MMBL’s 9-Point Agenda 2.0 delivers Impactful and Sustainable Policy Interventions

Karachi – Pakistan’s largest digital bank, Mobilink Microfinance Bank Limited (MMBL), has recently launched the 2nd edition of its 9 Point Agenda for Financial Inclusion, a policy document aimed at fostering digital financial inclusion through meaningful regulatory interventions in nine key areas.

Mobilink Microfinance Bank is part of the VEON group, a global digital operator that provides converged connectivity and online services across seven countries. As part of its digital operator strategy, VEON is transforming people’s lives by creating opportunities for greater digital inclusion and driving economic growth across countries that are home to more than 8% of the global population.

The 9 Point Agenda for Financial Inclusion 2.0 highlights key challenges and opportunities across multiple sectors, with diversity & inclusion at the heart of it, and offers a set of high-level policy recommendations to draw focus toward initiating positive change across these sectors. These recommendations include enhanced facilitation of microfinance, SME finance, housing finance, agriculture finance, digital lending, payments, savings, and insurance to help catalyze a sustainable and inclusive economic transformation at the grassroots level to bolster the national economy.

Sardar Mohammad Abubakr, Chief Finance & Digital Officer MMBL, launched the 9 Point Agenda for Financial Inclusion 2.0, digitally. He expressed high hopes that the initiative would generate constructive discourse around the need to reinforce gender, diversity, and inclusion in the banking and finance sector, besides motivating meaningful efforts and contributions toward the overall cause of financial inclusion. Commended by the State Bank of Pakistan, MMBL’s flagship female empowerment program, Women Inspirational Network (WIN) is also making strides to boost women’s participation in the economic sphere.

“The world is finding strength and success in diversity and inclusion, and it’s also a strong component of our business philosophy,” said Ghazanfar Azzam, President and CEO MMBL. “The global economic recession and recent devastating floods have left the country’s economy in dire straits. We believe that now is the time for the microfinance sector to accelerate economic recovery and improve the financial health of lower-income groups and marginalized segments, including women, minorities, and persons with disabilities. As Pakistan’s leading digital bank, we feel responsible to lead efforts and guide collective focus toward fostering financial inclusion to help attain sustainable and inclusive economic transformation in the country.”

Sardar Mohammad Abubakr, Chief Finance and Digital Officer MMBL shared, “MMBL is on the path to driving holistic economic revolution by delivering financial access and empowerment to underserved and unserved people nationwide. The growth of digital technologies and nationwide penetration of mobile phones offers unique opportunities for promoting digital and financial inclusion. I am confident that our policy recommendations will spur the much-needed collective will to help unify the efforts of policymakers, regulators, and key stakeholders in the overall banking industry to help promote financial inclusion for all.”

Diversity & Inclusion are firmly anchored in MMBL’s corporate culture; hence, the Bank hosts a wide range of policies and processes to help the organization promote women empowerment. Under WIN Program, the Bank has trained over 900 women in multiple localities across Pakistan on business and entrepreneurial skills and is also engaged in enhancing financial literacy amongst all. MMBL’s exclusive female-centric offering, Bint-e-Hawwa, is also empowering women across the board. In addition, through Humqadam Program, MMBL has onboarded more than 10 differently-abled individuals for on-the-job training. As an industry leader, MMBL is dedicated to revolutionizing the banking ecosystem by increasing access to digital and financial services for sustainable economic progress.

MMBL partners with TPS to boost its Business Agility and Digital Readiness

Karachi – Pakistan’s largest digital bank, Mobilink Microfinance Bank Limited (MMBL) has signed a strategic partnership with renowned global banking solution provider, TPS for the induction of its ground-breaking and all-encompassing digital banking suite to boost business agility and digital readiness. Through this partnership, MMBL is dedicated to transforming its digital payments infrastructure while increasing its efforts toward bringing the unbanked and underbanked into the fold of financial inclusion.

Mobilink Microfinance Bank is part of the VEON group, a global digital operator that provides converged connectivity and online services across seven countries. As part of its digital operator strategy, VEON is transforming people’s lives, creating opportunities for greater digital inclusion, and driving economic growth across countries that are home to more than 8% of the world’s population.

