Emirates Islamic, a leading Islamic financial institutions in the UAE, has entered into a long term strategic partnership with Mastercard offering credit cards to the Bank’s corporate clients, helping them to meet their travel, entertainment and business to business payment needs.
Developed in partnership with Mastercard on the back of a long-term, strategic partnership, the corporate cards will address the growing need among UAE businesses for a customised, flexible and secure digital payment solution to manage employees’ expenses. The new offering builds on Emirates Islamic’s market leadership in the credit card segment while strengthening its proposals to large and medium-sized businesses in the UAE by enhancing and simplifying their digital payments.
Farid Al Mulla, Deputy Head of Consumer Banking and Wealth Management, Emirates Islamic said: “We are delighted to bring to market a range of Shari’a-compliant corporate cards, in partnership with Mastercard, which will significantly enhance our value proposition to UAE businesses. The cards deliver a secure and flexible digital payment solution for our clients’ purchasing needs helping them to enhance cashflow while streamlining the way they manage and report business expenses.
“More than ever before, businesses are looking for innovative ways to make their business and government payments in a way that enhance their cashflow, while improving their purchasing process efficiencies. As a customer-centric bank, we are focused on addressing the needs of our customers, and continually looking at the opportunities that will positively impact their financial wellbeing. This partnership with Mastercard will serve us well to do that, as we harness the possibilities that the Mastercard exclusive virtual payment platform and other commercial products bring to our business banking customers for an unbeatable Islamic banking experience.”
Emirates Islamic’s new range of corporate credit cards will include travel and entertainment cards, cards made for corporate purchases and virtual cards with comprehensive reporting capabilities to enable businesses with better access to credit as well as support in managing cash flow. The cards will offer the bank’s corporate clients better control and visibility over employees’ expenses via a centralised transaction and expense monitoring and management system. Businesses will be able to set spending limits, alerts and controls on employee spend and receive consolidated statements per units or corporate entity, for easier management. In addition, the cards will enable businesses to offer their senior executives enhanced benefits such as airport lounge access, insurance against baggage loss, damage or trip cancellation and delay, as well as value added offers and medical insurance benefits while travelling.
Emirates Islamic’s Corporate Banking clients will also have full access to a range of Mastercard’s advisory services that enable revenue growth and business sustainability. These include helping merchants make the shift to online commerce, supporting their risk management and fraud prevention processes.
“In a rapidly changing world, supporting the needs of businesses and entrepreneurs is more important than ever as they adapt to a new business environment and evolving consumer behaviours,” said Girish Nanda, Country Manager – UAE & Oman, Mastercard. “We are very privileged to embark on this partnership with Emirates Islamic bank, a leading bank in the corporate banking segment. This partnership will enable us to better serve the country’s corporate community in harnessing the benefits of commercial payments to grow their businesses and expand their customer base. Through our proactive, dynamic and catered commercial solutions, Mastercard is committed to enhancing the payments experience for businesses large and small, making them seamless, secure and rewarding.”
The Emirate NBD Group, of which Emirates Islamic is a part of, has also recently announced the launch of a digital Supply Chain Financing platform for its corporate and institutional clients. The smartSCF platform will offer businesses in the UAE a set of integrated, automated tools designed to enhance and simplify their supply chain collaborations while optimising working capital and reducing transaction costs.
The platform has been designed to help increase operational efficiencies for both corporate clients and their suppliers. Suppliers can seamlessly self-on-board via the digital supplier on-boarding toolkit, the first of its kind in the region, with the platform catering to the growing need for digitization of supply chain management and financing – one of the key priorities for corporate clients.
Ahmed Al Qassim, Senior Executive Vice President and Group Head, Corporate & Institutional Banking at Emirates NBD said: “As the country’s preferred corporate bank, we have gained in reputation as trusted providers of smart, innovative solutions that enhance the ease of doing business and support the UAE’s drive towards digitisation in all aspects of business. Our digital supply chain finance platform delivers on our commitment of enabling opportunities for corporate clients while optimising their working capital. We are pleased to offer businesses in the UAE a seamless, secure platform that offers them complete transaction visibility and payment flexibility, while enhancing their suppliers’ liquidity.”
