordan. This milestone further highlights the technological integration of Al Rajhi Bank’s network and validates the Bank’s transformed customer experience and ongoing efforts to digitize customers’ banking experience.
Steve Bertamini, Chief Executive Officer, said: “The blockchain initiative is part of Al Rajhi Bank’s Digital Transformation. This solution will deliver a best-in-class customer experience through reduced delivery times, lower cost and enhanced accuracy. We are committed to leading in this space by advancing new technologies for the benefit of our customers.”
Commenting on the recent announcement, Al Rajhi COO Waleed Al Mogbel said: “We are very pleased with the outcome of this initiative. At Al Rajhi Bank, we continuously strive to innovate and maintain leading banking services, and this success confirms the potential of our existing operations. This technology will allow us to further reduce processing costs across our settlements and reconciliation processes, while improving the predictability and efficiency of our Intra-day liquidity management.”
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is the 2nd leading country for remittance in the world. Al Rajhi Bank specifically is the leading bank in the region for remittances, with over 200 remittance centres across the Kingdom. The Bank is working closely with the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency to make such technologies widely available to its retail and corporate customers.
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About Al Rajhi Bank
Founded in 1957, Al Rajhi Bank is one of the largest Islamic banks in the world with total assets of SR 307 billion (US$ 80 billion), a paid up capital of SR 16.25 billion (US$ 4.33 billion) and an employee base of over 9,600 associates. With over 58 years of experience in banking and trading activities, the various individual establishments under the Al Rajhi name were merged into the umbrella 'Al Rajhi trading and exchange corporation' in 1978 and it was in 1988 that the bank was established as a Saudi share holding company. Deeply rooted in Islamic banking principles, the Sharia compliant banking group is instrumental in bridging the gap between modern financial demands and intrinsic values, whilst spearheading numerous industry standards and development.
With an established base in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Al Rajhi Bank has a vast network of over 500 branches, 118 of which are dedicated ladies branches. It also has over 4,100 ATM's, 46,000 POS terminals installed with merchants and the largest customer base of any bank in the Kingdom, in addition to 170 remittance centers across the kingdom.
© Press Release 2017
