As part of its ongoing efforts to enhance its digital services and improve its overall customer experience, Oman Arab Bank (OAB) announced the plans for the next stage of its digital evolution. Titled ‘Step to the Future 2.0’, the initiative was launched at the W Hotel Muscat on October 08. The announcement entailed the launch of a wide range of advanced e-payment solutions and facilities.

Commenting on the launch of ‘Step to the Future 2.0’, Rashad Al Musafir, the CEO of the b ank stated, “As you all know, Oman Arab Bank launched a pioneering transformation strategy earlier this year. This strategy was aimed at strengthening our presence in the digital arena, which is by far the most prominent area of focus and competition within the banking sector. As with ‘Step to the Future 1.0’, our renewed strategy is, once again, focused on enhancing the overall customer experience within the Bank. This is one area where we have definitely achieved very positive results over the past few years.”

“This year our Retail Banking Group launched an extensive plan on how to both implement and leverage the latest technologies available to us in order to enhance the banking experience. Central to this plan was finding practical solutions to help customers in their daily lives and present a product or service that offers them real value. Working within this framework, our ‘Step to the Future’ campaign was eventually born and successfully launched in January this year. This press conference marks the launch of the second stage of the campaign, which includes a wide range of new services, products and offers that will surely benefit our customers.”

The conference included a detailed presentation on ‘Step to the Future 2.0’ presented by Rashad Al Shaikh, Deputy Head of the Retail Banking Group. During the presentation, he touched upon the various digital solutions presented in the first edition of the initiative and the great response the Bank received from its customers. It was this positive feedback that served as the team’s source of motivation to develop even more digitally enhanced banking solutions, especially ones that could better help customers in their day-to-day lives.

Rashad Al Shaikh said, “Step to the Future 2.0 includes several new services that are aimed at helping customers streamline their day-to-day tasks, in turn helping them save both time and money. For example, the OAB Mobile App has been further enhanced to include a real time online bill payment service for several public services such as water and electricity. This is in addition to being able to pay school and university tuition fees via payment kiosks at a number of educational institutions in Oman.”

Also included as part of the new initiative was the development of the ‘OAB Rewards’ mobile app. Dedicated to the Bank’s reward points, this application allows customers to track their points balance as well as redeem them. The Bank has entered into a partnership with over 150 leading brands. OAB customers shopping at these stores will receive exclusive discounts as well as the option of paying using their reward points.

‘Step to the Future 2.0’ also includes three pioneering new services, Al Shaikh explains, “In cooperation with Merit Incentives, we have developed a dedicated new e-platform through which we can bring friends and family closer. Called ‘gifti’, this platform is available for anyone to download and allows users to exchange gift vouchers through the app for a number of major retailers in the region. These vouchers can even be sent via WhatsApp, email, or other social media platforms and OAB customers will receive discounts of up to 10%. Aside from gifti’, we have also developed a digital Bancassurance service customers can access via our website as well as a charity donation service, directly integrated into our mobile app.”

“There is a big difference between doing what you need to do and doing what you want to do. At OAB, we strive to focus on streamlining and speeding up the former for our customers, so that they have more time to indulge in the latter. This has been the fundamental basis of all our efforts over the years. By speeding up your bill payments, helping you send gifts to your loved ones, and more, we help you save time and money and secure your future. This is Oman Arab Bank today, a life partner for our clients and their families, employing the very latest technologies and utilising global standards of security and privacy,” Rashad Al Musafir concluded.