Moukadam said: ‘The preparation and review started in April 2008 and took seven and a half months, during which different teams, 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 secretary general took place in May 2008 ‘to discuss the certification procedures’. Dr Al Chaar stated that the system ‘has been thoroughly reviewed and


First clients


Path’s first client, The International Investor (TII), based in Kuwait, took two years to find but has remained with Path throughout. Initially it bought the Islamic Treasury and Investment system. It signed in 1994, two years after it had been set up by institutional and private investors. It was established as a wholesale Islamic bank during the first wave of privatisation in the Gulf region. It expanded its use of the Path suite in 1999 when it bought the supplier’s Enterprise Investment banking package. Over the next decade, progress at Path was steady so


that by the end of 2004 it had built up a customer base of around 20 banks and finance houses across Kuwait, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Amman and Lebanon. The list included First Islamic Investment Bank and Gulf Finance in Bahrain; Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank in Abu Dhabi; Arab Islamic Bank in Amman; First National Bank in Lebanon; and the National Investment Company, and KIPCO Asset Management in Kuwait. Taghrid Amireh, executive director, branches management,


Arab Islamic Bank, spent some time looking for an Islamic banking solution, built on Shari’ah lines, which contained all the functionality the bank needed. ‘It took one year of looking for the appropriate system,’ she said. ‘We got five proposals for systems but all of them missed functions, except iMAL.’ She was happy with the package. ‘Since going live, Path has done more with less, it has improved our performance goals and simplified our transactions processing.’ She added that Path was able to implement rapidly and start delivering straight away. Arab Islamic Bank built up the full set of iMAL modules. First Islamic Investment Bank in Bahrain also took the complete set of iMAL modules. Abdulhameed Juma, operations director at the bank, stated, ‘the selection of the solution provider was driven by many criteria. Due to time constraints we were looking for a solution that met at least 70 per cent of our requirements, the rest could be customised.’


Technology was another driver. The latest technology, in terms of the database and development tools, was deemed essential for the bank. ‘We also looked at the solution from the


end-user perspective. User friendliness, flexibility,


integration, automation, reporting, and on-line processing were important.’ The bank’s top management and heads of business units were involved in the selection process. Said Juma, ‘the selection of Path Solutions was unanimous’. By this stage, Path was looking beyond its traditional Middle East area, encouraged by the spread of Islamic banking across the globe. Moukadam said Path did not want to limit itself to one geographic area. ‘As far as sales outside our region go, we will approach appropriate markets when and where those financial institutions emerge.’ Despite its low to mid- range system capabilities, he considered Path to compete with major conventional vendors in Islamic banks. One of these, in late 2004, was London Bridge, with the Phoenix system. This business was originally with a US company, Phoenix International, during which time a long-lasting partnership was put in place with ITS, which tailored Phoenix for Islamic banking and added a suite of software around the core. The Phoenix system now resides with another US company, Harland Financial Solutions, but the partnership with ITS survived the changes of ownership. Path came up against ITS and a fair few of the heavyweight suppliers at Kuwait Finance House. This institution selected iMAL in the first half of 2005 for treasury, investment and fund management for its headquarters. Path already listed Kuwait Finance House subsidiary, Gulf Finance House, among its clients. For the latest deal it beat off competition from I-flex and ITS at the shortlist stage. Kuwait Finance House is the largest Islamic bank in the region and, interestingly, is the main shareholder in ITS. Not long after, Kuwait Finance House also decided to implement iMAL for its operation in Bahrain.


Universal Banking Systems Market Report | www.ibsintelligence.com 329


has proven it truly deserves to be certified’. Moukadam felt such recognition would give Path ‘an additional edge over competitors’. He added: ‘It translates into fast-tracking processes and guaranteed compliance with Shari’ah as well as access to certified contracts, thus saving effort, cost and time for our customers.’ As will be seen, Path’s AAOIFI certification, which was also subsequently gained by Kuwait-based rival, International Turnkey Systems (ITS), was dropped in 2013 due to changes within the process.


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