BankMuscat acquires the Diner Club Merchant portfolio

As the Sultanate's No. 1 Bank, BankMuscat will also handle Diners Club
Card merchant business, in addition to the existing VISA and Master Card merchant businesses.

It may be recalled that in a glittering ceremony late Iast year, BankMuscat had bought over HSBC's merchant acquiring business for VISA and MasterCard transactions in the Sultanate. "The Banker" magazine has recently declared BankMuscat the best bank in Oman. As the largest bank in the country it has 90 branches, 130 ATMs and a market share of 35%.

The BankMuscat-Diners Club relationship goes a long way as BankMuscat was, the first bank in the Sultanate to enter into an agreement with Diners Club-Oman to issue the BankMuscat /Diners Club co-branded card, way back in 1995.

Commenting on this move, Abdul Razak Ali Issa, Chief Executive, BankMuscat said, " ... In the near future, BankMuscat will have some more surprises for its customers and merchants by introducing new products and services. Our ultimate goal is to become a single-window, outlet to provide services to all brands of credit carts businesses, with new innovations and schemes that will in turn increase merchant as well as customer convenience. "

Sheikh Saif bin Hashil Al Maskery, Chairman- Global Card Services (Local franchisee-Diners Club International), too expressed his delight at the development and reiterated his commitment to support BankMuscat in all its endeavours.