MUSCAT, JANUARY 6 - As part of its ongoing digital transformation journey, Oman Arab Bank (OAB) launched a host of new customer centric innovations on Sunday. The technologies included Next Gen ATM capabilities including ‘Tap & Go’ payments, and Instant Rewards as well as Discounts at Points of Sale (POS) machines.
Presiding over press launch of the new technology at its headquarters in Ghubra, Rashad al Musafir, CEO of the bank said, “Stepping into 2019, OAB is taking a more fervent approach towards its digitalisation process starting with the launch of these innovative new payment solutions and enhancing customer experience”.
This launch is in line with the objective bank by offering customers the most advanced and hi-tech products and services; ones that will serve as benchmarks for the industry to follow in the country.
“The launch of these innovative new solutions represents a significant development for Oman Arab Bank and bring with it true quality of life improvements to our customer’s shopping experiences across the country”, he said.
According to Rashad al Shaikh, DGM, Retail Banking, the new Near Field Communications(NFC) payment capability is available across its entire ATM network.
“Our NFC solution utilise the very latest in security technologies to ensure that our customers’ data remains secure. During any transaction no personal information is transmitted except for only basic account information,” said Rashad.
This innovative technology, more commonly known as ‘Tap & Go’ or ‘Contactless Payment’, allows the customers to carry out ATM transactions by simply tapping their NFC enabled cards on the ATM.
This means customers can carry out cash withdrawals much faster than before without ever needing to insert their cards into the machines, he said.
This technology not only saves the physical card from wear and tear, but is also fully secure, requiring a customer’s PIN entry.
Additionally; customers will also be able to make payment to merchants by simply tapping their NFC enabled cards on the POS machine, without even needing to enter their PIN code. The Bank is expecting to have the NFC feature enabled across most of OAB’s POS merchants by mid-2019.
“We also have very advanced fraud detection systems in place to spot any unauthorised activity, ensuring that our customers can carry out all transactions with total peace-of-mind, knowing full well that their information is safe”, he said.
In order to make use of these services, customers will require one of OAB’s newer NFC enabled cards. The Bank was the first in Oman to issue contactless cards and had already begun the roll out of these new cards early last year.
In addition to its NFC solutions, OAB also announced that it has partnered up several merchants and outlets in order to launch its new Instant Rewards Point Redemption feature on OAB Point of Sales machines.
OAB Rewards is a comprehensive loyalty programme that offers customers the opportunity to receive rewards points for purchases made on their OAB credit cards.
The accumulated points can later be redeemed with airlines, hotels, car rental services and more in countries around the world. Alternatively, customers can instead opt to use the points as a cash-back option.
Using this newly introduced Instant Rewards Point Redemption feature, any OAB customer making purchases from Sharaf DG, Kargeen Café, Gloria Jeans and several other participating merchants can choose to pay, completely or partially, using their accumulated OAB Reward Points.
The entire process is simple and fast and will be carried out seamlessly at the time of payment.