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02 March 2020

FAB launches innovative “payment as a platform” service for merchants

Abu Dhabi, 02 March 2020: First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB), the UAE’s largest bank and one of the world’s largest and safest financial institutions, has launched a new “payment as a platform” for merchants, consolidating a full range of payment needs into a single, digital-first package.

The platform can converge card payments, new payment methods including domestic and international digital wallets, loyalty programs, QR solutions, and value-added services such as buy-now-pay-later and easy-instalment plans, onto a single service layer. It will also support users in launching their own offerings, such as gift cards or prepaid cards. Merchants can connect to the platform through a single API-driven integration, where they will be able to access the complete scope of built-in payment services.

The first product of its type and scale offered to UAE businesses, the proposition offers merchants a single and secured payment platform. It allows merchants and large corporates to accept frictionless in-store, mobile and online payments. Driving innovation, it delivers value to users by going beyond the traditional payment gateway and offering more flexible options.

Hana Al Rostamani, Group Head of Personal Banking at First Abu Dhabi Bank said, “We at FAB continuously focus on providing value to all of our customers. The payments industry is going through significant disruption, and retailers and merchants face ever-increasing technology investments and integration costs to keep pace as the market evolves. Payment as a platform is a unique offering to solve these challenges and simplify the payment process for all parties.”

“FAB will partner with retailers and merchants not only to optimise their technology investments, but to also drive a unified customer experience, and to support real-time offers and campaigns to promote growth. We will continue to invest in the right strategic payment platforms to support our customers’ needs and help them grow stronger.”

In addition to payment layers, this service from FAB provides the merchants an omni-channel solution to deliver a unified customer experience across multiple brands, locations or touch points. It also provides AI-driven data monetisation tools that drive real-time campaigns utilising brand affinity and brand referral models. FAB will continuously update the platform to integrate new features and payment methods, which will be available seamlessly to all FAB merchants through this platform.

Ramana Kumar, SVP and Head of Payments at First Abu Dhabi Bank said, “FAB understands the need to provide value to our merchants, through a simplified solution. Our platform allows them to keep up with the rapid pace of change in payments technology, without needing to invest funds and resources to integrate each new payment system. In addition, merchants will have access to all these new developments through a single interface. As a strategic partner, our ambition is to help merchants focus on growing their core business, while FAB seamlessly takes care of the payment technology for them.”

FAB’s payment platform has been launched as a pilot with a selection of large retailers and will be rolled out at a larger scale to the entire FAB merchant base in the coming months.