The Bahrain-based Arab Financial Services (AFS) said on Wednesday it was repositioning itself to capture a portion of a lucrative outsourcing market in the financial sector, reported the Gulf Daily News.
AFS general manager Mahmoud Al Koofi said potential opportunities for outsourcing business from banks, financial and insurance companies in Arab states exceeded $1 billion.
“The market is flooded with financial institutions whose core activities are investments and banking. There is a huge gap in the market for specialists like AFS,” Koofi said.
“Banks are supposed to be doing banking, not processing.”
Koofi said AFS was shifting its focus from investment, travelers cheques and wholesale cash management to providing services such as electronic data processing for credit cards, printing statements and customer support.
He said the company was currently managing the credit card activities of 75 banks in Arab states, Brunei and Pakistan.
“We have recently been approached by banks from Europe and Australia to outsource their credit card processing to us,” he added.
The company has also signed deals with Qatar International Islamic bank, Doha-based Grindlays Bank, Amman-based Arab Bank and National Commercial Bank (NCB) of Saudi Arabia.
Koofi said AFS, owned by 55 financial institutions in Arab countries, had spent $1 million a year for the past three years on upgrading technology.
The company has recently signed a strategic alliance with Norwich Research based in Australia, which is specialized in providing technical resources, said the paper - Albawaba.com
