Business Bureau, Gulf Today
Commercial Bank of Dubai, one of the leading financial institutions in the UAE, entered into a partnership with Al Fardan Exchange, the leading exchange house in the UAE, to be a channel partner for issuing and topping-up the new eDirham card initiated by the Ministry of Finance.
The eDirham card is part of a cashless payment platform that empowers users to make payments for a wide range of services across Ministries. The new eDirham cards will provide the next generation of convenience, security and flexibility as they will enable users to set up eDirham Wallet, inquire about their card balances and review their transaction statements.
Commercial Bank of Dubai is the first bank in the UAE to both issue the new eDirham card and acquire payments made through the new card. Through the partnership with Al Fardan Exchange, CBD is now taking the lead in issuing the new eDirham card to customers.
The partnership will enable customers to visit any of Al Fardan Exchange’s 66 branches across the UAE to get a new eDirham Hala card or top-up their existing cards conveniently.
Saeed Rashid Al Yateem, Assistant Under Secretary of Resource and Budget Sector at the Ministry of Finance said: “The Ministry of Finance is keen to strengthen partnerships between the public and private sectors to support the transformation of the digital economy, and improve the quality of services provided to individuals and companies. The eDirham system, which is based on the latest global technologies for cashless payment services, is one of the ministry’s most prominent achievements, where it provides a smart, easy and secure way to seamlessly pay government and non-governmental service fees.
He added: “The Ministry of Finance continues to develop the country’s integrated digital payment system, so as to adopt the latest FinTech technologies and applications, and launch incentive initiatives to encourage various segments of society to adopt advanced digital options, in line with the UAE Vision 2021 and the UAE mGovernment initiative.”