Ajman BankTaps Into ITS to Achieve Technological and Operational Excellence

International Turnkey Systems (ITS), a leading integrated IT solutions and software services provider that specializes in Shari’a-compliant banking solutions for Islamic banks and financial institutions, today announced a new client partnership with Ajman Bank, the first Shari’abased Islamic bank to be incorporated and headquartered in the Ajman emirate. As a new addition to ITS’s successful and fast-growing financial customer portfolio,Ajman Bankhas adopted ITS Global Financial Solutions’ (GFS) ETHIX-PCD platform to automateand enhance its profit calculation and distribution activities.

HaithamAbdou, Head of ITS Global Financial Solutions commented,“We have an impressive track record of working with financial institutions in integrating our award winning ETHIX platform with their existing core banking software infrastructure. Ajman Bank’s decision to entrust the enhancement of its profit calculation and distribution processes is testament to our ability to effectively address the business and process pains of banks and financial institutions.”

Based on Shari’a values,ITS will help Ajman Bankachieve its visionto re-establish a human element in banking through offering innovative products and services, building state-of-the-art technology systems and contributing to the economic development of the UAE.

“The quality ofAjman Bank’s Islamic operationscan only be accomplished through having a well-structured IT infrastructure in place,” said Mohamed Zaqout, CEO of Ajman Bank. “Our partnership with ITS is vital as it will not only enable us automate profit calculation and distribution within Shari’a guidelines, but also allow us to offer new products to our customers - products that can be defined and segregated to include restricted as well unrestricted investment pools.”

ETHIX Financial Solutions platform provides multi-channeled corporate and retail products, and services built on a wide range of parameters, installed to ensure all Islamic requirements are met. A one-time installment will enable Ajman Bank to utilize the net income during the calculation period and distribute it among investors according to Shari’a rules.

Islamic banking in the GCC continues to show strong growth according to a recent report by Ernst & Young Islamic Banking Center. While growth in the GCC’s Islamic banking assets slowed to 14% last year, it outperformed conventional banking assets growth of 8.1% for the same period[1]. However, most technology and software solutions are designed for the conventional financial institutional infrastructure, meaning that Islamic banks could potentially be at a technological disadvantage. Shari’acompliant solutions such as the ETHIX platform that can be seamlessly incorporated into an Islamic financial institution can enable the organization to compete more effectively against its’ conventional banking counterparts.