I.T.S. addresses First Islamic Retail Banking Conference

As part of its participation, I.T.S. outlined the effects and trends of technology in banking institutions during a presentation to gathered delegates.

I.T.S. General Manager, Khalid Faraj Saeid said: "The FIRBC event, the first of its kind in the region, made a valuable contribution to the development of Islamic banking and financing.

"By giving professionals involved in all aspects of the industry the opportunity to share information we were able to discuss problems and suggest solutions."

Presenting a paper on 'Technology Trends and Effects in the Banking Industry', Haitham Abdou, I.T.S.'s Banking, Marketing and Product Development Manager highlighted how technology trends over the years have enabled the financial industry to provide more services through different channels.

"I.T.S. witnessed a considerable client base increase in the regional banking industry recently," said Abdou.

"This growth can be attributed to various IT applications that allow banks and other financial institutions to consolidate customer information and then analyze the data to identify and measure customer priorities and needs.

"By using this data effectively, financial institutions are able to enhance existing products like self-service banking and develop products to meet the newly identified demands."

Abdou explained that by offering enhanced services, I.T.S. has been able to expand its client base.

"I.T.S. clients are experiencing the effectiveness of employing its expertise in integrating, developing and implementing system solutions suitable to different fields of specialization in the area commercial, real estate and Islamic banking," he said.

During its participation at FIRBC, I.T.S. displayed creative system solutions in conjunction with leading international system suppliers. Core banking (LBS, Phoenix), branch automation (Getronics Global fs), middle-ware and database (Sybase) and additional hardware - provided by Sun Micro-Systems, I.T.S.'s prime infrastructure solutions provider in the financial services industry - made up the backbone of the I.T.S. display with an internet platform provided by Broadvision.

"I.T.S. demonstrated the effective role of Unified Delivery Channel, a creative system solution which enables banks to select and service targeted, current or prospect customers by collecting their profile data transactions, interests, and preferences through a variety of channels," said Abdou.

"The solution works by collecting and collating data in a unified manner through the bank's delivery Channels. I.T.S. also provides consultancy and business process engineering knowledge as part of a turnkey solution."

I.T.S. is currently positioning itself to provide the banking industry with an Anti-Money-Laundering system (AML), a vital new IT solution in response to international trends in tracking and preventing money laundering. The system acts as an analytical engine that supervises and controls money transactions and will generate an alert in case of suspicions based on predefined parameters.

"AML is a mandatory solution for all banks," said Dr. Costas Constantinidis, ITS Senior Marketing Manager. "Currently we're localizing the system to suit Middle East Central Bank regulations.

"Our main purpose is to facilitate banking operations that generate effective and qualified customer service. Leading banks in the region already use I.T.S. solutions and they form 60% of our overall business."

I.T.S. has also completed negotiations with an international system solutions supplier to import, modify and establish EMV - integrated circuit card specifications for payment systems - compliant smart-card solutions that conform to international credit card standards.

"The EMV system is based on replacing magnetic-strip cards with smart-chip cards which increase security levels for ATM machine access and helps to prevent credit card fraud," said Constantinidis.

"I.T.S.'s policy is to deal with leading international suppliers who can provide us with the latest in developing IT system solutions."

"The tremendous success in satisfying client needs for updated and creative solutions has helped I.T.S. achieve a 36% increase in revenues in 2003 and we expect a higher percentage by the end of 2004."

I.T.S. is now present in 13 markets around the region and plans to shortly add Jordan and Iraq to its network.