The value of international remittances executed through SABB’s digital channels up to August 2021 grew by more than 50 percent, and the market share of SABB in the retail international remittance market for individuals increased to 11.85 percent.
This is a result of the bank’s consistent efforts to provide the best digital services to customers and take advantage of the state-of-the-art technologies. SABB has developed international transfer services through its digital channels, in partnership with the financial technology companies MasterCard Send and Ripple. Thus, the bank allows its customers to transfer funds instantly and securely to international beneficiaries, whether to bank accounts, electronic wallets, or via cash delivery to more than 30 international destinations. Now, SABB customers can transfer to more than 170 countries and use 38 different currencies.
The improvements also included development of relations with correspondent banks to cover delivery of remittances on the same day for the selected currencies and providing a full remittance deposit service for beneficiaries for the US dollars corridor.
Bashar Al-Qunaibit, deputy managing director of retail banking and wealth management at SABB, said: “In light of the Kingdom’s rapid technological development in response to the Kingdom’s Vision 2030, and in implementation of the bank’s strategy aimed at digital transformation, SABB is focusing on accelerating transformation steps at all levels, including international remittances, which constitute an important pillar to provide a leading banking experience. On this basis, we have intensified efforts to enable customers to transfer international funds instantly and securely, according to the best technologies provided. We will continue to strive for ongoing development of all our products and services in a manner that ensures our leading position in the market and effectively supports our competitive strength.”
SABB has recently been named the “Best Digital Bank for Customers in Saudi Arabia in 2021” by Global Finance. This recognition is in appreciation of the bank’s efforts in developing innovative digital solutions that provide customers with an advanced digital banking experience. Notably, 86 percent of the total number of new current accounts in SABB were opened through digital channels. The number of new accounts opened digitally exceeded 100,000.
Recently, a significant increase in the number of users of SABB’s digital channels has been noticed. The bank has successfully managed to transform a wide range of its services and manual operations to its digital platforms. More than 130 banking services are currently provided to retail customers through the SABBMobile application. SABB is one of the first banks to obtain approval of the Central Bank of Saudi Arabia — within the framework of the experimental environment SandBox — to provide the service of updating customer data electronically (Know Your Customer) through digital channels without the need to visit the branch. This service has contributed positively to enhancing customer experience and currently represents 60 percent of the total customer updates.
