BankMuscat is the first bank in the Sultanate to employ this technology

Muscat. February 25, 2008: BankMuscat (SAOG), the nation’s leading financial services provider, has recently completed the MultiProtocol Label Switching (MPLS) Virtual Private Network (VPN) project roll out. This was as a result of the agreement BankMuscat had signed with Omantel in Oct 07. BankMuscat is the first bank in the Sultanate to have employed this technology, which will considerably enhance the levels of efficiency in routing, forwarding, and switching of traffic flows through its branch network.

Speaking of the Bank’s commitment to technology-led excellence, Abdul Razak Ali Issa, Chief Executive, BankMuscat, said:

“BankMuscat has always believed in harnessing the power of technology to build a differentiated brand experience. The MPLS project is a showcase of how two industry leaders can work together for the betterment of industry offerings across the country. The solution, we are sure, will help us considerably strengthen our service offering to our valued customers, across the length and breadth of the country.”

BankMuscat has successfully rolled out the MPLS technology solution across the Bank’s network of 110 branches nationwide well ahead of the scheduled completion of the project. Omantel will now be responsible for monitoring the Bank’s service network real-time and proactively initiate solutions in case of an emergency or on detection of any fault in the system.

Advantages of the MPLS technology include faster data communication, wider application of e-learning, and introduction of new application packages to improve customer service.

The Bank, it may be recalled, had in 2006 announced the signing of an agreement with TEMENOS Headquarters SA to introduce a new state-of-the-art core banking system, based on TEMENOS T24™, the world’s leading integrated banking system following a 5-month search and evaluation process led by global technology consultancy firm, Gartner Consulting.