RIYADH, 12 June 2008 — In a major switch to electronic services, almost three-quarters of the consumers in the Kingdom now settle utility, phone and other bills by electronic means, such as ATMs, phone banking and online, according to new statistics revealed by Sadad services.
Sadad — established by the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA) as the national bill presentation and payment service — links organizations and their invoices with local banks enabling them to collect customer payments electronically through all banking channels 24 hours a day.
“The majority — 82 percent in March this year — of bills in Saudi Arabia are now paid through Sadad,” Nezar Al-Murgen, director of business development for Sadad Payment Systems, said, adding that the value of bills paid through Sadad reached $600 million in March and is on target to reach nearly $1 billion a month by the end of 2008.
Sadad’s introduction was highlighted recently as a major example of successful implementation of new and efficient business processes at the 4th Middle East Business Process Management Summit held in Dubai recently.
“SADAD is basically a process which was identified in the economic system as a significant contributor to national economy. Today with payments routed via Sadad, we have been able to efficiently re-deploy funds in almost a tenth of the time, from 14-30 days to only one business day,” Murgen said, adding that SAMA adopted the system as it’s centralized electronic real time service extends a high degree of security and confidentiality.
“It is an example of the efficiency and cost savings an organization could generate by understanding it’s processes and accelerating specific implementation processes which have a direct impact on the bottom line; strategies which will allow you to transform your organization into a top-class performer,” he said.
In 2003, prior to Sadad’s introduction, 73 percent of bills were paid through bank windows. The percentage of customers paying by that method this year has now declined to only 12 percent. Payment through ATMs is favored by 42 percent with 27 percent opting for phone banking and 19 percent online.
