like many other conventional banking systems, is struggling to meet the Islamic finance requirements,’ claimed Kateeb. ‘Changing some screens or reports’ is not sufficient to make a system Shari’ah-compliant, he said. Burj Bank sent out RFP documents to international suppliers, and evaluated the offerings with the help of a local consultant. Sungard also featured on the candidates list. Like Bank Dhofar, Burj Bank had an aggressive project schedule, said Kateeb. iMAL was set to go live in a big bang cut-over, fully replacing Sungard’s software and covering all operations at the bank, from channels at the front-end to operations in the middle and back office. Kateeb felt that the Islamic banking industry was on the rise again, after a couple of years in a lull. ‘The market is turning around beautifully for us. We believe 2012 will be a very fruitful year,’ he said. Late in the year, Path added two Islamic start-ups in Mauritania, Banque Populaire de Mauritanie (BPM) and Bank Al Muamelat Assahiha (SAB won a third start-up at around this time). BPM is a wholly-owned subsidiary of one of the country’s largest financial services groups, Groupe Mauritanie Leasing. SAB was among those considered, alongside Temenos, Oracle FSS and Delta Informatique. Banque Islamique de Mauritanie was Path’s initial client in the country, part of the aforementioned 2011 multisite Islamic deal from Tamweel Africa Holding, which is itself owned by the Islamic Development Bank. The third taker of iMAL, Banque Al Muamelat Assahiha, was another recent arrival on the market and has an initial four branches. It took the system for Shari’ah-compliant retail and corporate banking. Path’s 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’s product 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. The bank was Path’s third customer in the country. iMAL covers Islamic profit calculation, accounting and investment at Sterling Bank, as well as interfaces to Swift, the ATM network and internet banking solution. Olawale Yinusa, COO non-interest banking unit at Sterling Bank, remarked that there had been little customisation in terms of regulatory reporting as iMAL was already configured for the local requirements. Considerations during the selection had included ‘robust modules to support all products and services’, automatic fee and commission calculation, reasonable cost, robust vendor support and ‘a manageable scope of implementation’, he added. Among other 2013 takers for Path 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. Among other things, Irada was looking to emulate Kenya’s M-Pesa mobile payments network, and was working with Sudan’s mobile operators, Zain, MTF and Sudani One, to bring a platform to market during 2014. ‘It is something there are definitely high hopes for. Our model will be a payments systems and microfinance institution at the same time,’ said Fadi Al Faqih, CEO of Bank of Khartoum and a board member of Irada. Irada was one of four core institutions to make a core banking selection in Sudan in 2013. Another bank, Financial Investment Bank, took iMAL to replace IMSplus from Greece- based supplier, Profile. The other two selections were for ICSFS’s ICS Banks, at Omdurman National Bank, and Temenos’ T24, at Export Development Bank. 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 so a thorough analysis was carried out. Meethaq acknowledged that a specialised Islamic banking system was the most appropriate route to take, and so a tender was issued. A shortlist was drawn up, featuring the incumbent Temenos with T24, ITS with Ethix, Silverlake with SIBS and Path Solutions with iMAL. One factor weighing in Path’s favour was the way in which the vendor incorporated past client requirements into the system, so that new takers could utilise them, said Nadeem Aslam. iMAL was taken in to cover Islamic retail and corporate banking, customer finance, SME, treasury and asset management.


Of 2012 signings, both BPM and Bank Al Muamelat went live in 2013, among eleven completed projects in total for Path throughout the end of 2012 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 continued its expansion later in 2013, with the opening of a new office in India in July. One change worth noting related to the aforementioned demise of Path’s AAOIFI accreditation. In September 2013, this was withdrawn following the setting up of a partnership between AAOIFI and Ernst & Young and subsequent changes to the accreditation process. Path voiced concerns about the


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