AFS, Ahli United Bank in deal for merchant acquiring solutions

Arab Financial Services (AFS), a payment solutions provider and FinTech enabler in the Middle East and Africa region, and Ahli United Bank (AUB) have signed a strategic partnership agreement whereby AFS will provide innovative merchant acquiring solutions to AUB. As part of this partnership, AFS will introduce world-class payment acceptance solutions to the market.

This will be enabled through Android POS devices that support international and domestic payment schemes and FinTech payment options including contactless cards, NFC, QR and bwallet. At the agreement signing ceremony, AFS Chairman Sael Al Waary commented: “The launch of AFS’ merchant acquiring business represents an important milestone as we bring market-leading technology to the Bahrain market.”

AFS will launch the latest Android POS devices to the market, over the coming months. This is alongside the various support and value-added services that AFS will provide AUB. Abdulla Al-Raeesi, Deputy Group CEO-Retail Banking, AUB said that the move is in line with the national objective of increasing the quantum of e-payments & e-services by promoting cashless payment transactions.

“This is an exciting journey that we are embarking on and yet another step by AFS to support the Kingdom’s vision of becoming a digital economy, added AFS Chief Executive Officer B Chandrasekhar. AFS is owned by 39 banks and financial institutions and regulated by the CBB.