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Wednesday, November 11 - 2009

Aiming to better customer experience BIsB announces agreement with Euronet Middle East

Bahrain Islamic Bank, the first Islamic bank in the Kingdom of Bahrain, and Euronet Middle East, a joint venture between Euronet World Wide and Arab Financial Services (AFS), announced today a multiyear ATM Driving and Debit Cards Management agreement.

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  • Left to right: Mr. Yousif Khalaf, BIsB CEO and Mr. Rasool Hujair, AFS CEO.
    Left to right: Mr. Yousif Khalaf, BIsB CEO and Mr. Rasool Hujair, AFS CEO.
The Bahrain Islamic Bank (BIsB) HQ at Diplomat Salam Tower witnessed a signing ceremony between Bahrain Islamic Bank and Euronet Middle East in which Bahrain Islamic Bank will outsource the driving of its existing network of 19 ATMs, the management of its existing Debit cards of 44,000 cards and the issuance of its new debit cards to Euronet Middle East which will manage these operations from its headquarters in Manama.

Euronet Middle East will also provide the bank with all the related driving services as the 24x7 help disk, 24x7 monitoring services, and the 24x7 call center.

"The agreement is illustrative of Bahrain Islamic Bank's plans to aggressively increase its ATM network in Bahrain to support the increased issuance of Debit cards." Yousif Saleh Khalaf, BIsB CEO said.

"The decision to outsource the Bank's ATM switch operations to Euronet, by any means, is considered a key decision which will provide the Bank with lower transaction costs, higher security and reduced risks"


Mr. Khalaf added.

"It will also enable the Bank to provide a better service to its customers, with new features such as credit card cash withdrawals, and allow an easier migration to new international EMV smart card requirements" he continued.

Euronet Middle East, a Euronet Worldwide and AFS joint venture, is specialized in debit card management and operational services, ATM and POS outsourcing services, Chip card issuing services, and Gateway services to Visa/MasterCard and National switches. It also provides value added services including bill payment and GSM top-up transactions, among others.

"The concept of outsourcing ATMs driving and the management of debit cards to an experienced service providers such as Euronet Middle East has been well accepted by banks in whole Middle East region with the recent contracts that Euronet Middle East signed in Jordan, Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia and now in Bahrain and we are very pleased to be leading this progression in the market.' commented Mr. Rasool Hujair, Euronet Middle East CEO.

"With the addition of Bahrain Islamic Bank to its client portfolio, Euronet Middle East now provides its ATM Driving services, Debit cards management and issuance Islamic services to one of the leading Islamic Banks operating in the Consumer Banking space in Bahrain, which is a significant achievement for our operation," said Mohamed Mousa, Euronet Middle East General Manager.
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Notes and media contacts

Additional information about BIsB & Euronet ME:

First: Bahrain Islamic Bank
Established in the Kingdom of Bahrain as the first Islamic commercial bank, Bahrain Islamic Bank has grown steadily since 1979 to become a leading Islamic institution with shareholders' funds of approximately BD 72 million and total assets in excess of BD 321 million at year-end 2005.

The Bank has established leadership in the application of Islamic modes of investment and financing and excelled in the provision of a diversified range of products and services for retail customers, commercial businesses and financial institutions.

Publicly listed on the Bahrain Stock Exchange, the Bank is owned largely by prominent local and regional financial institutions and is regulated by the Bahrain Monetary Agency (BMA).

With a strong and growing network of branches, currently numbered at 12, the Bank is well positioned to meet strong and growing demand in the market for banking, financing and investment opportunities on behalf of individuals and institutions with the highest ethical standards and an unwavering commitment to the principles of Islamic Shari'a.

Second: Euronet Middle East

Euronet Middle East is a Joint Venture between Euronet World Wide and Arab Financial Services (AFS) and will provide financial institutions with debit card management and operational services, ATM and POS outsourcing services, Chip card issuing services, and Gateway services to Visa/MasterCard and National switches.

The company will also provide value added services including bill payment and GSM top-up transactions, among others. Euronet Middle East will provide its services through its new state-of-the-art processing center in Bahrain utilizing Euronet's core software product, Integrated Transaction Management (ITM), which currently drives Euronet's processing centers in Europe and Asia Pacific.

Issued by Bahrain Islamic Bank's Corporate Communications Department. For further information regarding this press release or the Bank's business activities, please contact Mr. Khalid Alkhayat, Corporate Communications Manager at Bahrain Islamic Bank at Office Tel: (+973) 17515150
Fax: (+973) 17919150,
Mobile: (+973) 39681000

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