Author: Ahli United Bank

Ahli United Bank (AUB) recently announced the winners of MyHassad Awards for June 2019. On the occasion, Abdulrahman Abdulraheem Abdulrahman, the winner of $500,000 MyHassad Prize stated, “I have never expected to win the Grand Prize! I am a client of Ahli United Bank, and have recently acquired a new MyHassad certificate since May 2019 from Isa Town Branch.” He added, “I was thrilled when I received the call informing me that I had won the quarterly award valued at $500,000. My whole family and my friends could not express their delight and happiness, it was like a dream made reality through the efforts of Ahli United Bank.” When interviewed about what his plans were for the prize; he commented, “The prize has completely changed my life, I plan to invest it within the Kingdom by purchasing real estate.”

Mr. Hilal Abdullah Al-Hanan, the winner of $250,000 MyHassad Prize of June 2019 similarly commented, “Winning the award was an unexpected and welcome surprise. I have been a customer of Ahli United Bank for many years, and had participated in the bank’s sweepstakes 20 years ago, whereby I received a certificate from the Sitra branch. I never lost hope of being a winner.” He continued by stating, “How I have felt, since receiving the call from the bank informing me of winning the $250,000 prize, cannot be described. My family members were also overwhelmed with delight at the news.” He concluded by saying, “I’m thinking of buying a piece of land with the prize money, and then investing the remaining balance into MyHassad’s program.“

MyHassad – the biggest award prizes program in the kingdom of Bahrain – has successfully registered the largest number of winners and the largest number of awards compared to any other savings program in the Kingdom. Since its inception, MyHassad has offered cash prizes exceeding BD67 million Bahrain for more than 16 thousand winners from its customers.

AUB recently announced the launch of the new version of the popular savings program, “MyHassad”, which is being launched again this year with a series of prizes, the largest in Bahrain with a total of more than US$8 million, which will be topped by the “MyHassad Millionaire” award, which will award one million US dollars to one winner in the draw to be held later this year for this prestigious Grand Prize.

In addition to this grand award, the bank also disclosed the details of the new periodic draws on several of the weekly, monthly and quarterly awards and special Eid awards that were created to provide the Bank’s customers in Bahrain with a more lucrative season for cash prizes and opportunities to win more and more than ever before.

The new season will start with a weekly draw of a US$25,000 allocated for customers in Bahrain and a further BD20,000 in a weekly draw to provide more win-win opportunities for the widest segment of customers throughout the year.

This year’s “MyHassad” program also targeted its customers with a monthly prize of BD100,000 (US$265,000), which increases in value every three months to the US$500,000 Grand Prize, as these prizes were designed to grant them with financial freedom to realize their dreams and ensure their financial stability.

In order to qualify for the draw, each balance of BD50 entitles the holder to one chance to participate and win in the draws. The higher the amounts you save and the longer period you maintain them, the greater the chances of winning the prizes.

Gulf Insider spoke with Samih Abutaleb, Group Head of Digital Transformation, Ahli United Bank one of the biggest financial firms in Bahrain, on how they approach digital transformation.

What is the greatest threat facing the banking industry today?
Abutaleb: Customer expectations present a valuable opportunity for organizations in the banking industry. Some might consider them the greatest threat facing the industry, but at Ahli United Bank we have always strived to service our customers with the best and latest technology available, thus enabling us to make the most out of the ongoing wave of digital transformation by putting the customer first.Previously, businesses had the luxury of dictating the time, place and method to conduct business with their customers while today customers expect to interact with their service providers at their own convenience through multiple touchpoints. This shift is driving the banking industry to transform to enhance their customer experience and add value to their services.

This opportunity comes at a time when the market in Bahrain is ripe for change, with excellent Government support through initiatives such as Bahrain FinTech Bay, the largest FinTech hub in the MENA region, and a pioneering regulator that is working to develop an advanced regulatory environment that supports FinTech innovation.

What does digital transformation mean to you and Ahli United Bank?
Abutaleb: Digital transformation is about change and speed. The banking industry is very competitive, and we need to keep up with smaller, more nimble financial firms, including FinTechs, as well as the larger established ones. We are approaching digital transformation by evolving IT and how we engage with our bank stakeholders. This means identifying new IT-business working models and identifying new technologies. We are continually driving innovation to meet business objectives.

What are the roles and responsibilities of the digital team?
Abutaleb: Ahli United Bank introduced a digital team to work with business units and understand their goals. The digital team is also responsible for engaging with other financial services companies to understand best practices and see how they are innovating. From there, we put together a plan that goes from developing new products to new distribution methods and increasing the efficiency of IT.

