Manama, Bahrain (3 February, 2016)

VIVA Bahrain, the Kingdom's most innovative telecom provider, and BENEFIT, the National ATM and Point of Sale switch, the Bahrain Cheque Truncation and Electronic Fund Transfer processor of Bahrain, have signed an Electronic Funds Transfer System (EFTS) "Fawateer" agreement to facilitate online payment services for VIVA customers with all retail banks connected with BENEFIT. As the first telecom operator to sign an EFTS agreement with BENEFIT, VIVA will offer customers convenience and security of viewing bills online and making instant payments on-the-go.

The agreement with BENEFIT will allow customers to inquire about and pay their VIVA postpaid bills as well as top-up VIVA Prepaid accounts directly through BENEFIT's EFTS service connected to various channels of retail banks in Bahrain such as branches, Internet banking and Mobile banking.

VIVA CEO, Mr. Ulaiyan Al Wetaid, commented on the partnership, "VIVA and BENEFIT are two industry-leading companies, and with the new EFTS agreement, VIVA will expand its extensive mobile payment channels to offer the convenience and real-time access with more online banks. Through this partnership, our customers will highly benefit from this innovative convergence between online banking solutions and flexible mobile payment services."

Mr. Abdulwahed Al Janahi, BENEFIT CEO said: "as the leading company in the electronic payment and fund transfers in Bahrain's financial industry, we are pleased to have this opportunity to further expand our services with VIVA Bahrain, to provide the EFTS "Fawateer", the fastest and most efficient online payment method, as a value added service to serve all VIVA customers"

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© Press Release 2016