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Middle East Products Newsletter
Emirates Islamic Bank launches innovative Shari'a-compliant
credit cards
Standard Chartered flies high with personal loans
Islamic Bank of Britain Plc - Loan product launched
Dubai
Islamic Bank Offers Low Cost Auto Finance
IFC and SBB Supports Development of Murabaha Home Finance
Services
Finance House, MasterCard tie-up to Launch Credit Card
Plastikkart wins Anadolubank’s smart card tender.
Flying returns for card-carrying air travellers.
U.A.E.: Local bank in Abu Dhabi adopts anti-fraud system to
protect clients.
All ATMs in Qatar Operate with American Express Credit Cards
Emirates, Islamic
credit cards
GCC card
payments jump 30%, says Visa
American Express Launches New Credit Card in Qatar
CALYON BANK EGYPT launches the first Visa Credit Card for the
Rotary Clubs of Egypt
International Cards Company and ValuePlus Offer an Instant
Discount
MasterCard Credit Card for the First Time in Jordan.
Consumer Credit, Credit Card Spending in Turkey Reaches $25 Bln
Dec 31, 2004-June 17, 2005
Avg Value of Credit Card Spending in Turkey Up 15.5 Pct Y/Y
Jan-May 2005
Turkish Card Holders Spend $240.5 Mln on 2005 Father's Day
Shopping
Qatar Smart Card System To Be Implemented End-2005
SAUDI-BRITISH
BANK ISSUES CREDIT CARDS
Smart cards
for Indian migrant labourers.
Standard
Chartered Ups ACTIV Benefits
Lloyds’s Home Loans
Mashreqbank Platinum Card
Security breach impacts 550 Israeli credit cards
Security Breach Leaves 40 Million+ Vulnerable
Traveling with smart cards will start this year
NBD launches
UAE's first payroll card.
CREDIT CARDS ROSE
BY 33% ANNUALLY
Emirates Islamic Bank launches innovative Shari'a-compliant
credit cards
Emirates Islamic Bank recently launched three innovative,
worry-free and full-featured Islamic credit cards that further
exemplify the bank's commitment to offer innovative financial
products to meet the ever-evolving needs of the banking
community, both Muslim and non-Muslim alike. This is at the
heart of the bank's 'Banking in Three Dimensions' communication
strategy launched in late April. The Emirates Islamic Bank
credit card is approved by the bank's Shari'a Board and offers
convenient and flexible payment terms and an affordable and
practical fee structure, which means using the card can offer
substantial savings over most interest-bearing conventional
credit cards. Cardholders pay a fixed annual fee on a quarterly
basis instead of one lump sum payment upfront; this way, each
fee payment is more affordable to the cardholder. Anyone can
apply for an Emirates Islamic Bank credit card, even those who
don't have an account with the bank. The Emirates Islamic Bank
credit card solution offers the conveniences of conventional
cards in a Shari'a-compliant way. It joins the competitive and
fast-growing UAE credit card market dominated by conventional
cards. Emirates Islamic Bank offers three types of credit cards,
the Visa Blue, the Visa Gold and the Visa Platinum, each
offering different fees. The quarterly fees are Dhs. 200, Dhs.
500 and Dhs. 1000, respectively.
Standard
Chartered flies high with personal loans
Standard Chartered, the UAE's leading international bank, will
offer new personal loan and provide customers with a free
Emirates airlines ticket to selected destinations this summer.
National and expatriate loans - along with Islamic finance,
either new or takeover - with a value of AED 35,000 and above
will be eligible for the promotion, with the first repayment not
due for up to 75 days. Personal loan customers can choose from a
number of Emirates destinations, including Bombay, Delhi,
Hyderabad, Lahore, Islamabad, Colombo, Dhaka, Beirut, Sanaa,
Khartoum, Damascus, Karachi, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, Singapore,
London, Rome, Zurich, Paris, Frankfurt or Munich. Tickets are
valid for 11 months and are transferable.
Islamic Bank of Britain Plc - Loan product launched
'Halal' Personal Finance is another first from Islamic Bank of
Britain. Islamic Bank of Britain, the UK's only totally Islamic
British bank, has launched a Sharia'a compliant personal 'loan'
facility, making it the only provider of 'Halal' unsecured
finance in the UK. The new unsecured facility allows customers
to generate cash funds between £1,000 and £20,000 using the
Islamic principle of Murabaha with deferred payments. The end
result is that consumers can get a finance facility similar to a
conventional loan but in accordance with the Muslim faith which
prohibits the use of interest.