Strong internal engineering capabilities
We brought in new competencies around engineering as it is now the core of what we do. And we embraced agile IT to enable delivery, which meant organizing it around small multi-disciplined teams (squads) and empowering them to make decisions. We also introduced product owners from the business to work in our IT squads.

Cloud-native application architecture
The success of cloud-native companies like Google and Amazon is driven by their cloud-native software development methods. These companies are agile, move quickly, and we want to replicate what they do. With major improvements to our application architecture, we aim to have less than 10% of our applications remain legacy within three to five years.

Modernized infrastructure
We need to implement a next-generation infrastructure to enable our complex IT environment. IaaS and PaaS services are good for this, in Bahrain, banks can use public clouds and we want that level of agility, so we built our own cloud strategy to completely own open-source tools and easily shift our environment over. The private cloud will give us the ability to scale up and down as needed.

Integrated security
Information security must be embedded into all our processes and products including new technology, but more importantly, continuous user training. Ahli United Bank employees are much more aware of phishing risks through training and simulated phishing attacks.

How are Ahli United Bank driving innovation internally?
As with any major transformation within an organization, Executives’ buy-in and management support is critical. At Ahli United Bank, we have tremendous support from our Board of Directors and Group CEO as they believe technology is at the core of the bank, and it will help us continue our success as one of the leading banks in the region. A culture of innovation that is championed by leadership and cascaded through the organization is the fuel powering our digital transformation journey.

Ahli United Bank (AUB) announced recently the winning of Ms. Farah Hassan Ahmed for the monthly MyHassad draw, with a prize of BHD 100K.

Ms. Farah commented on this occasion by saying: “I thank God for winning this prize of BHD 100K, which was a surprise for me and my family as I am a customer of the bank, and I have participated in MyHassad since 2009 at the Budaiya branch.”

She continued saying “I was very happy when I was contacted to be informed that I was the lucky winner of the monthly prize draw, and the entire family was very excited about the winning, which felt like a dream becoming reality”.

When asked about her plans for the prize money, she said “we have a lot of loans, and I will use the prize money to settle them”.

MyHassad – the biggest award prizes program in the kingdom of Bahrain – has successfully registered the largest number of winners and the largest number of awards compared to any other savings program in the Kingdom. Since its inception, MyHassad has offered cash prizes exceeding BD67 million Bahrain for more than 16 thousand winners from its customers.

AUB recently announced the launch of the new version of the popular savings program, “MyHassad”, which is being launched again this year with a series of prizes, the largest in Bahrain with a total of more than US$8 million, which will be topped by the “MyHassad Millionaire” award, which will award one million US dollars to one winner in the draw to be held later this year for this prestigious Grand Prize.

In addition to this grand award, the bank also disclosed the details of the new periodic draws on several of the weekly, monthly and quarterly awards and special Eid awards that were created to provide the Bank’s customers in Bahrain with a more lucrative season for cash prizes and opportunities to win more and more than ever before.

The new season will start with a weekly draw of a US$25,000 allocated for customers in Bahrain and a further BD20,000 in a weekly draw to provide more win-win opportunities for the widest segment of customers throughout the year.

This year’s “MyHassad” program also targeted its customers with a monthly prize of BD100,000 (US$265,000), which increases in value every three months to the US$500,000 Grand Prize, as these prizes were designed to grant them with financial freedom to realize their dreams and ensure their financial stability.

In order to qualify for the draw, each balance of BD50 entitles the holder to one chance to participate and win in the draws. The higher the amounts you save and the longer period you maintain them, the greater the chances of winning the prizes.

Ahli United Bank (AUB) announced recently the winning of Ms. Asmaa Isa Ali Al Bazzaz (retired) for the weekly MyHassad draw, with a prize of USD 25K.

Ms. Asmaa commented on this occasion by saying: “although I have registered in MyHassad just recently, I had expected to win one of the prizes because the scheme offers a large number of weekly and monthly prizes”. She added “I am a customer of the bank, and I have started with MyHassad in April 2019 at the Madinat Isa branch, and I was hopeful of winning from the start, which was fulfilled by the grace of God”.

She continued saying “I was very happy when I was contacted to inform me that I was the lucky winner of the weekly USD 25,000 prize draw, and the entire family was very excited about the winning”.

When asked about her plans for the prize money, she said “the prize came at the right time, as I have two daughters at university, and I plan to use the money to support their studies”.

MyHassad – the biggest award prizes program in the kingdom of Bahrain – has successfully registered the largest number of winners and the largest number of awards compared to any other savings program in the Kingdom. Since its inception, MyHassad has offered cash prizes exceeding BD67 million Bahrain for more than 16 thousand winners from its customers.

