National Bonds Corporation, the Shari’a-compliant saving scheme, has announced a strategic alliance with Emirates Post to enable customers to purchase the savings certificates from over 100 Emirates Post offices across the UAE.

Mohammed Qasim Al Ali, chief executive officer of National Bonds Corporation and Ibrahim Bin Karam, chief executive officer of Emirates Post, signed the MoU.

The agreement paves the way for the UAE postal services provider to offer existing and new customers of National Bonds various services; new or repeat purchases and instant savings certificate issuance.

Announcing the alliance, Al Ali said National Bonds and Emirates Post will focus on working closely together to advocate the savings culture.

'Joining forces with a leading national service provider like Emirates Post is an important step for National Bonds, as it enables us to reach out to a wider audience and at the same time provide easy access and convenience to our customers.'

'It will also enhance the visibility of National Bonds, offer a seamless service to our bondholders and raise our service standards even higher. This agreement is yet another  major achievement for National Bonds in positioning the scheme as 'Everyone’ s favourite place to save and invest',' Al Ali said.

'This significant tie-up will increase NBC distribution network by more than 20 per cent that is more than 550 outlets including the banks & exchange houses,' he added.

Bin Karam said: “We are privileged to add National Bonds services to our portfolio. As the region’s most dynamic postal corporation, Emirates Post is geared towards providing the best service to all customers. With the help of our advanced IT technology and a trained team, we will provide a convenient and user-friendly service to the customers.”

Louis Bruno Rochecouste, chief commercial officer of National Bonds said the agreement will become a trend-setter for retailing financial services products on a mass scale and 'comes as part of our strategic focus for 2010 to innovate and deploy the latest technologies in distribution and customer service.'

'We have recently launched a unique initiative the Individual Takaful Cover” that will offer coverage up to Dh125,000 for our valued bondholders. This coverage is based on a Shari’a-compliant takaful platform and is being provided to all individual bondholders from 12 months to 70 years old.'

'More than half a million National Bonds customers are benefiting from the “Takaful” coverage without any premium contribution. This cover is based on the Islamic insurance “Takaful” and managed by a Sharia compliant insurance company, Aman,' he added.-TradeArabia News Service