11 January 2005

DUBAI - UAE Exchange yesterday announced the launch of the world's first secure mobile phone based money transfer service.

The service -- UAE Exchange Wallet -- to be provided free of cost, allows customers to transfer money using their existing mobile phones and bank accounts from anywhere and at anytime.

UAE Exchange Wallet, which has been developed by C-SAM, Inc. of USA, provides a leather wallet metaphor on mobile phones and its security features ensure that only registered UAE Exchange customers can access their wallet on their mobile phones.

Sam Pitroda, Chairman of C-SAM, Inc., who has triggered the telecom revolution in India, said the service would be a secure, simple-to-use and convenient channel for transferring funds, paying bills and accessing various other value added services. "It's high security features ensure full protection to customers in the event of theft or loss of their mobiles," he explained.

B. R. Shetty, UAE Exchange's managing director, said the service would strengthen UAE Exchange's conviction to offer more value to customers through innovative technologies. "We are very excited about being the first exchange company in the world to launch this unique solution, which we firmly believe will provide additional convenience, comfort and security to our customers," he said.

UAE Exchange is one of the largest exchange houses in the Middle East with 960,000 registered customers in UAE alone, and a point-of-presence in more than 64 countries worldwide, Shetty said.

Also present were Abdulla Humaid Al Mazroei, chairman of NMC Group, Marwan A. Al Mazroei, director, and Sudhir Kumar Shetty, general manager, both of UAE Exchange, Jamal Abdul Salam, director, DIC, and Murray Sim, head of personal banking, RAKBank

Pitroda said the Wallet is very easy to register and use, and can be setup either by the customer or a UAE Exchange representative. "Once setup, the customer can then conduct any number of transactions -- anytime, anywhere. In addition, the Wallet has an attractive and user-friendly interface, icons to facilitate easy navigation, images and branding of UAE Exchange and Bank Cards." The Wallet leverages UAE Exchange's existing global money transfer network and the participating banks' settlement networks, to provide greater value, convenience and cost savings to customers. RAKBANK, Bank of Baroda, Union National Bank and Mashreqbank will provide settlement for the Wallet, with other banks expected to join in shortly. The Wallet has a simple registration process, after which the UAE Exchange Gold Card and participating banks' payment cards are immediately issued over-the-air to the customer's mobile phone. The customer can then transfer funds using the Wallet, without having to visit any bank or UAE Exchange branch.

Pitroda said C-SAM's technology also provides card issuing banks and merchants the ability to wirelessly and securely issue cards over-the-air directly to their customer's mobile phones, with card images, branding and mag-stripe or smart card information. C-SAM enables users to load multiple cards and multiple payment instruments, and use them with the existing transaction acquisition infrastructure and networks. Once setup, users can conduct various transactions at retail locations or over-the-air or with other wallet users, storing digital receipts on the mobile phone and web-based transaction portal.

C-SAM's Platform can also be used to electronically issue telephone, gas, electricity, school, credit card  bills securely to mobile phones of Wallet users.

BY ISAAC JOHN

© Khaleej Times 2005