Mashreq Bank implements PRIME payments platform

Mashreq Bank, the oldest privately held bank in the UAE, has successfully implemented global payments provider TSYS’ PRIME software licensing solution.

TSYS is providing Mashreq with its core PRIME acquirer and issuer payments platform plus surrounding modules and services. The solution enables Mashreq to manage its merchant relationships, and enable fast merchant onboarding. Additional solutions implemented during phase one, included PRIME Fraudguard to protect cardholders against fraud, PRIME Dispute Manager to efficiently manage transaction disputes for fast resolution, and TSYS InterActiv Interchange Pricing to allow Mashreq to better manage its merchant portfolio with respect to interchange and related costs.

The first phase of the implementation followed industry best practices across planning, development and solution design, resulting in the successful launch of acquiring services within eight months of the contract-signing. The second phase of the project — to include PRIME’s issuing solutions — will be deployed later this year.

“We at Mashreq are delighted to partner with TSYS for our acquiring platform as the system offers more flexibility and scalability to our merchant business. The joint efforts led to the project being executed seamlessly and at an extraordinary pace. We are looking forward for more collaboration with TSYS in phase II to serve our customers better using the PRIME platform,” said Pankaj Kundra, Head of Payment, Mashreq Bank.

In addition to implementing PRIME’s issuing solutions later this year, the final phase of the project will also focus on Mashreq’s multichannel acquiring with support for payment gateways for e-commerce, merchant portals with dashboard reporting, dynamic currency conversion and payment acceptance support for all major payment schemes.

Mashreq will also consolidate and manage its card issuance with PRIME across multiple countries, beginning with UAE, and followed by Kuwait, Bahrain, Egypt and Qatar. Mashreq has a significant presence in 11 countries outside the UAE with 21 overseas branches and offices across Europe, the US, Asia and Africa.

“We’ve established a great partnership with Mashreq, which provides the foundation of success. Together, we implemented the PRIME platform and we’re able to provide a solution designed to support their customer communication and ever-evolving payment needs,” said Rene Kruse, Group Executive and MD, International Markets, TSYS.

The news follows a February 2018 announcement that Mashreq is using Blue Prism’s Digital Workforce to deliver greater operational efficiencies, higher accuracy and a massive reduction in processing time for new and existing customer services. Blue Prism helps Mashreq to integrate artificial intelligence (AI) and automate dozens of mission-critical processes across multiple business functions, including banking operations, compliance, customer care and their technology helpdesk.