New IT system for QNB

Retail banks in Qatar are facing intense pressures to keep ahead of their competition and QNB has made a decision to develop a more sophisticated method of marketing its products, by improving the way it targets its customers with the products they need.

The Misys Equation Profitability Analysis system enables the bank to better understand which parts of the business are contributing most towards overall profitability. This means that it will be able to direct resources more effectively and improve its active product development strategy. Plus the system also allows more targeted and cost effective direct marketing campaigns to the bank's growing customer base.

QNB, established in 1964 as the country's first Qatari-owned commercial bank, and has by far the largest distribution network in Qatar with over 100,000 customers across 33 local branches, plus international branches in London and Paris.

The bank is 50% state-owned, and the largest bank in Qatar, controlling assets representing around half of the total banking system. QNB also has the highest credit rating among Qatari banks from rating agencies including Moody's, Fitch and Capital Intelligence, and ranks among the top 10 regional banks by shareholders' equity. IT has always been a high priority for the bank which has a long relationship with Misys.

'The bank needed a new system that could provide a multi-dimensional data mining tool such that bank income data can be captured automatically and reported upon across a range of products, customers and channels, whether it be any of the 70 ATMs owned by the bank, the branch network, or any other,' said Marwan Marouf Mahmoud, assistant general manager of Information Technology.

'We pride ourselves in the strength of our customer relationships and the service we provide. Misys has given the tools to improve this even further. This innovative banking system will enable us to have a clearer picture of how the various sectors of the bank are operating at any one time.'

Roy Froud, regional manager for Misys Retail Banking comments: 'One of Qatar National Bank's stated long term goals when it originally chose the Misys suite was to be able to provide sophisticated profitability analysis information to its management. This was achievable because of the tight integration between each element of the systems.'

'Today, Qatar National Bank can look at both customer and product profitability across the retail, corporate and treasury business areas. And this analysis can compare income streams across customer demographic categories, such as age, salary range, gender or type of employment to give the bank the best possible view of where it needs to focus its product development.'