- MoneyGram, based in Texas, will work with the world’s largest Islamic bank – Al Rajhi Bank
- The new partnership will cover physical and online payments
- "This partnership is an important milestone that capitalizes on recent strategic investments in major receive markets", said a senior MoneyGram figure
International money transfer service, MoneyGram, has announced that it will partner with the world’s largest Islamic bank.
The Dallas-based firm will work with large Saudi bank, Al Rajhi Bank, as well as its specific remittances business, Tahweel Al Rajhi.
The partnership will see the two firms offer money transfer facilities across Saudi Arabia.
This will be a multi-channel partnership, with both walk-in locations and digital services covered.
According to Grant Lines, who serves as MoneyGram’s Chief Revenue Officer, the new move marks an “important milestone”.
"This partnership is an important milestone that capitalizes on recent strategic investments in major receive markets", he said.
"Over the last few months, we've expanded with new partners in India, Egypt, Pakistan and the Philippines to name a few.”
“All of these markets are key recipients of transfers from Saudi Arabia, and consumers will now benefit from this customer-centric integration with Al Rajhi Bank”, he added.
Ahmed Aly, who is the head of Middle East for MoneyGram, added that MoneyGram’s API offer made it simple and easy for the bank to get started.
"MoneyGram is delighted to partner with Al Rajhi Bank – a bank with the leading digital and physical remittance network in Saudi Arabia”, Aly said.
"Our teams are highly engaged to drive customer acquisition in this exciting market.”
“Al Rajhi Bank utilized our API-driven infrastructure to enable a quick and seamless integration” Aly added.
For Al Rajhi Bank’s part, Abdullah Al-Furaiji, who is the Head of Remittance and Exchange Business, claimed that it was the “market leader” in Saudi Arabia.
Al-Furaiji also claimed that “ease and convenience” was on its way for customers.
"Al Rajhi Bank is the market leader in the Kingdom, and customer centricity is at the heart of all we do”, Al-Furaiji said.
“Our alliance with MoneyGram will help our esteemed customers transfer their hard-earned money with ease and convenience to over 200 countries and territories”, he added.
Figures from the World Bank indicated that there are well over 10m immigrants in Saudi Arabia – and that these immigrants send $10bn in remittances out of the country every year.
For that to continue to thrive, the country needs to ensure that it has the best technology in its payment’s infrastructure.
While it appears that Al Rajhi Bank is already something of a leader in its field when it comes to technology, the API expertise of MoneyGram is likely to bolster it even further – leading to benefits for end-users.
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