Dubai eGovernment and CBD launch “Cash Online” to support Direct Debit

Dubai eGovernment and Commercial Bank of Dubai (CBD) has launched “Cash Online”, a virtual account for both CBD and non CBD account holders to pay their government payments online.

The service is a new CBD product designed and developed for individual and corporate non-CBD account holders to open a free virtual account within minutes without the need to have a minimum balance following the submission of the required official documents. By virtue of this account, customers can now pay online for the fees of all Dubai government entities in a quick and hassle-free manner.

This service supports the use of Dubai eGovernment’s ePay portal to settle the fees of government transactions, either through credit cards or through direct debit from the customer’s account with the five participating banks; namely, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, Dubai Islamic Bank, Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, Union National Bank and Commercial Bank of Dubai, with the aim of providing more convenient options for customers in line with the Dubai eGovernment’s “Customer First” strategy.

H.E. Ahmed Bin Humaidan, Director General of Dubai eGovernment, said: “We seek to ease the life of customers with Dubai government entities as much as possible in line with the directives of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, to provide innovative electronic channels of easy access anywhere and at any time. The accelerating pace of eTransformation in Dubai reflects the increasing adoption by customers of the ePay option to complete their government transactions on one hand and their rising confidence in the efficiency and safety of this option on the other.”

He added: “Our co-operation with the Commercial Bank of Dubai to launch this new service follows the mounting success witnessed by the ePay portal. The amounts collected electronically from payments by credit cards totaled around AED3.3 billion out of the total amounts collected via the portal. This was coupled with the 10-fold rise in the rates of usage of the direct debit option from 54,538 transactions in 2010 to 522,815 transactions in 2011.”

Meanwhile, Faisal Galadari, General Manager – Business Group at CBD, said: “Commercial Bank of Dubai focuses on serving customers with top-of-the-line technology. We realize how much they value time and efficiency. At Commercial Bank of Dubai, are pleased to support all eInitiatives that would serve customers and we have no doubt that this partnership with Dubai eGovernment will be of great benefit to both, our customers and DeG customers”.

ePay is part of Dubai eGovernment’s initiative aimed at offering online government services through innovative channels and providing the public and the business community with an efficient and secure mechanism for instant payment of government fees without having to waste time and effort.