Our story

Since 1981, a record ofSaudi financial firsts.

We envisage a world of financial technologies with fewer limitations and access for all. Technologies and solutions that help customers evolve and contribute towards their growth.

Prologue

It started with a question nobody in the Kingdom had answered yet.

In1981, cash was the Kingdom's memory of value. There were no kiosks, no chip cards, no contactless taps, and no domestic industry to build them. AU began as a bet that Saudi Arabia would not import its financial future, it would engineer it.

Four decades later, most of the firsts in Saudi self-service banking carry our fingerprints. This is the order they happened in.

The chapters

Nine moments that moved a Kingdom's money.

Chapter one · The beginning
1981
One conviction, in a Kingdom that had barely begun to bank.
Sheikh Abdullah Ali Alhamrani founded Alhamrani Universal on a simple conviction: that money would one day move through machines, and that Saudi Arabia should not wait to be shown how. There was no self-service industry here yet. AU set out to build one.
Chapter two · Alliances
1986
We chose partners before we chose products.
Rather than resell whatever was available, AU formed strategic alliances with the world's leading self-service and security manufacturers, earning the right to service the technology needs of the Kingdom's banks, machine by machine, branch by branch.
Chapter three · First payments
1996
The first time a Saudi card met a Saudi terminal.
Aligned with IVI, Canada's leading EPOS provider, AU put terminals running on Al Waseet into the market and pioneered ePayments in the Kingdom. Cash stopped being the only answer at the counter.
Chapter four · The machine learns to count
2007
An ATM that could take a handful of notes at once.
With a leading bank, AU introduced the first ATM in Saudi Arabia capable of Bulk Note Acceptance. Deposits stopped being a queue at a teller window and became something a customer could finish in under a minute.
Chapter five · The chip era
2008
The Kingdom's first EMV transaction ran on our rails.
The first EMV transactions in KSA were performed on a Hypercom ePOS terminal powered by AU. It was the moment the national payments estate moved from magnetic stripe to the chip standard the world now takes for granted.
Chapter six · Tap
2014
First to accept a payment without contact.
AU became the first vendor in Saudi Arabia capable of accepting contactless transactions. What began as a novelty at a handful of tills is now the default gesture of Saudi retail.
Chapter seven · The branch, reinvented
2016
A card issued, printed and handed over in minutes.
AU introduced the Kingdom's first Multi-Function Banking Kiosks, issuing and printing ATM cards instantly. Onboarding a customer no longer meant waiting days for the post.
Chapter eight · Discipline
2017
Quality, certified rather than claimed.
ISO 9001:2015 certification put an independent signature on how AU works: documented processes, measurable service levels, and a field organisation held to both.
Chapter nine · Vision 2030
2018
Certifying the terminals of a cashless Kingdom.
AU certified TETRA-powered Ingenico terminals in line with Saudi Arabia's 2030 digitisation vision, the same instinct as 1981 aimed at the next four decades instead of the last.

Values

How we work.

Customer-centric

We take a customer-centric approach, more in tune with the wants and needs of our customers.

Our people

We invest in our people because they enable us to achieve our mission and vision.

Continual change

We encourage change and continually tweak, improve and learn.

Transparency

We value our partners and customers, thriving on transparency, mutual respect and integrity.

Accountability

We welcome constructive criticism and hold ourselves to lawful, ethical conduct.

Recognition

Awarded by Diebold Nixdorf, Bosch, Giesecke+Devrient and Smart Card & Payments.

Compliance

Trust, written down.

Our code of ethics and compliance policies are the basis for the trust placed in us by our customers and partners. They govern our everyday routine, setting boundaries and guidelines for employee behaviour and work ethic, outlining our commitment to employees, our standards for doing business, our relationship with our communities and our dealings with one another.

Awards & achievements

Recognised by the industry.

Fifteen awards and certificates from Diebold Nixdorf, Bosch, Giesecke+Devrient and the Smart Card & Payments Awards. The trophies themselves, 2014 through 2018.