Tag: Meezan Bank

Meezan Bank introduces Wisaaq – Pakistan’s First Digital Supply Chain Financing Platform, in Collaboration with Coca-Cola Beverages Pakistan Limited (CCI Pakistan), Powered by Haball

Meezan Bank, Pakistan’s Leading Islamic Bank and Coca-Cola Beverages Pakistan Limited (CCI Pakistan) have joined hands to launch a digital supply chain financing platform in partnership with Haball, an Islamic B2B Fintech that digitizes business payments to enable a cashless and digital supply chain. Coca-Cola Beverages Pakistan Limited is a subsidiary of Coca-Cola Içecek (CCI) which is currently operating in 11 countries across the globe. The event was attended by Dr. Inayat Hussain – Deputy Governor, State Bank of Pakistan, Mr. Irfan Siddiqui – Founding President & CEO, Meezan Bank, Mr. Erdi Kursunoglu – Director Finance, CCI Pakistan and Mr. Omer Bin Ahsan – CEO, Haball along with their respective teams.

As a first in the industry, CCI Pakistan will unveil Wisaaq’s Digital Financing Platform for their distributors across Pakistan who shall be able to avail Shariah-compliant financing through Meezan Bank. The facility will enable CCI Pakistan distributors to improve their working capital while expanding their operations. By entering into this venture, Meezan Bank aims to support SMEs in Pakistan, ensuring financial efficiency and stability of the supply chain, eventually fueling growth of the economy. The Bank’s collaboration with CCI Pakistan will also allow exchange of expertise and networks from two different industries, that will create sustainable business opportunities for retailers.

On the occasion, Mr. Irfan Siddiqui – Founding President & CEO, Meezan Bank commented, “Meezan Bank is fully committed to Shariah-compliant financing and is pleased to collaborate with Haball for developing a digital financing platform to reach CCI Pakistan’s small & medium sized distributors, and their linked retailers. This partnership will act as a precursor to grow the country’s most important SME segment.”

Mr. Erdi Kursunoglu – Director Finance, CCI Pakistan added, “This cashless supply chain solution under Wisaaq is not just a digital transformation but also a business transformation. This partnership would create a win-win solution mainly for the SMEs in Pakistan. However, we believe, the biggest winner of this initiative will be the national exchequer”.

Mr. Omer Bin Ahsan – CEO, Haball mentioned, “The launch of Wisaaq is a huge achievement not just for us, but for the entire financial services industry, corporates, as well as SMEs. It wouldn’t have been possible without our partners Meezan Bank, CCI Pakistan, and State Bank of Pakistan.”

Meezan Bank acquires latest PCI DSS Certification through Risk Associates, meeting stringent security standards

Karachi, 23rd June 2022: Meezan Bank, Pakistan’s leading Islamic bank, attained Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard certification (PCI DSS v3.2.1) by Payment Card Industry Security Council (PCI SSC) through PCI QSA Firm – Risk Associates, a premier global information technology company.

This certification, which is a leading payment card data security standard, is another milestone in Meezan Bank’s journey towards implementation of data security and control systems that ensure customer security, sensitive card data protection and fraud risk prevention.

The certification was formally presented by Kashif Hassan – Managing Director of Risk Associates to Faiz Ur Rehman – Group Head, Information Technology and Syed Fahd Azam – Head Information Security from Meezan Bank at a ceremony held at Meezan Bank’s head office.

Speaking at the occasion, Kashif Hassan said: “It has been a pleasure working with Meezan Bank throughout the certification process and witnessing Meezan Bank’s commitment to data security and the security infrastructure that Meezan Bank has in place.”

Faiz Ur Rehman thanked all the teams involved in the certification process. He stressed on the importance of controls and adherence to best information security practices in today’s continuously evolving digital landscape. “As a Bank offering one of the largest debit card product suites in the country, Meezan Bank is well aware of the criticality of card data security. The PCI DSS Certification safeguards our data and reputation, consequently strengthening our threat response capability,” he said.

Meezan Bank provides First-of-its-kind Shariah-compliant solution to Inland Bill Discounting Facility for Huawei Technologies Pakistan (Pvt.) Limited

Karachi, March 24, 2022: Meezan Bank – Pakistan’s first and largest Islamic bank has successfully instituted an Islamic alternate to Inland Bill Discounting Facility for Huawei Technologies Pakistan (Pvt.) Limited – a first-of-its-kind transaction in Islamic banking industry, developed as a Shariah-compliant alternate to local bill discounting facility. The first drawdown under the facility was made against a deferred payment inland Letter of Credit (LC) opened by Pak Telecom Mobile Limited (Ufone) in favour of Huawei. The transaction has been developed by the Bank under the supervision and guidance of Dr. Muhammad Imran Ashraf Usmani – Vice Chairman Shariah Board, Meezan Bank, after a series of deliberations and persistent efforts.

 

On this occasion, Mr. Abdullah Ahmed – Group Head, Corporate & Institutional Banking, Meezan Bank stated, “Meezan Bank is pleased to offer yet another milestone solution for the Islamic banking industry i.e., a Shariah-compliant alternative to discounting of long tenor inland bills with provision of variable profit rates. We are hopeful that this solution will serve as a precedent for unique transactions pertaining to trade within telecom industry.”

 

Mr. Ahmed Ali Siddiqui – Group Head, Shariah Compliance, Meezan Bank, stated, “This endeavour of Meezan Bank displays its capability to develop out-of-the-box, innovative and Shariah-compliant solutions and reinforces its position as the leading Islamic bank of the country. We hope this solution will open a new chapter in facilitating trade among businesses and industries in a Shariah-compliant way and bring more businesses and trade into fold of Islamic banking.”

