BBN Report
Magnati now a fully-owned subsidiary of FAB
ABU DHABI/April 04-2021: First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB) on Sunday completed the carve-out of its existing payments business into a fully-owned and operational subsidiary.
The new brand name, Magnati, is built around energy, potential and partnerships, and underscores its mission to transform payments into possibilities.
An FAB statement said that as a rapidly growing and industry leading payments business operating in a buoyant market, Magnati will be able to unlock new growth opportunities through a focused and agile model, underpinned by an intelligent payments platform that creates value for customer, government, merchant and institutional clients.
This unique platform will enable clients to grow their core businesses by monetising data and using next generation technologies such as APIs, artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities to deliver improved experiences and increased efficiency.
Magnati platform
The Magnati platform will also provide enhanced capabilities to partner with FinTechs on product and service innovation. Magnati brings together four key business lines: a fast-growing acquiring business, strong and exclusive government solutions, and market leading consumer payments coupled with captive issuer processing business.
Through value-added services built around data and platform capabilities, Magnati’s customer-led value proposition is a strong differentiator, empowering customers to excel in the digital economy.
Magnati is set up on a strong base of market leadership in government payments, merchant acquiring, prepaid cards and growing e-commerce segment.
The payments company is currently positioned amongst the top two players in the UAE across direct acquiring, prepaid issuing and issuer processing.
$18 bn in transaction value
In 2020, the business served over 30,000 merchants and to date issued more than 2 million prepaid cards and processed approximately $18 billion in transaction value.
Leading market share and increased volume growth even during the pandemic are testaments to Magnati’s client relationships and differentiated customer value proposition.
Hana Al Rostamani (seen in the picture), Group Chief Executive Officer of FAB, said that the establishment of Magnati as a growing, agile and focused payments business comes at a time when the region’s transition to digital payments is accelerating.
“By creating a standalone entity with its own strategy, and a highly experienced management team, Magnati will be able to leverage its technology, data and customer relationships, further unlocking value for the company, FAB and its shareholders,” Al Rostamani said.
She said this is not only a key strategic milestone for FAB, but is also a watershed for the rapidly expanding payments industry. Magnati’s founding team brings an unmatched depth of payment, technology and data experience.
It will be led by Ramana Kumar, previously Group Head of Payments and Digital Banking at FAB, as the new CEO of Magnati supported by the leadership team across business, operations and technology.
