Al Salam Bank Bahrain signed a multi-year outsourcing agreement with Euronet Middle East. Under the agreement, Euronet Middle East will manage the issuing and processing of the Bank’s debit cards portfolio, drive its ATM installed base, and provide gateway services to the local and International networks. The agreement includes comprehensive maintenance, network management and monitoring, security, cash forecasting, reconciliation and settlement, and help desk services.
On behalf of Al Salam Bank, Mr. Nabeel Ebrahim Al Tattan, Executive Vice President, Banking Group Head, said: ‘The signing of this agreement is an important step in our preparations to launch debit card and ATM services later this year, and underlines our commitment to provide clients with fast and reliable electronic banking products and delivery channels. It also illustrates the Bank’s policy to outsource specialised technical services wherever possible, to let our internal resources focus on our core banking business activities.”
Euronet Middle East, General Manager, Mr. Mohamed Mousa said "The succession of Debit cards and ATM outsourcing agreements signed by our team is a strong indication of our continued success in the market, and with the addition of Al Salam Bank Euronet now provides Debit Cards and ATM outsourcing Services for institutions in more than 5 countries across the gulf region and the Middle East in its first year of operation which is a remarkable achievement for the company.
Commenting on the agreement, Mr. Rasool Hujair, Euronet Middle East CEO, stated: ‘We are delighted to be provide Al Salam Bank with a complete portfolio of services that enables it to adopt best practice payment approaches to better serve their clients.”
Al Salam Bank was established on 19 January 2006 in the Kingdom of Bahrain with a paid-up capital of US$ 318 million (BD 120 million). Al Salam Bank Bahrain BSC operates under an Islamic banking licence issued by the Central Bank of Bahrain (formerly Bahrain Monetary Agency). The Bank’s Initial Public Offering (IPO) of 35 per cent of the paid-up capital, which closed in March 2006, raised over US$ 7 billion (BD 2.7 billion) and was the largest IPO in the Kingdom’s history. The Bank was subsequently listed on the Bahrain Stock Exchange on 27 April 2006.
The founding shareholders of Al Salam Bank hold 65 per cent of the paid-up capital. They include Emaar Properties, Amlak Finance, Dubai Investment Group, Dubai Holding, Global Investment House, Lebanese Canadian Bank, Al Salam Bank Sudan, and Dubai Islamic Insurance and Reinsurance Company (Aman).
Euronet Middle East:
Euronet Middle East is a Joint Venture between Euronet Worldwide and Arab Financial Services (AFS) and it provides financial institutions with debit card management and operational services, ATM and POS outsourcing services, Chip card issuing services, and Gateway services to Visa/MasterCard and National switches.
The Company also provides value added services including bill payment and GSM top-up transactions, among others. Euronet Middle East is providing its services through its new state-of-the-art processing center in Bahrain utilizing Euronet’s core software product, integrated Transaction Management (ITM), which currently drives Euronet’s processing centres in Europe and Asia Pacific.
