Arab Bank, the first private sector financial institution in the Arab World, with offices throughout the Middle East, has gone live with the Misys Equation Islamic solution at its offices in Qatar.

The move gives the Amman-based bank unmatched Corporate Islamic banking capabilities, and greatly enhances the bank’s offering to the fast-growing Islamic banking community in Qatar. The intention is now to roll the solution across its operations in the GCC.

Arab Bank, which has assets in excess of $47.1bn, will further roll out the Islamic banking version of Equation starting with its Abu Dhabi branch which is expected to start in December 2008, thereby extending its presence in the Islamic Banking sector. The sector is forecast to be worth over $1,000bn by the end of the decade[1].

With 500 branches spanning 30 countries across 5 continents, Arab Bank has been a customer of Misys for over 20 years, running Misys Equation across its network. The Islamic version of Equation covers the full range commercial banking operations, including finance, finance origination, automated profit calculation and distribution.

“Misys and Arab Bank have a long history of successful partnership, and I am delighted we are enhancing that with our addition of the Islamic Equation service,” comments Assistant Arab Bank CEO Michel Accad. “The Middle Eastern Shari’a banking industry is one of the world’s great banking success stories and it is essential for Arab Bank to be supported by industry-leading technology as we continue to further expand our services across the region.”

Roy Froud, Head of Sales for Middle East and Africa, Misys, adds, “We are witnessing a rapid growth of the Islamic finance market, with Shari’a compliant products more in demand than ever before. Misys is working at the forefront of developing new functionality that underpins banks’ back office operations and this extension of our work with Arab Bank is an excellent example of how we add real value to our Islamic banking clients.”