Dubai
Islamic Bank Offers Low Cost Auto Finance
Dubai Islamic Bank is offering car finance with a profit rate of
3.85 percent and the first installment payable after 60 days.
There is also a zero downpayment option, no salary transfer
required, payment periods of up to 60 months and insurance is
available.
IFC and SBB Supports Development of Murabaha Home Finance
Services
In what it describes as an effort to “encourage the development
of a viable housing finance market”, the International Finance
Corporation (IFC) has invested SR187.5m (US$50m) with the Saudi
British Bank to support development of Murabaha home finance
services, an Islamic facility. The IFC said that it hopes its
investment will provide financing opportunities for low- and
middle-income house buyers. The Saudi British Bank is a joint
venture between HSBC (40%) and Saudi investors (60%).
Finance House, MasterCard tie-up to Launch Credit Card
Abu Dhabi listed Finance House and MasterCard yesterday launched
the first credit card from a non-bank issuer. The Finance House
MasterCard credit card will be free for life and offers a
cash-back reward programme for referrals, plus a credit limit of
three times salary and up to 60 days credit without interest.
Plastikkart wins Anadolubank’s smart card tender.
Plastikkart announced that Plastikkart won the EMV-compatible
smart credit cards tender held by Anadolubank. The statement
released by the company did not mention any price. Plastikkart
also noted that it started pilot production of EMV-compatible
smart credit cards for TEB.
Flying returns for card-carrying air travellers.
Shop with your credit cards, and you would actually be earning a
ticket to fly. Or you would be allowed extra baggage the next
time you fly. With more and more airlines tying up with banks
for co-branded credit cards, the customer can expect more
goodies and discounts from airlines, depending on card usage.
Air Sahara, Jet and Air Deccan have already started the scheme,
where a credit card user is entitled to points based on their
spending, which can be redeemed later. Others like Emirates,
SriLankan Airlines and SpiceJet are also expected to follow
suit. According to industry experts, the co-branded credit card
industry is growing at a significant pace annually. "This
industry is growing at 40% on a yearly basis," said ICICI Bank
senior general manager V Vaidyanathan. Air Sahara tied up with
Standard Chartered about two and a half years ago and currently,
the credit card base is about 3,00,000 customers. "Shopping by
credit card is convenient. More and more airline companies are
entering into tie-ups with banks, because they want to promote
customer loyalty. The concept of internet booking is also
helping to promote growth in this business. The future looks
rosy with more players entering this business. Sri Lankan
Airlines has a tie-up with Standard Chartered Bank. However, it
is available only in UAE and SriLanka.
U.A.E.: Local bank in Abu Dhabi adopts anti-fraud system to
protect clients.
A local commercial bank has adopted an anti-fraud system to
protect its customers against fraud. The disclosure came in the
wake of recent reports that an "unauthorized individual" had
infiltrated the computer network of a US-based third-party
credit card payment processor and accessed the details of up to
40 million cardholders globally. The system has enabled Abu
Dhabi Commercial Bank to protect and replace 109 credit cards
that were potentially at risk. The bank also issued a statement
to assure customers that appropriate steps had been taken to
protect the interests of cardholders
All ATMs in Qatar Operate with American Express Credit Cards
All ATMs in Qatar now operate with credit cards issued by the
U.S. credit card issuer American Express. The latter comes as a
result of the agreement between Qatar's Central Bank and
American Express Middle East, which took effect on May 1, 2005.
Emirates, Islamic
credit cards
Emirates Islamic Bank recently launched three Islamic credit
cards that are approved by the bank's Shari'a Board. They offer
convenient and flexible payment terms and an affordable and
practical fee structure, which means using the card can offer
substantial savings over most interest-bearing conventional
credit cards.
GCC card
payments jump 30%, says Visa
For the 12 month period ended March, an average of 730,000
purchases were made per day on Visa debit and credit cards in
the GCC, or more than eight transactions every second,
representing robust 30 per cent growth over the previous
12-month period. Shopping spend shot up 32 per cent to $10.5
billion (Dh38.64 billion). Majority of purchases being made by
Visa cardholders in the GCC are everyday, small value purchases.
More than a third of the Dh38.64 billion shopping spend in the
GCC was generated by Saudi cardholders.
American Express Launches New Credit Card in Qatar
U.S credit card issuer American Express introduced a new kind of
gold credit card at Sheraton Hotel, in the Qatari capital Doha
on June 29, 2005. The new credit card is a smart card with
embedded electronic chip which enables customers to store
information such as their favourite websites, personal messages
and passwords. Reportedly, the new credit card is the first of
its kind in Qatar.