AUB recently announced the launch of the new version of the popular savings program, “MyHassad”, which is being launched again this year with a series of prizes, the largest in Bahrain with a total of more than US$8 million, which will be topped by the “MyHassad Millionaire” award, which will award one million US dollars to one winner in the draw to be held later this year for this prestigious Grand Prize.

In addition to this grand annual award, the bank also disclosed the details of the new periodic draws on several of the weekly, monthly and quarterly awards and special Eid awards that were created to provide the Bank’s customers in Bahrain with a more lucrative season for cash prizes and opportunities to win more and more than ever before.

The new season will start with a weekly draw of a US$25,000 allocated for customers in Bahrain and a further BD20,000 in a weekly draw to provide more win-win opportunities for the widest segment of customers throughout the year.

This year’s “MyHassad” program also targeted its customers with a monthly prize of BD100,000 (US$265,000), which increases in value every three months to the US$500,000 Grand Prize, as these prizes were designed to grant them with financial freedom to realize their dreams and ensure their financial stability.

In order to qualify for the draw, each balance of BD50 entitles the holder to one chance to participate and win in the draws. The higher the amounts you save and the longer period you maintain them, the greater the chances of winning the prizes.

As part of enhancing the client experience and providing market leading services, Ahli United Bank (AUB) has upgraded its existing IVR (Interactive Voice Response) system to the new Visual IVR. This latest service allows customers to communicate with the Bank’s Contact Centre through a Visual Interactive Voice Response (VIVR) system when they call AUB’s Phone Banking.

The unique VIVR system offers customers Visual Customer Service menu options on their mobile phones rather than listening to them. This enables them to navigate the menu quickly and easily without having to wait to hear all the available options. To present date, in Bahrain, no other bank offers the same service; making AUB a leader in the country to present this service.

The experience for the customer is unique and user-friendly. On calling AUB contact center, customers will be prompted to convert their IVR call to a VIVR session. If customers opt for the VIVR option, a secure link will be sent via an SMS. The customer has the option to start the video banking session of VIVR by logging in and proceeding with the requests/transactions.

The new VIVR service will compliment voice messages with visual representation of IVR menus on their smartphones, enabling quick and easy menu selection. At any point during the call the customer can opt to speak to Contact Center agent.

In addition, customers can experience this service by clicking on the Visual IVR link on AUB’s corporate website. Hearing impaired customers can also view their account information and transact using Visual IVR service from AUB’s corporate website.

AUB’s Deputy Group Chief Executive Officer for Retail Banking, Suvrat Saigal said, “We are continuously seeking ways to ensure that our customers are able to interact with us in the manner which is most convenient for them. With that in mind, we are delighted to be the first to offer the VIVR service to our customers.”

Ahli United Bank (AUB) announced recently the winning of Mr. Abdulhusain Isa Abdullah Abdulredha for the weekly MyHassad draw of May 2, 2019; as well as Mr. Mohamed Ahmed Yusuf Kadhem, winner of the draw on May 8th, 2019, with a prize of USD 25K for each.

Mr. Abdulhusain Isa commented on this occasion by saying: “I am an old customer of the bank, and I have participated in MyHassad years ago at Budaiya branch, and won many prizes in this program.”

He continued saying “I was very happy when I was contacted to inform me that I was the lucky winner of the weekly USD 25,000 prize draw, and the entire family was very excited about the winning, and I wish to be lucky again in the future”.

When asked about his plans for the prize money, he said “I did not plan it yet, however I want to invest it in the MyHassad scheme again”.

As for the winner Mr. Mohamed Ahmed Yusuf, he said “I expected to get lucky and win one of the MyHassad prizes, as I am a customer of the bank and I hold MyHassad certificates for years at Budaiya branch. I have already won one of the Ahli United Bank (AUB) prizes back in 2009”.

Mr. Mohamed added “I felt a great joy when I was contacted to inform me that I was the lucky winner of the weekly USD 25,000 prize draw, and the entire family was very excited about the winning to the point that they all decided to participate in MyHassad scheme”.

As for his plans about the prize, he said “I am planning to re-invest it in MyHassad”.

MyHassad – the biggest award prizes program in the kingdom of Bahrain – has successfully registered the largest number of winners and the largest number of awards compared to any other savings program in the Kingdom. Since its inception, MyHassad has offered cash prizes exceeding BD67 million Bahrain for more than 16 thousand winners from its customers.