President and CEO MMBL, Ghazanfar Azzam, and Group CEO TPS, Shahzad Shahid signed the partnership agreement at MMBL Headquarters in Islamabad in the presence of senior management from both organizations. The partnership will further MMBL’s ambition to enhance its digital infrastructure to meet the evolving banking and financial needs of its individual as well as enterprise customers by offering them an array of digital banking solutions including real-time fund transfers, fast and secure login, contactless payments, bulk disbursements, service requests, ATM/branch locator and many more.

Under the agreement, TPS, a leading banking solutions provider across 30+ countries in Asia and Africa, will provide MMBL with a state-of-the-art digital banking suite to enable the integration of multiple channels on a single platform. The suite will work as an open Application Programming Interface (API) gateway that will host various banking and payment platforms and serve as a high-speed channel and transaction processing engine to provide an integrated and seamless customer experience.

Speaking on the occasion, President and CEO, MMBL, Ghazanfar Azzam said: “Digital technology is transforming to foster greater ease and convenience for its users. Given the centrality of technology to growth and progress, MMBL is keen to stay abreast with this fast-paced transformation to be able to deliver a top-notch user experience to our customers. Our partnership with TPS is an extension of the same commitment where we are looking to integrate the industry’s best solutions into our system to further improve our customers’ banking experience with us, besides accelerating our drive to promote financial inclusion in the country.”

Also sharing his thoughts, Group CEO, TPS, Shahzad Shahid said: MMBL is amongst a few microfinance banks who are using both traditional and digital approaches for faster and sustainable growth. We feel privileged to be the technology partners of the Bank in many of its successful digital payment initiatives and this project of IRIS Digital Banking Platform will surely accelerate the bank’s progress towards more agility and digital responsiveness.”

MMBL is one of the country’s leading proponents of digital banking and financial inclusion. Banking the unbanked people, especially women, is one of the foremost strategic priorities for the bank that has come to fruition in the form of several women-owned and led businesses nationwide. The Bank is dedicated to revolutionizing the digital banking ecosystem by creating an inclusive environment that offers fast, safe, and secure services for all its customers.

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.”

Bank of the Future Forum 2022 brings together thought leaders from Pakistan’s banking sector

Karachi: NdcTech, a leading IT & consulting firm providing transformational services for the banking sector globally, and Temenos, the world’s leading banking software company co-hosted the 11^th edition of Bank of The Future Forum, one of the largest financial conferences in the world. This event brought together more than 25 Global Speakers and over 500 attendees from the banking sector, influencers, decision-makers, regulators, Fintechs, analysts and media.

The event discussed key topics in the banking industry including composable banking, mobile banking, digital banking, cloud banking etc. Exciting demos were also presented on trending topics such as buy now pay later, payments, core banking upgrades, etc. Various fintech companies such as HID Global, Huawei, Validata, Abris Consulting, & ACI Worldwide showcased their innovative products and offerings and networked with industry experts from banking and IT sector

In her welcome address, Ammara Masood-CEO, NdcTech, talked about the key milestones achieved by NdcTech over the years and how their 22 years of partnership with Temenos has strengthened by leaps and bounds. She also spoke about the way forward for NdcTech after its acquisition by Systems Limited and the company’s vision of developing scale, building offshore competencies, and transforming banks in newer markets.

Asif Peer, Chief Executive Officer & Managing Director, Systems Limited shed light on the upcoming trends and opportunities in the global banking sector and how to leverage them. He also talked about how Systems Limited, now with NdcTech is on course to become the largest Temenos partner in the region, as the two companies will work aggressively in expanding their combined footprint to newer territories across the globe.

John Schlesinger, Chief Enterprise Architect, Temenos, explained that Composable banking requires moving away from monolithic banking and engaging in value chain banking. He shared his insights that for banking to be composable, the technology that supports you must decompose itself and once broken down into modules and services, it needs to be recomposed. Finally, the element of connecting to outside world is what makes banking composable, and which eventually enables banks to innovate in hours and deliver value in days.

Lee Allcorn, Director, Temenos MEA, talked about the significance of the MEA region to Temenos and what the future roadmap of Temenos for this region looks like. He also shared insights on how this region has a huge demand for Islamic Banking as few of the largest Islamic Banks in this region are running on Temenos software.

