Master Card and Bank of Kuwait and the Middle East launch debit card

Master Card International in cooperation with the Bank of Kuwait and the Middle East (BKME) has launched the first debit card, the Al-Awsat auto teller card, in Kuwait linked to its international Cirrus electronic payment system.

More than 50,000 cardholders will be able to use their Al-Awsat ATM cards to make purchases at more than 1.7 million merchant locations in over 60 countries on six continents.

With the Cirrus mark on their cards they will also be able to directly access their deposit accounts and withdraw cash at any time from over 344,000 Cirrus ATM machines around the world.

The card is also linked with the local K.net switch which allows cardholders to use the card at any K.net ATM linked and POS.