Abu Dhabi – July 1, 2009: The National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD), the number one bank in the UAE, and leading mobile payment provider Luup International Ltd, TODAY announced they plan to provide a mobile money transfer service across the bank’s international network
NBAD enjoys the largest overseas network of all UAE banks, with 42 overseas units located in 9 countries on four continents.

The new service will be a valuable addition to the already popular Arrow mobile payment service provided by NBAD, via Luup’s mobile payment platform. Arrow, the SMS based payment service, allows customers to access their bank accounts via mobile phones to pay, send, and receive money around the clock.

Utilising Luup's mobile payments solutions and NBAD’s powerful local, regional and international reach, the planned service will offer customers a fast, secure and reliable means of sending money internationally regardless of their mobile phone or network. Initially, the service will be available to NBAD customers but it is planned that it will be offered to a wider audience.

Luup enables banks, corporate customers, exchange houses and institutions to offer mobile payment processing, mobile payment interfaces and virtual mobile phone accounts. Luup will use its existing technology and expertise to develop this service for NBAD.

Luup and NBAD expect to announce further details on the initiative later in the year.

“Our market leading Arrow service has already proved to be a great success with customers, who have embraced the speed and convenience of mobile payments. Adding this service to Arrow will allow our customers to send money to each other, wherever they are, simply by using their mobile phone,” said Mr. Ahmed Al-Naqbi, Senior Manager, Channels and Electronic Banking Services at NBAD.

“Working with Luup to deliver mobile payments to our customers has added an exciting new dimension to our business; one that that we believe has huge further potential and we are already working on more products and services for our Arrow customers that we’ll announce as soon as they come online.” Mr. Ahmed Al-Naqbi added.

Morten Hofstad, Head of business for Luup in the MENA region said: “With over 7 billion mobile phones on the globe by 2015 mobile payments will undoubtedly playing a key role in the future of financial services. NBAD was quick to see the potential of mobile technology and by working with Luup is now is in a great position to capitalise on the benefits that mobile payments offer. This is an exciting development and we are delighted to continue to work with NBAD to provide innovative solutions for the bank and its customers."

-ENDS-

Caption: Mr. Ahmed Al-Naqbi, Senior Manager, Channels and Electronic Banking Services at NBAD (Right) and Morten Hofstad, Head of business for Luup in the MENA region.

For further information:

National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD)

Ehab Khairi
Media & PR Manager
National Bank of Abu Dhabi
Tel: +97126111190
Mob: + 971508126799
Email: ehab.khairi@nbad.com
Web: www.nbad.com

LUUP
Lucy Grubb
Corporate Communications Manager
Tel: +44(0) 7957 774 92
Email: lucy.grubb@luup.com
For further information on Luup International go to: www.luup.com

For media requests, please contact:

Phone +971 (4) 337 2824
Email team@tcf-me.com
P.O. Box 29764
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Fax +971 (4) 337 2825

Notes to Editors

About NBAD
The National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD), The Number One Bank in the UAE, was incorporated in 1968. NBAD has a network of more than 85 branches in the UAE in addition to Cash offices that are spread out at remote locations to provide banking services to customers stationed at offshore oil operations and in desert locations as well as other government organizations. NBAD also has three Shift offices inside the security areas of the Abu Dhabi International Airport providing currency & traveler’s cheques exchange services.
The branch network is widened further with more than 270 ATMs through which customers perform a variety of transactions.
Besides brick & mortar branches, NBAD provides 24 hour internet banking accessibility through NbadOnline and NbadDirect, as well as account access and personalized customer support through the 24-hour Call Centre.
NBAD’s overseas network stretches from Oman, Kuwait, and Bahrain in the G.C.C., Egypt, Libya, and Sudan in Africa, London, Paris, and Geneva in Europe to Washington D.C. in the U.S.A.
The bank provides its customer with a wide variety of financial services targeted at all segments of the retail and corporate market in addition to Fund Management, Brokerage, Leasing, Property Management businesses and Private Banking.
NBAD is rated senior long term/short term A+/A-1 by Standard and Poor’s, Aa3/P1 by Moodys and AA-/F1+ by Fitch giving one of the strongest combined rating of any Middle Eastern financial institution.

NBAD is an award winning leader in the UAE and GCC financial services industry. Awards won by the bank include the Sheikh Khalifa Excellence Award, , the Mohamed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Business Award 2007, the Middle East Excellence Award 2008Dubai Quality Award, ‘Best Bank in UAE’ from Euromoney and Banker publications, ‘Human Resources Development Award’ from the Emirates Institute for Banking & Financial Studies, the ‘Middle East e-Banking Country Award’, the ‘Outstanding use of IT in Financial Services Award, and excellence award for ‘Best use of Technology’ from Banker Middle East.

Arrow
The NBAD Arrow service lets customers access the money in their bank account via their mobile phone. Using Arrow, customers can check the balance of their account, instantly send money to friends and family, pay bills and donate to charities by SMS. Arrow was born out of a partnership between NBAD and Luup, a specialist in mobile payments. Luup provides banks around the world with mobile payment technology and expertise.

Luup International
Luup is an independent global provider of mobile payment services, systems and infrastructure, enabling a wide range of payments to be initiated and managed from a mobile phone. The company specializes in offering payment processing, mobile payment interfaces and virtual mobile phone accounts.

Launched in Norway in 2002, and with operational experience in three European markets, Luup is partnering with banks and financial institutions around the world to create a global mobile payment network. Luup is a privately owned company.

Luup’s service enables financial institutions to offer:
• convenient and secure methods for customer to make bill payments, merchant payments and money transfers while on the go
• virtual accounts from which previously unbanked customers can withdraw their salaries in cash and remit money home to their families
• electronic payroll solution to those companies wishing to reduce costs and increase security while serving their unbanked employees a service that is able to work with any mobile phone operator and on any mobile phone device