each in their area of expertise, validated iMAL as well as the business processes and contracts to be compliant with AAOIFI’s requirements.’ The work involved product strategy, development and business development departments, as well as corporate communications. The first meeting with AAOIFI’s former secretary general took place in May 2008 ‘to discuss the certification procedures’. Dr Alchaar stated that the system ‘has been thoroughly reviewed and has proven it truly deserves to be certified’. Moukadam was convinced that such recognition would give Path Solutions ‘an additional edge over competitors’. iMAL was the first system to achieve this accreditation and the certificate featured prominently on Path Solutions’ website, in marketing campaigns and sales pitches. However, in September 2013, the accreditation was withdrawn following the AAOIFI’s partnership with Ernst & Young and the subsequent change of the accreditation process. Path Solutions voiced concerns about the new process and its costs. Nevertheless, a spokesperson for the vendor stated that ‘what has been certified is certified’, and about a year later Path Solutions announced that it had received accreditation from Deloitte.
In November 2015, Path Solutions signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Nonprofit Fund for Development of Islamic Business and Finance, also known as IBFD, to jointly reach a co-operative working arrangement that includes the
Recent Performance
Path Solutions’ performance in 2013 suggested stability once more. iMAL gained ten new takers. Two were in Kenya (National Bank of Kenya and an unnamed institution) and one in Nigeria (Sterling Bank). The latter went live with iMAL in early 2014, following an eight-month implementation. Path Solutions’ set of solutions covers Islamic operations at the bank and resides alongside the bank’s conventional system, ICS Banks from ICSFS. ITS, with Ethix, was rejected, as was the option of extending ICS Banks to cover the Islamic functionality. Among other 2013 takers for Path Solutions was Sudan-based microfinance entity, Irada. It was set up by the aforementioned Bank of Khartoum (also an iMAL user) in 2012. The products offered by Irada are mainly related to the agricultural industry, and loans average less than $2000 per individual. It hoped to attract half a million customers by 2019. Of 2012 signings, both BPM and Bank Al Muamelat went live in 2013, among eleven completed projects in total for Path Solutions throughout the end of 2012
identification, promotion and selling of Path Solutions’ Islamic core banking system to financial institutions in Russia and CIS countries. This enables Islamic banking technology simulation in the above-mentioned region for educational and training purposes, providing consulting services in the area of Islamic banking operations and Shari’ah-compliant products. Path Solutions has entered into several strategic partnerships which seem to complement its suite of products.
Some
of the prominent partnerships listed by Path Solutions are Thomson Reuters as market data provider, SWIFT for financial telecommunications, GlobeX Data for the cloud storage technology and Docuware for document management system. It has tied up with Vasco, which is now OneSpan, for its Internet and Mobile Banking authentication and IrisGuard for Iris based recognition. Strategically, Path Solutions is working towards building
a deeper relationship with Microsoft by basing its newer solutions on Microsoft technology. The company is looking to incorporate systems like document management and AML into its product portfolio. In the future it will be creating a set of solutions that deal with newer direct e-channels, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) which are likely to be the value drivers for its clients.
and beginning of 2013. These included the aforementioned Bank Dhofar and Burj Bank, as well as Ahli Bank of Oman, Bank Sohar and Bank Nizwa, Wahda Bank in Libya, Banque Islamique du Senegal, Kurdistan International Bank and Bank Asya in Iraq, and Al Baraka Bank in Algeria. The latter followed earlier deployments at Al Baraka in Sudan and Syria. Path Solutions continued its expansion later in 2013, with the opening of a new R&D centre in India in July.
Bank Muscat, the largest bank in Oman, was another 2013 iMAL signing, for its Islamic banking window, Meethaq. Bank Muscat was a long-standing user of Temenos’ T24 for conventional banking, and iMAL for Islamic banking at its locations in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Bank Muscat’s head of Islamic banking, Muhammad Nadeem Aslam, said Meethaq initially used its parent bank’s T24 system to begin operations (it opened in January 2013). ‘We opened to the public using T24 for commercial banking, but made some tweaks for Islamic banking functionality.’ Meethaq’s team wanted to trial T24 before deciding whether to opt for the system or go for a specialised set-up, he explained, and
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