Manama, Kingdom of Bahrain – Arab Financial Services (AFS) has today announced that it is powering the newly launched Prepaid Cards offering from ila Bank, Bahrain’s leading digital, mobile-only bank.

Developed, in part, by AFS, ila’s Prepaid Cards are features-led and give users digital payments flexibility, convenience, and the highest standards of security. As the Middle East and Africa region’s leading digital payment solutions provider and fintech enabler, AFS has partnered with ila Bank since the Bank’s establishment in Bahrain in 2019, supporting it with payments technology co-innovation to boost digital banking penetration in the Kingdom.

Mohamed Al Maraj, ila Bank CEO said: “As the region’s fast growing digital, mobile-only bank, we are committed to offering innovative digital banking products that cater to different market segments and thereby drive financial inclusion in the country. Not only is this part of our support of Bahrain’s vision for a cashless society, but also key to our technology-led approach to payments. We work with like-minded partners such as AFS to deliver a diverse range of versatile, convenient, and secure payment products that address the varying banking needs of our customer community.”

ila Bank’s Prepaid Cards are loaded with benefits and Insurance products (Schengen Medical Insurance and Travel Medical Insurance) that add to the attractive product value to customers. These seamless and highly secure cards offer customers full control of their transactions through the ila app, including the ability to set a limit for retail transactions, whether POS or e-commerce, ATM cash withdrawals, as well as the number of transactions each day. In addition, customers may enable or disable contactless and internet transactions as needed.

Samer Soliman, AFS Chief Executive Officer, said: “AFS is proud of the successful rollout and exceptional performance of ila Bank’s prepaid card solution. To date, AFS has successfully rolled out ila Bank’s ATM enabling, debit and credit card processing and mobile application integration and services. This list has been expanded to include ila’s prepaid card solution, which underscores AFS’s position as the preferred payments partner for banks, fintechs, and financial institutions across the region. We have a long history of working with ila, and our close collaboration has enabled us to offer a unique product that we are confident will fulfill customers’ expectations.”

Regulated by the Central Bank of Bahrain, and majority-owned by Bank ABC, AFS boasts numerous ground-breaking end-to-end digital payment services and solutions. These span debit, credit, and Islamic card processing, merchant acquiring, fintech, and a suite of state-of-the-art value-added services. Providing the highest quality payments solutions that are trusted by businesses, AFS has offices and data centers in Bahrain, Egypt, Oman, and the UAE. Its dedication to innovation has positioned AFS as a driving market force delivering a rich portfolio of payment solutions including popular digital mobile wallets, market-leading merchant acquiring services, Bahrain’s leading digital payroll solution, global contact centers and more.