28 April 2009, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - Norkom Technologies has today announced that it has signed a deal with NCB Capital (NCBC), marking its entry into the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and supporting its continued expansion in the Middle East. The announcement was made during the Enterprise Ireland Trade Mission to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia led by the Tánaiste, Mary Coughlan.

NCBC is the investment banking arm of The National Commercial Bank Group, the largest bank in the Arab world in terms of market capitalization. NCBC will commence immediate implementation of Norkom’s award-winning suite of financial crime solutions across its operations in the Middle East, starting with its Saudi Arabian headquarters.

With Norkom, NCBC will achieve full compliance with escalating local and international regulations such as the 3rd EU Money Laundering Directive and the US Patriot Act. Its advanced Anti-Money Laundering (AML), Watch List Management (WLM) and Customer Due Diligence/Know Your Customer (CDD/KYC) solutions will help NCBC to identify and investigate suspicious or criminal behavior quickly and efficiently by:

• Monitoring and analyzing all transactions and customer interactions across NCBC’s entire client base.

• Alerting NCBC when any individual or entity attempting to transact with it is included on any of the industry’s numerous watch lists, protecting them from inadvertently conducting business with known or suspected criminals.

• Enabling NCBC to assign risk ratings to customers at point of account opening and continually re-assess their behavior over time, ensuring they are automatically and immediately alerted if unusual or suspicious behavior is identified.

According to Paul Kerley, Norkom’s CEO, “We are delighted to welcome NCBC as our first client in Saudi Arabia. This deal with NCBC illustrates our commitment to expand our business further in the Middle East. We’re looking forward to working closely with NCBC over the coming weeks and months in helping them gain full compliance, become the best in class investment bank in financial crime detection, and get the most from their investment”.

The deal with NCBC is the latest inaugural market entry for Norkom, which has announced a series of market firsts over the last 12 months including first in Dubai with Dubai Islamic Bank, first in Spain with Banco Santander and first in Korea with Woori Bank.

- Ends –

Media contacts:
Fiona McLoughlin, Marketing Manager, Norkom Technologies,
Tel:                +353 1 8739612         or email fiona.mcloughlin@norkom.com

About NCB Capital (www.ncbc.com) 

• NCB Capital is the investment banking arm of National Commercial Bank, Saudi Arabia’s largest bank.

• Launched in April 2007, it is growing a strong reputation and profile as an important player in investment banking throughout the Middle East region with institutional, corporate and individual clients and it is also growing its international presence.

• With around $13 billion of assets under management and one million clients, it is the Kingdom’s largest manager of wealth for high net worth individuals and its strong links to its parent, which has over 260 branches, bring it peerless expertise in the markets locally.

• NCB Capital has a presence in other parts of MENA through its subsidiaries:
  HC Securities in Egypt and Al Futtaim HC Securities in Dubai
  EastGate Capital Group based in Dubai.  The private equity fund management arm of NCBC currently has $650 million in commitments under management.

• In October 2008, NCB Capital acquired The Capital Partnership, a London-based specialist asset manager, to accelerate its growth specifically in asset management, where it brings new capabilities in global absolute return products.

• NCB Capital is the market leader in the local Saudi mutual funds market with 33% Market share (at March 09).

• In Brokerage, it is the 3rd largest player in terms of value traded with a market share of 12.5% (at March 09).

• Its 360 employees work in or support Wealth and Asset Management, Brokerage Services and Investment Banking.

• A pioneer in investment banking in the region, NCB Capital launched the world’s first Sharia-compliant real estate fund.

About National Commercial Bank

NCB was established in 1953 as the first bank in Saudi Arabia and is majority owned by the Kingdom’s Ministry of Finance’s Public Investment Fund. It is the largest bank, by capitalization, in the Arab world and is rated ‘A+’ by Standard and Poor’s.  It is the largest financial asset manager in the region.

About Norkom Technologies (www.norkom.com)

Norkom Technologies (AIM: NORK.L, IEX: NORK.IE) enables financial organizations to take intelligent action, control defenses, and evolve strategies against fraud, money laundering, and other types of financial crime. By combining a unique investigative technology platform with deep domain expertise, Norkom has established a solid track record of reducing financial losses, protecting users’ reputations, improving operational efficiencies, and lowering the cost information technology.

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