Meezan Bank launches ‘Meezan Mobile Tap & Go’ – Mobile-based Contactless Payments for its Customers

Meezan Bank, Pakistan’s first and largest Islamic bank, has recently introduced mobile-based contactless payment service for its customers through its Mobile Banking App. Based on the Near Field Communications (NFC) technology, the service, named – ‘Meezan Mobile Tap & Go’ enables customers to pay by simply tapping their NFC enabled Android smartphones at POS (Point of Sale) machines of merchant outlets with NFC capability.

Mobile based contactless payments are among the most secure modes of payments available today since they use the tokenization technology because of which the Card number is not revealed at the time of making the payment. Additionally, the payment requires the phone to be unlocked at the POS machine (card payment machine), which is just like entering the PIN when paying through a physical card.

In addition to being completely secure, Mobile based contactless payments are also the fastest payment method compared to any other payment method available today. Customers can create digital versions of their physical debit cards via the Meezan Mobile App and then tap the phone to make payments using the NFC feature of their smartphone, without the need to carry their physical card for payments

“Meezan Bank is the pioneer in introducing contactless cards in Pakistan. With Meezan Tap & Go initiative, Meezan Bank has further strengthened its position as the dominant player in digital payments. We always bring the latest global innovations to our customers to improve their payments experience. Moreover, due to COVID-19, contactless payments have become all the more important and we encourage our customers to use payment methods that are safe and secure,” said Shariq Mubeen – Head Alternate Distribution Channels, Meezan Bank.

Meezan Bank disburses Rs. 1 billion under Prime Minister’s Kamyab Jawan – Youth Entrepreneurship Scheme

Karachi, Friday, 25 February, 2022: Meezan Bank, Pakistan’s leading Islamic bank, also became the first and only Islamic bank to disburse Rs. 1 billion under Prime Minister’s Kamyab Jawan – Youth Entrepreneurship Scheme (PMKJ-YES) for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)

Mr. Usman Dar, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Youth Affairs and Mr. Haleem Adil Sheikh, Member of the Provincial Assembly of Sindh graced the ceremony hosted by Mr. Irfan Siddiqui, Founding President & CEO – Meezan Bank and Mr. Ariful Islam, Deputy CEO – Meezan Bank at the Bank’s Head Office located in Karachi. The event was also attended by the PMKJ-YES teams and senior management of the Bank.

 

PMKJ – YES will allow access to Islamic finance to those SMEs who, despite being credit-worthy, are unable to avail financing due to various documentary and collateral related issues. Under this scheme, Meezan Bank will extend Shariah-compliant financing facilities of up to PKR 25 million to eligible customers at subsidized rates.

 

Mr. Irfan Siddiqui reiterated that Meezan Bank, following its Vision of establishing ‘Islamic banking as banking of first choice…’ stands committed to the Government of Pakistan and State Bank of Pakistan in playing a key role in the success of Prime Minister’s Kamyab Jawan Youth Entrepreneurship Scheme and other schemes to promote financial inclusion, by providing Shariah-compliant financing products and solutions.

IFN awards “Pakistan Deal of the Year” and “Most innovative Deal of the Year”

Meezan Bank and Pakistan Kuwait Investment Company (Pvt) Limited – led Long Term Sukuk transaction, structured for Enertech, received two prestigious awards including ‘Pakistan Deal of the Year’ and ‘Most innovative Deal of the Year’ by Islamic Finance News, REDmoney Group, Malaysia. Meezan Bank is also acting as Investment Agent, Security Agent and Accounts Bank for the Sukuk transaction.

 

IFN announced the EnerTech’s Sukuk as the ‘Most Innovative Deal of the Year’ globally ahead of sukuk issuances by Maybank in Malaysia and Kuveyt Turk in Turkey. EnerTech’s Sukuk facility of PKR 2 Billion has been structured as a quasi-equity instrument embedded with conversion and put option. IFN commented in relation to the deal: “Enertech’s innovation flows from its structure. The Sukuk are designed as a quasi-equity instrument to finance the local equity requirement of a 60 km water pipeline project being developed by Enertech in Thar, Sindh. This highly structured transaction inserts the Sukuk holders into a concession agreement. This has previously been challenging for Islamic financiers to achieve in project financings.”

 

EnerTech has also been awarded the ‘Pakistan Deal of the Year’. Other shortlisted transactions which received honourable mentions in the category included Pakistan Mobile Communications Limited (PMCL) syndicated finance facility and the Government of Pakistan’s Euro Sukuk facility. IFN stated: “Enertech reflects a significant increase in the Pakistani markets’ sophistication. The capital of the project obligor was strengthened through a quasi-equity Sukuk offering. This created a sound financial footing for the Meezan Bank led syndicate to complete the financing.”

 

IFN also shortlisted the Long-Term Project Finance Facility of PKR 25.5 Bn for Enertech under the category of ‘Project and Infrastructure Finance Deal of the Year’ globally. The Meezan Bank and Pak Kuwait Investment Company (Pvt) Ltd led consortium inked the project finance facility agreements for the water supply and storage project in November, 2021, Karachi. This is the largest public–private partnership financing facility raised for the Government of Sindh.

 

Enertech is a fully owned subsidiary of National Technology and Enterprise Company, which in turn is a fully owned subsidiary of Kuwait Investment Authority. The project constitutes total infrastructure investment of approximately USD 180 Million generating economic activity in the country and would enable development and uplifting of Thar, Sindh. The successful implementation of the Project is also expected to motivate other foreign investors to explore the infrastructure sector of Pakistan especially under public- private partnership mode.

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