DIB Launches First Islamic Credit Card with CTL

Press Release - from the CTL Press Office, February 15, 2006

Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB) has recently announced the launch of its first Islamic Credit Card with the support of Card Tech Limited, a leading UK-based bankcard systems provider and processor.

The new 'Al Islami Credit Card' (The Islamic Credit Card), offered in Visa Classic, Gold, Gold Executive and Platinum, will provide DIB customers with all the benefits of a conventional credit card whilst ensuring that all payments and repayments are fully compliant with Islamic Sharia'a principles.

Established in 1975, DIB has remained at the forefront of product innovation within the Islamic banking market. Islamic banking is a worldwide market requirement for many banks, and a prerequisite that CTL’s PRIME and ONLINE systems can fully support. The successful implementation demonstrates CTL's full systems compliance with the Islamic banking principles according to the specific requirements of the bank’s Sharia'a Committee.

Wasim Saifi, Executive Vice President, Head of Retail and Business Banking, Dubai Islamic Bank, said "The launch of this Islamic card sees an extension to our 14-year strategic cooperation with CTL which has enabled DIB to achieve many of its business and technical objectives. It is fortunate that CTL’s ability to speedily implement has successfully enabled DIB to celebrate this launch in conjunction with the bank’s 30 years of service offering to the Islamic banking world."

DIB has been a client of CTL since 1991 when it selected CTL’s CARDMAN Issuer system to manage its credit card portfolio. The bank migrated to CTL’s industry-leading PRIME and ONLINE platform in 1999, and has since used it to issue over 25,000 Visa Charge Cards and approximately 300,000 Visa Electron Cards.

Edith Kessler-Charalambous, General Manager Business Expansion at CTL, said "We are happy to see that our clients can benefit from CTL's forward-looking product policy. Islamic banking is not a negligible or merely temporary phenomenon - on the contrary we anticipate considerable growth in this sector and will strive to effectively meet the needs of this market segment"

About Card Tech Limited
More than 190 banks from 70 countries use CTL solutions. Our software and processing service addresses every aspect of the card management business cycle. They include card issuance, merchant acquiring, authorisation, message switching, encryption key and PIN management, e-commerce and fraud management, and are developed and supported by a dedicated team of over 300 CTL specialists.

We have an exceptional record of delivering payment association-compliant solutions on budget and on time; we back up every implementation with a 24x7 global support service.

About DubaI Islamic Bank
Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB), established in 1975, is the first Islamic bank to have incorporated the principles of Islam in all its practices.

DIB is a public joint stock company and its share is quoted on the Dubai Financial Market. The bank enjoys a reputation as a leader and innovator in maintaining the quality, flexibility and accessibility of its products and services. In a very short space of time it has created market leading services and products that are setting benchmarks for the rest of the sector.

The bank’s recent financial results confirm the strength of its balance sheet and profitability. Figures for the year ending December 2004 reported a 36 per cent increase in net profits including depositors’ profits, to reach AED 1.02 billion (US$278 million) compared to AED 751 million (US$205 million) for 2003. The bank’s assets at the end of December last year had grown 35 per cent in the same period to AED 30.8 billion (US$8.3 billion), against AED 22.8 billion (US$6.2 billion) for the equivalent year previously.

DIB’s net profit (including depositors’ share) for the first nine months of 2005, reached AED1.465 billion (US$ 400 million), as against AED710 million (US$ 195 million) for the same period of last year, registering 106 per cent growth. The bank’s assets at the end of September 2005, rose AED5.3 billion (US$1.45 billion) to AED33.4 billion (US$9.1 billion), compared to AED28.1 billion (US$7.6 billion) at the end of September 2004.

The bank has been proactive in creating partnerships and alliances at local and international level. DIB has adapted an aggressive expansion strategy, which started with the establishment of DIB Pakistan Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of DIB. The bank has also co-managed Pakistan’s US$600 million first Sovereign Islamic bond issue that received a tremendous response from investors.

DIB opened its first representative office in Turkey to improve its access to that market. DIB has also acquired 60 per cent of its stake in Al Khartoum Bank and is also among the parents banks of Emirates and Sudan Bank (ESB), which recently completed its US$28.5 million IPO and was oversubscribed by more than US$224 million. The steps taken mark DIB’s ambitious plans to roll out its operations into regional and international markets as part of its overall strategic plan.

DIB has also shown its outstanding capabilities by being appointed to provide specialist financial solutions for huge developmental projects within the UAE, one of which led to the world record US$1 billion Islamic bond issue. The issue was arranged for the Government of Dubai’s Department of Civil Aviation to raise funding for the second phase of the expansion of Dubai International Airport. The bank also managed financing of US$350 million for Nakheel. The financing made further capital available to build on Nakheel’s blue chip portfolio of developments such as The Palm in Dubai.

CTL Contact:
Edith Kessler-Charalambous
General Manager Business Expansion
Edith.Kessler-Charalambous@ctl.com
Tel: +44 20 7761 7800
www.ctl.com
 

DIB Contact:
TimHarrison/Tarek Fleihan
ASDA'A Public Relations
Dubai, UAE
Tel: +971-4-3344550
Fax: +971-4-3344556
Email: info@asdaa.com

Any other information may be obtained from the Press Office

Tel: 0044 (0)20 7761 7800
email: PressOffice@ctl.com