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PROFILE Full steam ahead
IBS Journal caught up with Path Solutions’ Group Chairman & CEO, Mohammed Kateeb, to discuss the firm’s strong showing in 2017 and what 2018 might have in store for the Islamic finance sector Alex Hamilton
Senior Reporter P
ath Solutions’ CRM system has gone under the knife recently, adding features that will “help banks understand their customers better”. On top of these changes, the vendor is adopting a new open API strategy, based on multi- screen, multi-feed functionality. The APIs will be plugged into the firm’s iMAL core banking system and allow banks to open up their channels to new products and services for customers.
“Our major successes this year have been around digitising and implementing the new platform,” Kateeb says. “We’ve been very successful pushing it through with our key customers and we have had some great go-lives in the past year.” Path completed two big wins earlier in the year – one in Sudan and one in Kuwait – which Kateeb feels has really underlined the strength of the firm’s offerings.
Movin’ on up
Kateeb spoke to IBS Journal in January, mentioning that one of the vendor’s key strategies was upgrading existing clients to the latest version of iMAL. The CEO labels it now as “one of the most important initiatives” that Path Solutions is undertaking. It’s going well, he adds, with several customers already starting the upgrade process. All the nine banks which signed on for iMAL in the last year are implementing the latest version of the technology. “It’s a very important part of our strategy and we continue to see great adoption from our customer. They’re already in the implementation phase or they’re ready to start implementation very soon.”
It’s not just about existing customers, though. Path Solutions’ projects in Morocco are going well, Kateeb confirms, which leads him on to mention the company’s project in Tunisia: “another great project that’s very important to us.” Path has been aiming to penetrate a lot of new markets. The firm landed a major deal with Suriname-based Trustbank in March this year, having been selected after a “comprehensive assessment”. It is understood to have defeated both Temenos and Oracle during the process. “We’re a vertically-operating company,” says Kateeb. “Islamic finance is our focus and it’s very exciting to have signed that deal.”
Suriname isn’t the only site in the Americas in which Path Solutions is having success. Kateeb confirms that there are
Mohammed Kateeb
deals underway in North America. One of the banks “is not a traditional Islamic bank” but does offer Islamic products, and that’s where Kateeb feels Path Solutions has something to offer: “we’re very interested in that market”. The firm isn’t trying to chase competitors and break into regions for the sake of it – Kateeb states that wherever there is an interest in offering Islamic services, Path Solutions will look to increase its footprint.
US expansion and Islamic talent
Islamic banking’s development in US is not going as well as Kateeb would like, though. “At the moment, there are no hard and fast rules for Islamic finance and a lot of companies are creating finance tools as a workaround,” he says. “Those companies are very small and investing in an IT solution is expensive for them. Path is investing in several initiatives around cloud-based Islamic finance that Kateeb hopes will be a much easier approach than targeting very small institutions. Where the vendor is seeing greater traction is Africa, where microfinance initiatives are helping a blooming Islamic finance sector. “We feel we have a very good offering for microfinance and financial inclusion and we’ll be pushing deeper into Africa to make the most of it.”
So, what issues does the Islamic finance sector face going into 2018? Standardisation is a factor that is often pointed to as a problem – every country has its own definition of Shari’ah and each bank has a board dedicated to interpreting the rules. “It’s getting better,” admits Kateeb. “Most of the countries have rules and regulations but no set-in stone standards.” Now there are bodies set up to help define the standards, he adds, which is reducing any regulatory conflict between banks and countries.
Securing key talent is a crucial concern in the sector, according to the Path Solutions CEO. “I don’t see enough talent emerging in the sector,” he says. A lot of those incoming are familiar with conventional banking but not so much when it comes to the specifics of Islamic finance. “You need a lot of focused knowledge and natural talent to understand the products and offerings. In putting in place talent development strategies, the vision moving forward is to ensure a steady stream of competent and versatile talent to support the industry’s sudden growth.” Despite this, Kateeb sees nothing but a bright future for Islamic finance in the second half of 2018.
www.ibsintelligence.com | © IBS Intelligence 2017
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