A panel discussion was conducted on pivotal trends in the digital banking industry where though leaders from the Pakistani banking sector, such as Shahzad Ishaq, Chief Digital officer, MCB, Iqbal Fazal Ali Khan, Group Head Digital banking, Meezan Bank, Muhammad Hamayun Sajjad, Chief Digital Officer, NBP shared their thoughts on why banks need to be contextual, relevant, and provide seamless customer experience through simple and easy to use interfaces.

“The banking industry has been disrupted in a positive way as digitalization stands at the forefront while we navigate through challenges and opportunities,” stated Asif Akram, Chief Operating Officer, Systems Limited while moderating this panel discussion.

With that one of the largest banking technology conferences came to a fruitful end while creating plethora of shared knowledge for the attendees.

MMBL CFDO highlights the power of Fintech at the GITEX Global 2022

Karachi –Pakistan’s largest digital bank, Mobilink Microfinance Bank Limited (MMBL)’s Chief Finance and Digital Officer (CFDO), Sardar Mohammad Abubakr shared his expertise on Fintech Surge: ESG & Fintech – Society, Inclusion & the Environment at the GITEX GLOBAL 2022, held in the 2nd week of October at Dubai World Trade Centre. GITEX GLOBAL, the world’s largest tech show, unifies the world’s most influential ecosystems advancing business, economy, society, and culture through the sheer power of innovation.

MMBL is part of the VEON group, a global digital operator that provides converged connectivity and online services across seven countries. As part of its digital operator strategy, VEON is transforming people’s lives, creating opportunities for greater digital inclusion, and driving economic growth across countries that are home to more than 8% of the world’s population.

During his address, Sardar Abubakr stressed the need to recognize the huge strides Pakistan has made in digitalization. Dedicated to harnessing the power of technology, MMBL is at the forefront of digital innovation, making digital and financial solutions more inclusive, efficient, and affordable for everyone, especially women and Small & Medium Enterprises (SMEs)- two highly influential segments for increased economic development. The Bank’s ever-growing partnerships portfolio is a testament to the expansion we are doing for maximizing the outreach of our financial services.

This year, Gitex Global is hosting more than 4,500 companies, thousands of exhibitions, and 100,000+ attendees from 170 countries, in addition to over 1000 industry leaders and subject experts from diverse fields as speakers. Building a bridge between technology and finance, Fintech Surge featured 100+ globally leading financial industry experts, entrepreneurs, innovators, investors, and regulators.

With over 40 million registered users, including 15+ million monthly active mobile wallets, MMBL remains committed to expanding access to financial services and bridging the financial gaps that persist in Pakistan. Abubakr underlined that the non-financial factors including environment, social, and governance are crucial to the sustainability of the fintech industry, therefore, these should be considered to initiate long-term growth with reduced risks. He also emphasized the need for businesses to ensure compliance with social and environmental requirements to anchor themselves well in the societies they function in.

Quoting the example of his organization, Sardar Abubakr shared: “MMBL commits all efforts with sustainability and customer-centricity at the forefront. The Bank strives to catalyze positive social change through the financial inclusion of marginalized segments, especially women and the rural populations, not only through microcredit but also through specialized training and provision of access to customized digital and financial product offerings. We are deploying the power of digital – a great enabler & equalizer, to empower the masses holistically.”

He further remarked that the world is undergoing significant changes pertaining to climate change and sustainability challenges, which is why businesses need to be more responsible and empathetic to create shared value for themselves as well as the communities they serve.

As an industry leader, MMBL strives to empower the unbanked and underbanked segments to participate in the financial ecosystem by providing them opportunities to support their families, start businesses, invest in education, and build a financially stable future. With more than 70% of the Pakistani population still unbanked, the door is wide open for digital innovation to step in and influence positive social change.

Bank of the Future Forum will bring together influencers & key decision makers from Pakistan

NdcTech, a leading IT & consulting firm providing transformational services for the banking sector globally and Temenos, the world’s leading banking software company are pleased to co-host the 11th edition of Bank of The Future Forum. It is one of the largest financial conferences in the world, happening on 12th October 2022 at a local hotel in Karachi. With over 20 Global Speakers initiating insightful conversations, this event welcomes more than 500 banking professionals, influencers, decision makers, regulators, fintech’s, analysts, and media.

