RIYADH: Saudi Credit Bureau (SIMAH) recently launched two new projects aimed at speeding up communications with customers at individual and corporate levels.
The projects, SMS and IVR systems, will enable all citizens and residents in the Kingdom to access their credit information any time, SIMAH CEO Nabeel Al-Mubarak said.
The IVR (Interactive Voice Response) and SMS projects will also help customers follow and update their credit information, know and act according to payment rules, and enable them to communicate through messages in case of enquiries, SIMAH chief said.
He said the idea of SMS and IVR projects is an innovative concept, which is implemented for the first time internationally by a credit bureau to maintain confidentiality of customers' credit information and provide them with their credit developments.
"Raising the credit awareness of all is among our long-term strategies," he said.
The SMS service will consist at this stage of three main reports: The summary report that includes previous and last inquiries during the last 30 days, the Scorecard Report that includes the evaluation of credit solvency and customer's financial and creditworthiness and the inquiry status which encompasses a new inquiry made by one of SIMAH members on a customer.
The SMS will also include a notification service, which is based on various basic alerts such as periodical update, delayed payment, bouncing checks, disputes, new products inquiry and credit limit increase alerts, according to SIMAH chief.
As for IVR project, it will allow a computer to interact with humans through the use of voice and DTMF keypad inputs. Customers will, accordingly, interact with SIMAH database via a telephone keypad or by speech recognition, after which they can service their own inquiries by following the IVR dialogue, he said.
"Through this strategic project, SIMAH sets a new identify in financial sector and eliminates fraud by four basic identities - National ID number, name, mobile number and voice recognition," the SIMAH chief pointed out.
Meanwhile, SIMAH announced that the number of bouncing checks substantially decreased by 48 percent at the end of 2011 compared to the same period in 2010 at 52,468 and 101,488 checks respectively.
Value of the bouncing checks stood at SR5 billion and SR10 billion at the end of 2011 and 2010 respectively, a report issued by SIMAH said.
In terms of individual bouncing checks, they fell by 49 percent at the end of 2011 compared to same period in 2010 at 21,164 (SR1.7 billion) and 41,375 checks (SR4 billion) respectively.
Bouncing checks for corporate also fell by 46 percent at the end of 2011 compared to 2010 at SR3.3 billion and SR6 billion respectively, the report said.
© Arab News 2012
