Three Lebanese companies jointly launched on Wednesday a new internet banking solution for banks who want to offer customers more flexible services, reported the Daily Star newspaper.
Beirut-based Trinec, one of two application service providers (ASP) in the Middle East, is one of the companies involved.
ASPs host applications on giant secure servers and charge companies a monthly subscription to use them.
Medium-sized companies who use an ASP no longer need to purchase, upgrade, and maintain expensive software because their ASP will do it for them, cutting their costs by at least 50 percent, said the paper.
The internet banking solution presented to Lebanese banks would allow them to offer their customers internet banking services, provided on a user-by-user basis through Trinec.
Thus, the bank can offer the latest services without investing in expensive and highly specialized internet banking software.
After all, Lebanon has just 85,000 internet users, under 700,000 bank account-holders and 60,000 credit or debit card-holders, said the paper.
Trinec can afford to do so because it will work with a number of banks, benefiting from economies of scale.
Currently, anything more complex than a cash withdrawal requires a morning at the local branch interacting with a cashier through a perforated screen.
But the paper said that by 2002, every bank in Lebanon will be legally required to be online with all its branches linked to each other and to the Central Bank – Albawaba.com
