Business & Finance Club Magazine - Finance Sector - MANAMA: Bahrain-based Ithmaar Bank has announced the launch of several new products in line with its corporate strategy.

Ithmaar became an Islamic retail bank in April after completing a comprehensive reorganisation with its wholly-owned subsidiary Shamil Bank.

Speaking at the launch of a unique vehicle financing product, Ithmaar retail banking assistant general manager Mohammed Janahi said the bank, which has recently introduced a first of its kind mobile online banking solution, will remain firmly focused on expanding its product range and on continuously improving its customer service offerings.

"This latest vehicle finance product, for example, is exceptionally flexible," said Janahi.

"It was built, from the ground up, to specifically address the requirements of our customers," he said.

Ithmaar's Sharia-compliant vehicle finance product has the lowest profit rate in Bahrain and was designed to offer customers the most flexible payment plans possible. It does so by eliminating superfluous benefits and "extras", allowing customers to instead focus their monthly payments on quickly settling the financed amount.

"The additional benefits that are often offered to customers as part of an vehicle loan invariably inflate the monthly instalments," said Janahi.

"We removed these hidden costs altogether and created a more cost effective solution for our customers," he said.

According to him, the launch of its vehicle finance campaign comes shortly after the launch of the mobile online banking service, a first of its kind in the kingdom.

The Ithmaar mobile online banking service allows Ithmaar customers to use their smart mobile phones, including blackberries, to conduct, in real time, the full range of banking transactions from anywhere in the world.

This latest service, which adds to Ithmaar's existing line-up of e-banking solutions, underscores the bank's commitment to remaining as close as possible to its customers and to delivering convenient, secure and customer-friendly service, Janahi added.