CALYON BANK EGYPT launches the first Visa Credit Card for the
Rotary Clubs of Egypt
CALYON BANK EGYPT celebrated the birth of a new Visa Credit Card
especially for the Rotary - Egypt. The CALYON Rotary Visa Credit
Card is a particular affinity card, through which the Bank pays
0.5% of the total interest collected from its usage in a special
fundraising account, thus dedicating these funds towards Egypt
Rotary's charitable activities and projects. The Rotary Affinity
Card has worldwide recognition and acceptance, in addition to
exceptional convenience in usage and payment methods. CALYON
Rotary Credit Card also features the latest Smart Card
Technology.
International Cards Company and ValuePlus Offer an Instant
Discount MasterCard Credit Card for the First Time in Jordan.
A leading financial solutions company and local MasterCard trend
setter, International Cards Company (ICC) joins effort with
ValuePlus to offer cardholders an additional advantage of
receiving instant discounts while continuing to make payments
through installments. ICC/ValuPlus MasterCard cardholders have
the convenience of a revolving credit card while obtaining
instant and various discounts ranging from 10% to 50% on
products and services from a select variety of outlets including
restaurants, pubs, health clubs, car rentals, travel agents,
gift shops, flower shops, men’s and women’s apparel, hotels, and
even wedding services, just to mention a few.
Consumer Credit, Credit Card Spending in Turkey Reaches $25 Bln
Dec 31, 2004-June 17, 2005
Consumer credit and credit card spending increased by 7.192 bln
new Turkish lira ($5.322/ 4.387 bln euro) to a total 33.870 bln
lira ($25.064/20.668 bln euro) from December 31, 2004 to June
17, 2005. Since the beginning of 2005 consumer credits have
increased by 5.922 bln lira ($4.382/3.614 bln euro) and credit
card spending, by 1.270 bln lira ($939.8/775 mln euro). Consumer
credits went up by 202.3 mln ($149.7/123.4 mln euro) to 18.847
bln lira ($13.947/11.501 bln euro) from June 10 to June 17,
2005, according to the Turkish Central Bank. Credit card
spending rose by 71.8 mln lira ($ 53.1/43.8 mln euro) to 15.022
bln lira ($11.116/9.166 bln euro) from June 10 to June 17, 2005.
Consumer credits increased by 113.6 pct or by 6.875 qln old lira
($5.088/ 4.195 bln euro) in 2004 to 12.924 qln old lira ($9.564
/7.886 bln euro). Credit card spending increased by 109 pct to
13.752 qln old lira ($10.176/8.391 bln euro) in 2004.
Avg Value of Credit Card Spending in Turkey Up 15.5 Pct Y/Y
Jan-May 2005
Credit card holders in Turkey spent an average of 61.4 new
Turkish lira ($45.1/37 euro) per transaction in the first five
months of 2005, up 15.5 pct year-on-year. Supermarkets and
shopping centres accounted for 18.5 pct of the total spending,
followed by petrol stations with 17 pct. Expenditure on clothing
and accessories represented 10.5 pct of payments via credit
cards, ahead of electronic goods and computers with 6.4 pct and
communications costs with 6.0 pct. Card holders spent 4.0 pct of
food products, 3.9 pct on health services and 3.3 pct on
furniture and decorations.
Turkish Card Holders Spend $240.5 Mln on 2005 Father's Day
Shopping
A total 325.023 mln new Turkish lira ($240.5 mln/198.3 mln euro)
were spent on shopping with credit and debit cards in Turkey
around Father's Day 2005, up 23 pct year-on-year, data of the
Turkish Interbank Card Centre (BKM) showed. A total 2,664,841
transactions were conducted via the BKM Switch System on June
18, 2005, the day before Father's Day. Travel agencies also
registered the highest year-on-year rise of 20.22 pct in the
number of transactions between June 18 and 20, 2005, ahead of
clothing and accessories shops with 16.2 pct and jewellers with
an 11.9 pct increase.
Qatar Smart Card System To Be Implemented End-2005
The implementation of a smart card system in Qatar will start in
the fourth quarter of 2005. Smart cards have recently gained
popularity in the country. According to Qatari financial
experts, the launch of smart cards in the country will decrease
the level of frauds to less than two pct.
SAUDI-BRITISH
BANK ISSUES CREDIT CARDS
SBB issued and distributed credit cards for the first time in
early June 2005. Clients using the new credit cards will benefit
from all bank services such as ATM machines, receipt of credit,
and the like.
