Consumers can pay their bills through all banks channels. Main bank channels: Bank branches Internet Banking Phone Banking (IVR) Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) Additional channels: Cash Acceptance Machines (CAM) SMS Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) Corporate Banking Call Center Point of Sales (POS) Self-service Machines Mobile
An estimated 12-15 million man- were spent by customers waiting at bank branches to pay bills. SADAD has facilitated the migration of customers from physical to electronic channels, thereby delivering time and efficiency saves to the overall economy Banks and billers have built IT linkages on a bilateral basis for providing electronic bill payment services. This has created duplicated investments due to the proliferation of non-standard multiple interfaces. SADAD has helped to rationalize this through the development of a shared national infrastructure. SADAD has facilitated the development of secure and standard protocols related to business to consumer transactions over any electronic channels Although the initial focus of SADAD is facilitating standard bill payments, it is expected to provide the basis for developing a wide range of electronic services in the future The Saudi Government is aiming to introduce a wide range of e-government services. SADAD can provide a robust, scalable and flexible platform for a growth of future e-government services
All kind of services can join SADAD, I.e. government, telecommunication, educational, transportation, Financial. etc.
- Billers send summary bills information to SADAD at a pre-determined schedule.
- SADAD validates data received and uploads it into its databas.
- SADAD notifies Billers of any discrepancies.
- Customer requests bill(s) information through Bank channels (1).
- The Bank forwards the request received to SADAD.
- SADAD retrieves bill information from its database and forwards it to customer.
- Customer selects the bill(s) to be paid and the respective amount(s).
- The Bank debits the customer account and confirms the transaction.
- SADAD updates its database based on the Bank’s confirmation (2) .
- SADAD notifies relevant Biller(s) accordingly.
- At the end of the day, SADAD initiates settlement instructions through SARIE .
- At the end of the day, Billers receive reconciliation reports from SADAD showing a breakdown of all transactions processed by SADAD .
- SADAD updates bills status to “settled” .
Electronic Bill Presentment and Payment( EBPP) Prepaid Payments service Real-time payment notifications Reconciliation reports showing a breakdown of all transactions processed by SADAD Periodical reports Access to SADAD Portal Help desk that is dedicated to serve Billers and Banks
One of the most important goals of SADAD is to create a challenging environment where billers compete to serve their clients by providing convenient electronic payment solutions using SADAD payment system. SAMA intends to connect all banks and billers via electronic channels where bills can be viewed and paid all around the Kingdom. By using SADAD electronic payment system cash usage will be reduced, fore cash usage can be risky either by being stolen, lost, or damaged. Therefore people will not need to carry cash in order to pay their bills. In the existing system all billers are related to a bank or several banks via a special system which does not apply to the other billers in the same bank, or with other banks to the same billers. That’s why SAMA was obligated to unify linking operations related to the payment systems used, so that it connects all the billers with all the banks, which makes electronic linking easier and to get rid of developing new system to connect a new biller who hasn’t been connected before. Electronic payment is one of the new payment methods that have been used in The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia recently; a lot of people haven’t used this kind of payment fearing the security factor, that’s why SAMA has direct supervision as the central bank on such kind of payment operations, which gives the system sufficient dependence for the client, fore SAMA carries out reviewing and developing the system regularly for the greatest safety possible for the operations of electronic payments.
SADAD is significantly reducing the time spent by customers in paying bills, by reducing dependence on physical channels. With SADAD, customers receive proactive messages regarding pending/unpaid bills while they might be doing other transactions at ATMs and online banking sites. SADAD is increasing the flexibility available to customers in paying bills; also include the flexibility of allowing customers to use certain channels of banks where they do not have an account. The timeliness, accuracy and reliability of information provided by SADAD are reducing the instances that customers are unduly disconnected from service. Customers do not need to handle and carry cash Customers are able to view all bills from multiple billers at one place.
Banks used to keep hold of the money collected on behalf of the billers between 7 to 30 days. SADAD is facilitating the availability of funds in biller’s accounts within 1 business day. Thus the biller will benefit from faster cash availability Billers have to maintain only a single interface with SADAD instead of separate interfaces with different banks Billers will not have to track reconciliation and settlement with different banks, SADAD performs centralized reconciliation and settlement accounting on behalf of all billers and bank Customers are often wrongly disconnected due to delays in bill payment. Billers incur avoidable costs related to disconnection and reconnection of the customer, as well as lost revenues during the period that service remains disconnected. SADAD provides accurate timely information on bill payment status, including real time notification of payments received Increased reliability and accuracy of bill information from SADAD contributes in reducing number of complaints and queries received by billers
SADAD is increasing the flexibility and options available to customers for paying their bills through electronic channels (both of their own bank as well as of other banks).
This will accelerate migration from paying bills at bank branches to paying them through electronic channels – resulting in lower costs to banks Banks currently construct and maintain as many interfaces as the number of billers they are under agreement with. In addition, each biller has different requirements in terms of update frequencies, business rules and bill formats. SADAD has a single standardized interface to each bank, thereby dramatically reducing the complexity and cost of interfacing SADAD is performing centralized reconciliation and settlement accounting on behalf of all billers and banks. , each bank used to reconcile all payments related to every biller and report to them. This would reduce the costs related to reconciliation and other back office activities significantly Increased reliability and accuracy of bill information from SADAD is contributing to a reduction in number of complaints and queries received by banks
SADAD Payment System (SADAD) was established by the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) to be the national Electronic Bill Presentment and Payment (EBPP) service provider for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA).
