Islamabad April 21, 2011: UBL and Ufone joined hands to bring easy access to financial services to their common customers here on 21st April 2011. Ufone, one of the leading telecom operators in Pakistan offers Mobile Financial Services under the name of UPayments. This is USSD based secure session service that is extremely customer friendly and has no handset limitation whatsoever. This joint venture will allow common customers of both UBL and Ufone to add credit to their Ufone prepaid service and pay their Ufone postpay bills directly from their handsets. With this strategic partnership customers get the freedom to pay bills of 15 Utility Companies offered by UBL irrespective of their location and time. They no longer have to worry about running to different outlets to pay their bills. Most importantly Ufone customers can avail these services while roaming anywhere in the world thanks to Ufone’s vast International Roaming network and the presence of UBL in 11 different countries apart from over 1100 branches in Pakistan. All one needs is a UBL bank account to enjoy this trouble free service.

Mr. Abdul Aziz CEO Ufone said that this strategic partnership is a milestone in our journey to extend the reach of UPayments to all banked customers which will serve as a trusted platform for the whole banking industry. This is the start to many other features and services which will eventually allow Ufone’s valued customers to use their handsets for all financial transactions.

Mr. Atif R. Bokhari, President of UBL speaking on the occasion said, “UBL has the distinction of pioneering mobile wallet offering in Pakistan. We continue to take pride in being leaders in offering innovative banking solutions to the customers. This partnership with Ufone is intended to offer yet another electronic channel to our customers to interact with their bank account in an easy, user friendly and secure environment. We believe this partnership will allow us to develop other services for our common set of customers to cater to the changing demographics of users

Founded in 1959, United Bank Limited (UBL) is one of Pakistan’s largest private banks with a global strategic outlook and a strong track record of growth in business in terms of volume and profit. UBL operates a network of over 1,100 branches across Pakistan, including 5 domestic Signature Priority Banking lounges and 17 overseas branches. It offers a dynamic portfolio of globally competitive products and services. With credit rating of AA+/A-1+, and a customer base of over 3.5 million customers, deposits of Rs.567 billion and advances amounting to Rs.341 billion at 31st December 2010, it is at the forefront of the banking and financial services sector in Pakistan. UBL launched its branchless banking operations in April 2010 under the brand name of UBL Omni, which now operates from over 3,000 Omni Dukaans present in more than 450 cities and towns across the country.

Ufone is an Etisalat Group Company with its presence in all the major cities of Pakistan along with a comprehensive coverage across all major towns, villages and tehsil headquarters of the country. The company employs more than 3,850 people and operates with a network of more than 375 franchises and 26 company-owned customer service centers along with a distribution network of 150,000 outlets nationwide.