AUB recently announced the launch of the new version of the popular savings program, “MyHassad”, which is being launched again this year with a series of prizes, the largest in Bahrain with a total of more than US$8 million, which will be topped by the “MyHassad Millionaire” award, which will award one million US dollars to one winner in the draw to be held later this year for this prestigious Grand Prize.

In addition to this grand annual award, the bank also disclosed the details of the new periodic draws on several of the weekly, monthly and quarterly awards and special Eid awards that were created to provide the Bank’s customers in Bahrain with a more lucrative season for cash prizes and opportunities to win more and more than ever before.

The new season will start with a weekly draw of a US$25,000 allocated for customers in Bahrain and a further BD20,000 in a weekly draw to provide more win-win opportunities for the widest segment of customers throughout the year.

This year’s “MyHassad” program also targeted its customers with a monthly prize of BD100,000 (US$265,000), which increases in value every three months to the US$500,000 Grand Prize, as these prizes were designed to grant them with financial freedom to realize their dreams and ensure their financial stability.

In order to qualify for the draw, each balance of BD50 entitles the holder to one chance to participate and win in the draws. The higher the amounts you save and the longer period you maintain them, the greater the chances of winning the prizes.

On the occasion of this year’s Bahraini Women’s Day, the role of Bahraini women and their progress in the field of “Higher Education and Future Sciences” will be celebrated. In line with Ahli United Bank’s CSR program and their continuous support of campaigns held by the Supreme Council for Women, AUB contributed to the event as a Silver Sponsor. This occasion also coincides with the 100-year anniversary of the launch of Public Education in Bahrain.

Ms. Naseema Haider, Head of Private Banking at Ahli United Bank, stated: “we, at Ahli United Bank, greatly value the role the Supreme Council for Women has provided, under the leadership of Her Royal Highness Princess Sabeeka Bint Ibrahim Al Khalifa, Wife of His Majesty the King of Bahrain, in supporting the advancement of Bahraini women and achieving HRH’s ambitious vision for Bahraini women strengthening their presence and contribution by claiming their deserved status in society as active members, as well as the role Bahraini women play within various fields and sectors, professionally and socially”.

From her end, Ms. Hanan Al Hammadi, Director of Financial and Administrative Affairs for the Supreme Council for Women, expressed her appreciation to the Bank by saying: “we thank Ahli United Bank for its continuous and positive support of the Bahraini Women to continue playing a vital role in Bahrain’s society. Ahli United Bank’s support is part of its responsibility towards society, given its excellent record on this front being the first private organization to win HRH Shaikha Sabeeka’s Women Empowerment Award in 2006”.

Ahli United Bank (AUB) announced recently the award winning of the BD100,000, Mrs. Jamila Habib Ahmed Al-Maqabi, a Bahraini Kindergarten Manager.

Mrs. Jameela commented on this occasion by saying: “I didn’t really expect to be the lucky winner of this draw, as I have been a client of Ahli United Bank and purchased my certificates in 2018 from Budaiya branch. I was impressed by the lovely and friendly faces of AUB branch staff, which encouraged me to maintain my relationship with the bank”.

“I was very happy when I was contacted to inform me that I was the lucky winner of the monthly BD100,000 prize draw, and the entire family was very excited about the winning, which was a dream for all of us,” added Mrs. Jamila.

We were planning to buy a new house and we needed an extra cash to be able to buy it… the prize was a gift from heaven to enable us to buy the house that we have always dreamed of” Mrs. Jameela concluded.

MyHassad – the biggest award prizes program in the kingdom of Bahrain – has successfully registered the largest number of winners and the largest number of awards compared to any other savings program in the Kingdom. Since its inception, MyHassad has offered cash prizes exceeding BD67 million Bahrain for more than 16 thousand winners from its customers.

AUB recently announced the launch of the new version of the popular savings program, “MyHassad”, which is being launched again this year with a series of prizes, the largest in Bahrain with a total of more than US$8 million, which will be topped by the “MyHassad Millionaire” award, which will award one million US dollars to one winner in the draw to be held later this year for this prestigious Grand Prize.

In addition to this grand annual award, the bank also disclosed the details of the new periodic draws on several of the weekly, monthly and quarterly awards and special Eid awards that were created to provide the Bank’s customers in Bahrain with a more lucrative season for cash prizes and opportunities to win more and more than ever before.

The new season will start with a weekly draw of a US$25,000 allocated for customers in Bahrain and a further BD20,000 in a weekly draw to provide more win-win opportunities for the widest segment of customers throughout the year.

This year’s “MyHassad” program also targeted its customers with a monthly prize of BD100,000 (US$265,000), which increases in value every three months to the US$500,000 Grand Prize, as these prizes were designed to grant them with financial freedom to realize their dreams and ensure their financial stability.

