MANAMA: Bahrain-based NEC Payments, a payments technology and services provider, is working towards its first product launches which will happen within the first quarter, the company’s top official has said.
Founded in 2014, the firm is licensed by the Central Bank of Bahrain with a technology platform certified by MasterCard and payment cyber security standard PCI-DSS.
NEC Payments chief executive Andrew Sims told the GDN in an exclusive interview that the company had signed contracts with its first customer – a leading regional Islamic financial services institution.
Declining to reveal the name of the customer, he said a number of ground-breaking projects that NEC Payments is working on include the launch of the region’s first B2B virtual payment product that enables businesses to make immediate international payments at a fraction of the cost and time of bank transfers.
An automated payroll processing system that increases the security and efficiency of salary payments to workers that are currently paid in cash is another key project for NEC Payments as is a multi-currency travel money product that enables business and leisure travellers to save money on exchange fees and improve security when travelling and spending in foreign currencies, he added.
A GDN report yesterday quoted Labour Market Regulatory Authority (LMRA) chief executive Ausamah Al Absi as saying that special non-bank accounts are being proposed for salary transfers of low-paid workers as part of a new scheme to be launched this year.
In October 2016, NEC Payments and Microsoft launched a core transaction platform on Microsoft Azure at Gitex in Dubai.
Mr Sims said it offers multi-channel, multi-wallet and multi-currency payment processing.
“The cloud-based, software-as-a-service solution can be rapidly deployed and scaled with significantly lower capital expenditure than had previously been possible,” he added.
According to Mr Sims, NEC Payments was formed to provide financial services institutions with access to a technology platform and associated services that are currently not available in the market.
Unlike its competitors, the company, he said, is concentrating on transformation in three specific areas: enabling banks through technology to operate new products and services; the way its technology, services and products are deployed, accessed and used; and the commercial models that exist between it and customers and partners.
“We use this approach to create market opportunities in two ways: to provide banks and financial services institutions with technology tools that enable them to speed up migration from cash usage to electronic payments; and also to create products to target specific types of payments for business and individual customers that enable the speed and cost of making international and foreign currency payments to be improved.”
“In the short term, our focus is to stabilise operations in Bahrain and build growth in the three products that we are currently launching.
“However, we have a firm strategy for regional and international development and are already in detailed discussions with potential partners and customers in Mena, Europe, and Southern Africa.
“It is our plan to grow our business internationally using a ‘hub-and-spoke’ approach that will see Bahrain continuing to be our head office,” said Mr Sims.
avinash@gdn.com.bh
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