This will be the first onsite event after a break of 3 years due to the pandemic and the entire banking community of Pakistan is looking forward to connecting once again in person through this forum. The theme of the event revolves around trending topics in the banking industry, such as composable banking, digital banking, cloud banking, payments, etc. It will also include insightful panel discussions featuring thought leaders from the Pakistani banking industry who will shed light on the Pivotal trends in Banking. Exciting product demonstrations will also be presented at the conference such as buy now pay later, core banking upgrade, & loan origination.

As the main organizers and hosts; Ammara Masood, CEO of NdcTech, Asif Peer, CEO and Managing Director of Systems Limited, and John Schlesinger, Chief Enterprise Architect, Temenos will be sharing their insights on the future of banking in Pakistan.

Various Fintech companies such as HID Global, Huawei, Validata, Abris Consulting, & ACI Worldwide will be showcasing their innovative products and offerings to the attendees.

With the emergence of new banking models, rapid digitization as well as the constant redefinition of the banking landscape, this conference will be the ideal platform to discuss these recent developments with the decision makers of the industry.

NdcTech enters into a strategic collaboration with Red Hat

NdcTech, a global IT and consulting company providing transformational services for Banks and financial institutions has announced a collaboration with Red Hat, the world’s leading provider of enterprise open-source solutions, to deliver solutions based on cloud-native, open-source technologies in support of financial institutions.

As part of this collaboration between the two entities, Red Hat recognizes NdcTech as a regional systems integrator in Europe, Middle East, and Africa. NdcTech is also one of the 42 Implementation partners for banking software company Temenos, which recently expanded its collaboration with Red Hat to integrate open-source solutions with Temenos cloud-native banking services. NdcTech is committed to working closely with both Temenos and Red Hat to help organizations navigate this new world of digital banking using Temenos digital and core banking solutions such as Temenos Infinity and Temenos Transact on Red Hat OpenShift, the industry’s leading enterprise Kubernetes platform.

Red Hat and NdcTech have initiated a pilot program through which NdcTech’s Temenos certified consultants will receive Red Hat Training and hands-on experience in implementing Red Hat solutions, including Red Hat OpenShift and Red Hat Application Services. NdcTech will help ensure the delivery of an integrated and properly functioning environment to the end customers. The pilot will allow NdcTech to offer more versatile and flexible cloud-native deployment options of Temenos and Red Hat solutions to their new and existing customers.

Red Hat’s open hybrid cloud portfolio provides increased scalability and flexibility with enhanced security features to help reduce costs for organizations to deliver more streamlined customer experiences and services based on hybrid cloud infrastructure. Through this collaboration, NdcTech and Red Hat will target new markets with offerings supported by innovative cloud-native technologies and better support customers with go-to-market strategies.

On this occasion, Ammara Masood, CEO NdcTech said: “We are delighted to have a strategic collaboration with Red Hat at a global level, the world’s leading provider of open-source enterprise solutions. Through this collaboration, we will build expertise in the latest cloud-native and containerized modern stacks using Red Hat OpenShift and Red Hat Application Services supporting Temenos solutions.

NdcTech will now transform its banking clients on the most modern architectures and fast pace their modernization journeys onto the cloud. We also believe that this will further strengthen our capabilities and vision to build banks of the future.”

“Collaborating with a robust ecosystem of capable, expert partners such as NdcTech is critical in supporting customers within the financial services industry and beyond to better build and manage hybrid cloud environments at the scale and speed they need. In establishing this pilot program with NdcTech, we are bringing together expertise across Red Hat, Temenos and NdcTech to better enable customers with digital banking solutions built on Red Hat open hybrid cloud solutions such as Red Hat OpenShift. Having been recently named as Technology Partner of the Year by Temenos, Red Hat looks forward to collaborating with other Temenos partners like NdcTech to translate to solid technical foundation into business value for our banking customers,” said Rob Spittel, Director, Global FSI Ecosystem, Red Hat.