Smart cards
for Indian migrant labourers.
The government will soon issue an ordinance to provide dual
citizenship to People of Indian Origin (PIOs). It also proposes
to issue smart cards to help migrant Indian labour in distress.
A chip in the smart card will contain all the information about
the worker like where the person is employed, nature of job,
contract, salary, etc. In case they face any problem, all this
information will be utilised for the worker's benefit. The
government is also working on a two-pronged strategy -
preventive and curative -to safeguard the interest of Indian
women planning to marry or married to non-resident Indians (NRIs).
There are about 22 million PIOs across the globe for whom the
ministry is trying to ensure assistance should they require it
especially in troubled spots of the world like Iraq.
Standard
Chartered Ups ACTIV Benefits
Standard Chartered in the UAE has revamped its no minimum
balance, interest bearing ACTIV account to include a range
additional banking and other services. Account holders will now
be given free remittances, personal accident and travel
insurance cover, a Standard Chartered Classic credit card and
24-hour roadside auto assistance membership.
Lloyds’s Home Loans
Lloyds TSB Dubai has introduced a home improvement loan,
carrying an interest rate of 9.5 percent, an arrangement fee of
0.5 percent and no early repayment penalties. The loan product
is aimed at home owners wanting to develop or add to their
properties and is a sign of increasing confidence in the
durability of the Dubai property market.
Mashreqbank Platinum Card
Mashreqbank has introduced its Platinum credit card aimed at
high-end earners. The card has a high credit limit of up to
Dh100,000, provides for free upgrades to first class on air
tickets purchased through TravelPerks, and comes with a number
of other deals with restaurants and travel services in the UAE.
Successful applicants also get complimentary Montblanc vouchers
worth Dh2,400 and a free pen.
Security breach impacts 550 Israeli credit cards
Israel's two largest credit card issuers said on Sunday that
about 550 Israeli customers have been affected by last week's
security breach at MasterCard International, but they did not
incur any financial damage. Leumi's LeumiCard occupies 25
percent of the Israeli credit card market with over 1 million
active accounts but only 450 clients had been exposed to what
amounted to potential fraud in the biggest such privacy
violation ever reported and only 350 of them were active
customers.
Similarly, for Bank Hapoalim's IsraCard, which comprises some 50
percent of the market, about 100 IsraCard customers may have
been hurt from the incident in the United States.
Security
Breach Leaves 40 Million+ Vulnerable
Forty million people could be at risk after credit card account
information is stolen. The case involves Visa and MasterCard.
Both companies are alerting financial institutions of a security
breach at the Tucson, Arizona, office of CardSystems Solutions.
It is an Atlanta-based third party payment processor.
Traveling with smart cards will start this year
GCC citizens will be able to travel between the GCC states using
the smart card before the end of the year. GCC states are
currently taking measures to issue the smart cards in the
shortest time possible in implementation of the GCC leaders'
recommendation. The smart card contains a chip that holds data
on the person's health, license, bank card and an array of other
personal information. Smart cards will be replacing passports
and will also be unified but with different colors for each
state bearing the country's emblem, in addition to the GCC
emblem. As for the issuance of these cards for GCC residents and
travel within the GCC region using them, GCC states have agreed
on issuing the same cards for these residents but the issue of
travel permits for non-nationals is still undecided.
NBD launches
UAE's first payroll card.
National Bank of Dubai has launched a co-branded NBDirect
payroll card, a first of its kind in the UAE. Offered as a
co-branded pre-paid debit card in association with UAE Exchange
and Visa International, the NBDirect card provides a range of
special benefits to private sector employees. The benefits
include automatic monthly salary credits, free ATM usage,
concessional remittances to any part of the world and a free
personal accident and life insurance cover. Employees can use
the NBDirect card to manage their finances, withdraw cash at
their convenience from a number of ATMs, make purchases at all
retail outlets and remit funds directly to their home countries.
For employers, the NBDirect card provides an alternative to
monthly processing of payroll by cash. Since salary credits to
the NBDirect payroll card are automated, it significantly
reduces the administrative work, cost and risks associated with
manual payroll processing.
CREDIT CARDS ROSE BY
33% ANNUALLY
The number of the traded credit cards in Lebanon grew by an
annual average of 33.3% between the years 1998-2005. She
estimated the total number of credit cards at 1,052,460 cards by
February 2005. She also said that the national residents of
Lebanon possessed 97.4% of these credit cards.
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