Alinma Bank today announced commencement of a first-of-its-kind service for its EMV credit/debit cards for use on the Internet. The service gives Alinma cardholders the ability to enable and disable internet purchasing on their cards through the bank’s Alinma Internet (www.alinma.com) or Alinma Phone (8001208000) services. This means that an Alinma partner (customer) can enable the purchasing function immediately prior to making an Internet transaction and can disable the function immediately upon completion of that transaction. All of this can be done at the partner’s convenience, either from home or on-the-go.
Speaking on the occasion of the launch of the service, Dr. Behnam Maqsoud, head of the Retail Assets division at Alinma Bank, touted the service as being a significant step forward in Alinma’s efforts to ensure the security of partner transactions. “Alinma is committed to bringing safe, state-of-the-art banking to our partners,” said Maqsoud. “Although the introduction of EMV debit and credit cards has ensured much safer point-of-sale transactions, the Internet remains more vulnerable to fraud. However, with this unique service, partners take complete control of the safety of the Internet transactions performed using their cards.”
Maqsoud also noted that Alinma’s service saves the bank the effort of issuing and managing “low limit” cards for internet transactions, which is the current practice of many banks in Saudi Arabia.
Last year, Alinma Bank became the first Bank in Europe, the Middle East and Africa to issue personalized Visa EMV cards instantly. With this achievement, Alinma Bank pioneered a standard that many banks have attempted to emulate. Alinma was also the first bank in Saudi Arabia to be awarded the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard 1.2.1 (PCI DSS 1.2.1) certification, the highest level of cardholder data security certification. And now with the addition of its Internet transaction security feature for its EMV cards, Alinma has taken card security to the next level of excellence.
About Alinma Bank
Alinma Bank is a Saudi joint stock company that was established with SAR 15 billion in capital. It provides financing services that are commensurate with the needs of individuals and corporate entities across 26 Kingdom-wide branches. Branches currently exist in Riyadh, Jeddah, Dammam, Madinah, Taif, Khamis Mushait, Hofuf and Jubail. Alinma also provides its partners with a full range of alternative, 24-hour, self-service banking options that include Alinma Internet (www.alinma.com), Alinma Phone (8001208000) and Alinma Mobile, plus an extensive network of more than 161 ATMs.