Path Solutions gains two new takers of iMAL core banking system
Path Solutions gains new clients for iMAL core system
Path Solutions is implementing its flagship core banking offering, iMAL, at Summit Bank in Pakistan and Wifack International Bank in Tunisia. The contracts were signed in December and the roll-out is underway.
Summit Bank
Pakistan-based Summit Bank is implementing iMAL as it looks to grow its Islamic banking presence.
Summit Bank was searching for a new solution for about a year – an RFP was floated in December 2014 – and finally settled for iMAL in December 2015.
Five vendors vied for the contract, it is understood: Path, Misys, Temenos, Oracle FSS and Autuosoft Dynamics (a local supplier).
“As one of the most complex core banking transformations in Pakistan, including the challenges of parallel conventional and Islamic banking operations, the selection process was extensive,” comments Syed Muhammad Anwar Lutfullah, group head of IT and payment system at Summit Bank.
iMAL will be installed at the bank’s head office in Karachi and rolled out across 192 domestic branches. It will support key banking functionalities such as Islamic profit calculation, Islamic treasury, trade finance, fixed assets, conventional deposits, conventional loans and conventional treasury, business intelligence (BI) and risk management.
Summit Bank is a medium-sized player and among the fastest growing institutions in the country. It was created in 2010/11 via a merger of three domestic players: Atlas Bank, Mybank and Arif Habib Bank.
Atlas Bank had an unsuccessful attempt to implement Temenos’ T24 system back in 2007, Mybank was using Misys’ Equation and Arif Habib Bank had the Hplus core system from a small local provider, Bilogic, and the Autobanker treasury module from the aforementioned Autosoft Dynamics.
Wifack International Bank
Wifack International Bank (WIB) is the first iMAL taker in Tunisia.
It is a new entity, formed after its predecessor, El Wifack Leasing, was granted an Islamic banking licence in 2015.
It is known that Path’s iMAL won out over four other shortlisted systems, which were tested from a technical and financial position.
WIB’s general manager, Mohammed Mellousse, comments that providing “modern Shari’ah compliance” was a key driver behind the decision to opt for iMAL. “It will usher in a new era whether in Shari’ah compliance or in the modernisation of our banking operations,” he says.
