For the 6th time BPC Banking Technologies took part in Cards & Payments Middle East 2008 conference and exhibition, a high level end user card event that addresses all the strategic issues of card and payments applications and technologies, which was held on 18 - 21 May 2008 at Al Bustan Rotana Hotel, Dubai, United Arab Emirates. At its stand BPC showcased its SmartVista Suite, a comprehensive family of products for the processing of electronic payments based on plastic cards, smart chip cards and other personal payment tools, to the industry professionals from different countries of MEA region.

Currently the retail banking business in MEA region is one of the most rapidly growing in the world due to better regulation of the local financial markets encouraging local and foreign investment. There are new, sophisticated card products, various types of credit cards and smart cards, and a high mobile phone penetration enabling new delivery channels. EMV migration deadlines set by the international payment schemes, a quickly growing demand for new retail banking products, the need for close integration with additional applications (such as a CRM system, etc.) requires banking software solutions to be transformed to support new technologies and standards.

In this situation Cards & Payments Middle East 2008 becomes the industry's premier event dedicated to cards and payments, which reflects this phenomenal growth and offers to business professionals from the GCC, Pakistan, Egypt, the Levant, and other MEA countries a great opportunity to increase the market awareness of the leading international brands.

The conference and exhibition allowed BPC to present to organisations looking for innovative technologies its SmartVista Suite, a modern scalable and flexible solution capable of coping with the growing market demands and meeting such MEA specific requirements as Shari’a compliance, special card products implementation, support of multiple languages and new delivery channels as well as other regional features which are often neglected by the legacy systems.

“Cards Middle East has once again proven to be one of the best grounds in the MEA region showcasing the best-of-breed technologies for financial industry. The high interest to BPC’s SmartVista software products allows us to state the growing demand for the modern solutions amongst the leading financial institutions which seek after applying the best international practices for their retail business development”, said Pradeep Sundrial, Director for International Sales, BPC.

“The fact that cards in ME have now moved from a simple ‘me too’ principle to a way of delivering new services and that cards are now as important to Islamic banks as to any other form of banking, and with the predicted growth of the global Islamic banking and finance sector in 2008, suggests that there is a need for MEA banks, both Islamic and classic, to find a modern, progressive banking solution to cater for all their card processing needs, such as SmartVista”, said Mandarr Agshikar, BPC MEA Deputy General Manager.