National Incubation Centre Lahore at LUMS holds Investor Summit for its 9th Cohort of Entrepreneurs

Lahore: The National Incubation Centre Lahore (NICL) at LUMS held its capstone event – the Investor Summit, which brought together its 9th Cohort of change-driven start-ups, pitching their ventures in Agritech, Cleantech, Edtech, Healthtech, and Fintech to seasoned investors and start-up founders in Pakistan.
The Investor Summit is the culmination of a 6-month long Foundation Programme where the necessary skills and knowledge are imparted to the incubated entrepreneurs to underpin their start-ups with real-world experience.

While addressing his experience of being part of the Investor Summit, Humayun Mazhar, Founder & CEO at CresVentures, said, “The passion, the energy, and the youth excites me, and whenever I come here at NICL, I feel younger. I love the energy of this place.” Referring to NICL’s start-ups, he added, “The start-ups graduating from here are adding value in terms of employment and revenue to the national exchequer and I’d like to see them grow in the times to come.”

“I’m thoroughly impressed by the quality and variety of founders that has only grown over the last 5 cohorts which is very refreshing. That goes to show the effort that NICL is putting in and making sure that the graduating start-ups are more mature when pitching their ideas,” said Hamza Iqbal, NICL Foundation Council Member and CEO at Healthwire, while sharing his thoughts on the work NICL is doing within the start-up ecosystem of Pakistan.

The participating start-ups at the Investor Summit were (in order of presentation) SAY Global, Roshni, Janwar Mandi, Gamma Green Recycle, Raftar Technologies, Wholly Ranch, Cashmail (Pvt.) Ltd., eBilty, Print Me All, Kitchen Collabs, Darzi Cut, Zarai Zambeel, and SAFE Space, pitching to spark investors’ interest.

NICL was founded in 2018 by Ignite National Technology Fund (IGNITE) and the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication (MOITT), and has since graduated 152 ventures, and housed 84 female entrepreneurs in verticals of interest.

Pakistani fintech enables employees to donate to flood-affected

ABHI along with its clients, employees, users, and investors is channeling donations using its robust platform to support the bigger cause by partnering up with leading NGOs like JDC, Al-Khidmat, and Saylani who are at the forefront and are actively providing relief to flood victims on the ground.

For the first time ever in Pakistan, employed individuals who are ABHI users can empower families that have been affected by floods, by donating from their earned but unpaid salary directly from the mobile app within 30 seconds through ABHI Dost – this feature enables them to transfer the donation money directly to JDC, Al-Khidmat, or Saylani’s bank account.

In this time of urgent need, ABHI is determined to give its generous support to afflicted families and communities as they struggle to sustain themselves and rebuild their lives. With the help of the gathered donations, our partner NGOs will provide emergency support like shelter, household supplies, and food items to the ones in need.
ABHI is here to support its fellow Pakistani brothers and sisters in these tough times. Donate, to financially empower people nationwide. #abhikaro!

NdcTech becomes a Certified Temenos Development Partner

NdcTech, a leading IT consulting company providing digital transformational services for Banks & Financial Institutions across the globe has now become a Certified Development Partner of Temenos.

This accreditation distinguishes NdcTech’s engineering capabilities while carrying out digital transformations. The company’s extensive expertise on the Temenos product stack and in-depth knowledge of modern frameworks and development methodologies demonstrate its proficiency and skills.

This certification enables NdcTech to deploy modern technology best practices and development frameworks that are accredited by Temenos to build effective enterprise software development processes and solutions. Through this certification, NdcTech will carry out customizations for bank-specific and country-specific regulatory requirements on top of Temenos open platform for composable banking. The company will now be able to develop solutions for banks and financial institutions keeping in view regulatory requirements and evolving customer demands.

On this achievement, Ammara Masood, CEO & President of NdcTech said: “We are delighted to be certified by Temenos as a Development Partner. This certification will allow us to rapidly build innovative and country-specific solutions on the Temenos platform, paving the way for building banks of the future.”

It is pertinent to mention here that NdcTech is a certified and award-winning partner of Temenos and has successfully transformed the Core and Digital banking platforms of more than 110 Banks across the globe.