The Shared Electronic Banking Services Company (Knet) was established in 1992. Making the owning banks of the company as follows:
The company’s headquarter is located at Suad Commercial Complex, Fahad Al Salem Street, Kuwait City. PO Box 29227 Safat, 13153 Kuwait. Tel: 1820222, Fax: 22430381, email: [email protected]
The board of management consists of members to be nominated by the banks, The Chairman and Deputy Chairman are selected based unanimous vote by the members of the board.
The Kuwaiti Network:
Knet had connected all local banks through an advanced network (Financial switch of Kuwait) according to the highest international standards, in order to facilitate banking services by all member banks to their customers at the lowest cost, by the fastest and most innovative means of communication, and the easiest and most secure methods, through applying cutting-edge technologies in the field.
Point of Sale Service:
The point of sale (POS) service was launched 1995, because of its huge benefits to the Kuwaiti economy by minimizing the risks of handling cash, the consequent costs, and because of the unique features of these services namely: ease, speed and security of any payment transaction, whether for purchasing goods or paying for services in addition to cash withdrawal services.
A wide range of Point-of-Sale terminals driven by Knet system is used to accept all local issued debit cards and all the major credit cards. The terminal technology selected can support state-of-art communication protocols (i.e. GSM, GPRS, TCP/IP, WiFi).
Integrated Point of Sale Service:
Similar to the POS service, the Integrated POS (I-POS) provides a linkage between the POS device and the cashier’s cash register machine to process purchase transactions. Merchants can simply enter the total amount of purchases into the cash register then propagate the transaction information to the integrated POS device for transaction authorization. Communication technologies are similar to those of the POS service.
Off-Site ATM’s:
Knet has installed its ATMs in strategic areas which do not provide banking services throughout Kuwait to facilitate transactions for its customers. Knet currently operates more than 200 ATMs.
These ATMs provide the following services:
- Cash withdrawal
- Balance inquiries
- Credit cards cash withdrawal
- Multi-currency dispensing
- Mini statement
- Pin change
- Fund transfer
Connection with the GCC:
Knet has connected its local network with the local networks in GCC countries (GCC Net) which enables customers of GCC banks to use their ATM cards for withdrawal from ATMs distributed throughout GCC countries. Services provided to GCC card holders are:
- Cash withdrawal
- Balance inquiry
The Electronic Payment Gateway Project:
One of Knet solutions for the Kuwaiti market is Payment Gateway. Knet introduced this solution in the year 2004 as a new payment method. The Payment Gateway allows companies to collect funds for their products and services over the Internet, using Secured Socket Layer (SSL) protocol. This service can be integrated with merchant’s sites using web technologies such as JSP, ASP, ASP .Net, and PHP.
Knet Payment Gateway accepts all local debit cards issued by its member banks. Each bank underwent a certification process with Knet and was certified to provide payment gateway services. The purpose of the certification process was to ensure a member bank could process and settle the transactions initiated by Knet Payment Gateway.
Chequebook printing:
In 1999 Knet had setup a cheque personalization Bureau using MICR (Magnetic Ink Character Recognition), servicing its member banks. The services adopted the APACS3 standard for cheques, governing the cheque size, data and security measures to prevent fraudulent acts. In addition, it paves the way for Automation of the clearing process for the cheques in Kuwait. This service has recently improved to include the following added security features:
- Unique numismatic design featuring bank's name & logo
- Anti-Scan/Anti-Copy feature
- Controlled Water Mark paper
- Special ink with laser toner adhesion feature
- Aqua and Solvent ink for protection against water or solvents
- MICR encoding
E-Gov services:
In May 2008, Knet signed a main contract with the Ministry of Finance to provide electronic transaction services to all government entities. This agreement enables Kuwait Government to collect various types of fees from companies and individuals through the following secured e-channels:
- Payment Gateway (internet)
- POS
- I-POS
- Kiosk
- Mobile commerce