Al Sayari
"SADAD will be the first to establish an important base for the development of electronic services, which go beyond the limits of normal bills payments, which makes it one of the pillars of the infrastructure of e-government in the Kingdom"
The Governor of SAMA Hamad bin Sa'aud Al Sayari launched SADAD payment system on Tuesday June, 26, 2007. Large gathering of government officials, Saudi banks and businessmen attended the inauguration ceremony. The event began with a reading from the Holy Quran followed by a speech delivered by His Excellency the Governor in which he pointed to the role played by automated systems and electronic channels in all areas, especially in the areas of "Economy and Business" and how the agency has endeavored to keep pace with global developments and the creation of projects and modern banking services according to the latest international standards.
"The agency began early in this area where, in 1987, it has operated a screening and clearing checks mechanism, which contributed to facilitate and accelerate the clearing between banks in different parts of the Kingdom. This led to a large increase in the total amount levied by clearing checks, which exceeded (SR 502 billion) at the end of 2006. Now, a checks clearing system is being developed and converted into an electronic clearing system, which will enable the customer to collect his own check through the same day instead of the current system which its collection takes three days. Al Sayari said.
An important innovation came in April 1990 with the launching of the Saudi Payment Network, which is an automated unified exchange system linking all local banks, using electronic banking cards for all bank customers throughout the Kingdom. The Saudi Payment Network has reached a record level in terms of the number of cards, with more than ten million in use by the end of the first quarter of 2007, along with a large increase in the number of transactions and in the amounts withdrawn from the network, which exceeded SR 158 billion at the end of 2006.
May 1997 saw the launch of the fast Saudi financial transfer System (Sare'e), which is the first payment system to use continuing total settlement technology in the Middle East. It is also one of the best and most advanced payment and banking settlement systems at international level. This system can settle all payment systems that have been applied in earlier phases, including the Saudi Payment Network and the Automated System for Trading clearing mechanism, and has been continuously improved and enhanced. In addition, new mechanisms have been developed and implemented to serve citizens, including the provision of the service for transferring monthly salaries for citizens and residents. Overall, the number of transactions executed via the system rose to more than 20 million operations in 2006, with amounts totaling almost SR14 thousand billion.
His Excellency clarified that SADAD Payment System comes at a time the banking sector in the Kingdom is known as the largest sectors of the use of electronic transactions in the Kingdom Since the proportion of electronic dealings in which more than 80% of the total number of executed transactions, where the local banks lead in the adoption of electronic transactions, since in began more than two decades ago.
This was followed by a presentation about SADAD system, its benefits and method of work. Then, Eng. Abdulmalik Bin Abdulrahman Al AlSheikh gave a speech welcoming the guests and said "Today, we celebrate that SADAD became a reality and not a plan or ambition or desire. SADAD today offer services to users around the clock and addresses approximately 70 thousand operations a day and this number may increase rapidly month after month".
He pointed to the benefits that will be reflected on the local market from applying and spreading the use of this system. Citizens and residents customers will be able to make their payments automatically through banking channels from branches and ATMs to Internet and other channels for all their needs, whether it was for public services (communications, electricity, water, or Insurance bills payment, credit cards, airline tickets, Governmental fees such as customs and municipalities etc,. The fact is that there is no limits for expansion in other areas, which will save time and effort in payments. The fiscal and commercial sectors will greatly benefit from using SADAD as a central payment mechanism, because with the association with SADAD only they will be able to automate the payment operations across all national banks, and hence this will return with various benefits including reduced operational costs and accelerate the collection and effective control of income. The banks will benefit with developing electronic transactions and reducing costs due to the link with all those wishing so, in addition to the utilization of the system's financial arrangements.
Finally, the existence of SADAD as a centralized and integrated system serves various sectors and led to avoid duplicate investment in systems serving specific sectors and opening room for many entities and sectors to benefit from the banking system infrastructure and serve all parties involved whether they are banks or Billers or collecting entities.
Then, Eng. Saud Bin Majid Al dwaych CEO of Saudi Communications Company, Eng. Ali bin Saleh Al Barrak, CEO of the electricity company, Eng. AbdulAziz Al Tmami, CEO for Operations Affairs in Etihad Etisalat company (Mobaili)all had key addresses on this occasion and thanked the SAMA for its efforts in the development of electronic collection services through national banks. They voiced benefits to be reaped by the Billers in terms of introducing higher and better services to its customers in addition to reducing the cost and effort because of multiple engagements with banks and excestance of standards and measurements for the linking process and the service provided by each bank.
At the end of the ceremony, the entities linked to SADAD system were honored and received recognition gifts for their efforts and for their practical partnership which considered as one of the most important pillars in the success of SADAD payment project. The honoring included the Ministry of Finance, the Saudi Communications Company, Saudi Electricity Company, the Etihad Etisalat company (Mobaili), the Ministry of Water and Electricity, Ta'awoneyah insurance company and electricity and Jubail & Yanbu water facilities Company(Marafeq), the communications and information technology Organization (Home Computer initiative), Madina & Riyadh Municipalities, King Abdul Aziz University, Public communications company (Bravo),Sama Airlines, American Express Saudi Arabia Limited and the Administration of zakat and income tax. In addition to honoring some of s who worked with the agency from the outset together to establish the system in a record time of only nine months, and these companies are Booz Allen Hamilton Company, Athos Aurejn Middle East Company and the Saudi Company for Electronic Computers Limited.