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Commercial cards come of age in Middle East
In many countries in the Middle East, corporates and their business travellers can now access the full benefits of commercial cards
“Commercial cards deliver improved efficiency, accountability and convenience,” says Steve Donovan, Regional Executive at Citi Transaction Services. Citi’s issuing network spans over 100 countries and offers local currency cards in Pakistan, Egypt, Kuwait and the UAE and international currency cards in Qatar. Commercial cards offer
THE MIDDLE EAST (ME) is becoming more interconnected and more integrated into the global economy. As a result, business travel in the region is growing rapidly: Qatar and Saudi Arabia should record double- digit growth in 2013 while other regional markets will grow by more than 5%1
. Consequently, travel
and entertainment (T&E) spend is increasing and companies need to control costs and improve efficiency. Organising and paying
for business travel in ME is often seen as challenging compared to mature markets in Europe or the US. Some countries, such as Pakistan and Egypt, still use significant volumes of cash and, to a lesser extent, cheques for travel expenses. Other countries, most notably the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Kuwait, have adopted cards but are less fully integrated than the most developed international markets. However, global best
practice is increasingly being adopted across ME and commercial cards made available.
a compelling alternative to cash, cheques, personal credit cards or so-called hybrid cards (which are personal credit cards repurposed for business) in ME. As a replacement for cash and cheques, commercial cards improve security and reduce fraud. Similarly, they offer improved accountability compared to use of employees’ cards. Compared to hybrid cards they offer MIS data, improved reporting, greater transparency and enhanced control for corporates. Commercial cards
encompass more than just T&E: purchasing cards improve efficiency and accountability and can lengthen companies’ working capital cycle while virtual cards, which generate unique card numbers, deliver complete control and seamless reconciliation.
Global consistency and best practice As regional and global companies expand across ME, they want standardised processes to improve efficiency. Commercial cards deliver consistency, which is important for regional and global firms. More generally,
“By working with a global provider such as Citi for the rollout of our EMEA cards programme to UAE, we have been able to bring global best practices to Middle
East markets for the first time,” Wook-Joong Yoon, CFO for Dubai-based Samsung Gulf Electronics.
standardisation can enable automation (of expenses processes, for example) and deliver reporting, compliance, control and security benefits. Commercial cards make
it possible to achieve process standardisation, either within ME or multi- regionally. “By working with a global provider such as
Citi for the rollout of our EMEA cards programme to UAE, we have brought global best practices to Middle East markets for the first time,” notes Wook-Joong Yoon, CFO for Dubai-based Samsung Gulf Electronics. To achieve these benefits, corporates must differentiate between
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