In order to qualify for the draw, each balance of BD50 entitles the holder to one chance to participate and win in the draws. The higher the amounts you save and the longer period you maintain them, the greater the chances of winning the prizes.

Ahli United Bank’s (AUB’s) MyHassad savings account provides account holders as well as holders of savings certificates with a chance to win prizes. The longer they save; the more chances they have of winning. One such account holder is Mr. Redha Abbas, a retired Bahraini, who was recently announced as the winner of AUB’s MyHassad weekly prize of USD 25K.

On hearing the news Mr. Redha said, “I never expected to be so lucky as to win a second time in the draws. I’ve been an AUB client for many years and held the certificate since its launch date.”

When Mr. Redha was contacted to be informed about winning the award; he said, “I couldn’t believe it when the branch manager was informing me about winning the weekly prize of USD 25K!”

When asked about his plans for spending the prize, his response was, “I have 3 daughters, and I will use the prize amount to pay for their school and university education, and I thank AUB for giving me the chance to win this weekly prize.”

It is worth noting that Mr. Redha is also the winner of one of the previous MyHassad prizes, and he wishes he could still win for a third time!

MyHassad – the biggest award prizes program in the kingdom of Bahrain – has successfully registered the largest number of winners and the largest number of awards compared to any other savings program in the Kingdom. Since its inception, MyHassad has offered cash prizes exceeding BD67 million Bahrain for more than 16 thousand winners from its customers.

AUB recently announced the launch of the new version of the popular savings program, “MyHassad”, which is being launched again this year with a series of prizes, the largest in Bahrain with a total of more than US$ 8 million, which will be topped by the “MyHassad Millionaire” award, which will award one million US dollars to one winner in the draw to be held later this year for this prestigious Grand Prize.

In addition to this grand annual award, the bank also disclosed the details of the new periodic draws on several of the weekly, monthly and quarterly awards and special Eid awards that were created to provide the Bank’s customers in Bahrain with a more lucrative season for cash prizes and opportunities to win more and more than ever before.

The new season will start with a weekly draw of a US$25,000 allocated for customers in Bahrain and a further BD20,000 in a weekly draw to provide more win-win opportunities for the widest segment of customers throughout the year.

This year’s “MyHassad ” program also targeted its customers with a monthly prize of BD100,000 (US$265,000), which increases in value every three months to the US$500,000 Grand Prize, as these prizes were designed to grant them with financial freedom to realize their dreams and ensure their financial stability.

In order to qualify for the draw, each balance of BD50 entitles the holder to one chance to participate and win in the draws. The higher the amounts you save and the longer period you maintain them, the greater the chances of winning the prizes.

In its efforts to ensure that the clients are served with the latest banking services, Ahli United Bank (AUB) announced the launch of their Artificial Intelligence (AI) supported Chatbot service via WhatsApp for Businesses.

Being the first bank in Bahrain to integrate its system with an AI supported chatting service via WhatsApp, AUB’s current clients and prospective clients will be able to complete many of their banking inquiries through the chatting service. Banking inquiry topics include MyHassad program prize winner list, information about Current Accounts, Savings Accounts, Personal Loans, Car Loans, Money Transfers, Branches and many other banking services.

Designed to provide the same ease as speaking with friends online; this service is considered friendly, and secure with 24/7 availability. Anyone can access the chatting service by simply adding the bank’s number 34221999 to their Phone’s Contact List and then opening a chat with the saved contact, just like chatting with a friend on WhatsApp.

On the launch event, Mr. Samih Abutaleb, Group Head Digital Transformation for AUB commented, “Following the successful launch of the first phase for the chat solution via WhatsApp Business solution, we look forward to the upgrade and growth of the WhatsApp based chatting services in order to deliver a consolidated and unified digital client experience. This new service offering will complement our existing digital channels in a secure and convenient way. Our integration with the WhatsApp Business solution builds on our commitment to further enhancing and facilitating AUB’s banking services. WhatsApp, being widely-used, is a simple, reliable and private way to converse with anyone in the world, which offers AUB clients with further simplicity and comfort.”

Mr. Samih Abutaleb, further stated that, “On the other hand, with the continued execution of our digital transformation strategy via the usage of Artificial Intelligence technologies in all aspects of the group, this service demonstrates Ahli United Bank’s leadership in innovation in banking services and our focus on reaching our growing customer base.”

He concluded his statement by saying “we are excited about offering our WhatsApp chat services and we are working on rapidly expanding the service to further enable continuous, and interactive conversations with our clients, as all messages sent via a WhatsApp business account are secure and encrypted in a safe and secure manner.”