(MENAFN- Gulf Times) Doha Bank has partnered with UnionPay International to become the first issuer of UnionPay cards in Qatar.
Doha Bank and UnionPay International entered into a strategic relationship through an MoU signing in Doha yesterday.
The agreement was signed by Wenchao Shi, president of China UnionPay, and Dr R Seetharaman, Doha Bank Group CEO, in the presence of Li Chen, Chinese ambassador.
The event was attended by a delegation of senior executives from prominent Chinese banks, as well as senior Doha Bank executives.
UnionPay is a fast-growing bank card network, serving the world's largest cardholder base. The strategic alliance with UnionPay is yet another affirmation of Doha Bank's position as the partner of choice amongst global and regional payment players.
Doha Bank said it was also the "pioneer" in launching card acceptance for UnionPay cards in Qatar across its wide network of ATMs and merchant point of sales network.
This relationship will allow prospective cardholders to freely transact in more than 150 countries and regions including China, without worrying about restricted acceptance and unsatisfactory exchange rates.
Seetharaman said: "We are proud to have established this pioneering partnership with UnionPay International and to be the first Qatar-based bank to do so. This new agreement proves that Doha Bank is committed to creating sustainable long-term partnerships. China continues to be a strategic growth market and with a representative office already present in China, Doha Bank continues to focus on creating trade passageways between China and the GCC region.
"We believe that economic growth comes from increasing productivity. Most increases in productivity result from education, research, and innovation - the activities that mark high-performing countries such as China. And this agreement is a live example of the synergy in business and the shared vision for success."
Expressing gratitude to Doha Bank for its strong support for the UnionPay card business Shi said, "UnionPay will look to accelerate the card issuing project of Doha Bank to witness substantial progress, which not only provides new payment choices for local residents, but also accelerates the development of the local financial services industry."
Shi said UnionPay was looking forward to enlarging its co-operation with mainstream institutions in the Middle East market, expanding the acceptance scope of UnionPay cards, increasing the card-issuing scale and achieving breakthroughs in such innovative businesses as online payment and mobile payment.
Suresh Bajpai, Doha Bank head (Retail Banking) said: "Doha Bank now has widespread associations with the biggest international payment networks and bank card organisations, which makes us the only bank in Qatar to boast of major global bank card issuance relationships.
"We currently issue cards in Qatar, the UAE, Kuwait and India in respective local currencies. We are proud to claim the leading bank partner tag for the world's biggest payment networks. It gives us immense pleasure to be the partner of choice for national networks of both China as well as India, which gives our cardholders access to the two fastest-growing and most populous countries on the planet."
"Doha Bank is proud to say that it is the leader in Qatar when it comes to the sheer range of card products offered to customers, with an extensive array of purpose-built cards covering credit, debit, co-branded cards as well as payroll cards," he added.
Qatar Re earns H1 net profit of $13.4mn
Qatar Re has earned a net profit of $13.4mn in the first half of this year compared with $16mn in the same period last year, the company said yesterday.
The multi-line reinsurer earned a gross underwriting income of $40.4mn in the first half of this year compared with $28.1mn in the same period last year.
In the first half of this year, the company saw a growth in gross written premiums to $463.6mn, up 42% on the same period in 2014, Qatar Re said in a release yesterday.
Qatar Re said it "continues on its growth path despite the current oversupply in reinsurance capacity."
Qatar Re chief executive officer Gunther Saacke said, "Robustly positioned in the increasingly challenging market environment Qatar Re continues to benefit from a strong and fully committed capital base. Our strategy mix is responding well to the sharply increasing volatility in the general economic environment as to the continuously aggravating mismatch of demand and supply that is prevailing especially in the capital intense sectors of our industry.
"The combination of class intimacy, proximity to our business partners and uncompromised focus on the disciplines of managing and controlling risk forms the bedrock of our successful development to date and into the future."
Having engaged in a radical, fully comprehensive transformation from a regional follower into a full-fledged global reinsurer, the company achieves controlled portfolio growth across three generic types of practice and product delivery.
At less than 20% of its total portfolio, the firm's presence in the commodity and transactional market accounts for the smallest of these three areas, with price adequacy and portfolio efficiency being the most critical value drivers.
A second generic type of business that makes up for some 30% of the book is focussed on insurance entrepreneurs, including Lloyd's Syndicates. Best described as project-based opportunities here, Qatar Re provides proportional capacity.
The value drivers in this segment are privileged access to business, superior product know-how, innovative distribution or a combination thereof. Almost half of the company's growth over the last 12 months was generated in this area. Finally, Qatar Re serves the markets where clients have outstanding technical capabilities and require corresponding levels of technical expertise and speciality lines know-how on the part of their reinsurer. Generally less price sensitive than the highly commoditised product classes, here the added value is driven by class specific expertise delivered in close co-operation with Qatar Re's business partners, its clients and brokers.
Successfully operating across these three types of practice, Qatar Re continues to follow its growth path, effectively defying the adverse trends in what has become a notoriously deteriorating "soft market".
Qatar Re expects that the current trading conditions characterised by excess capacity and low interest rates will persist in the coming renewals.
The company said it will continue to drive forward its diversification strategy by line of business and geography. It will further de-emphasise standard property and casualty risks and sharpen its focus on knowledge-intensive speciality (including liability) business.
Qatar Re intends to strengthen its presence in Asia and in the Americas, while maintaining its footprint in Europe and the Middle East. Overall, the company will offer more capacity per line and lead quotations on important large placements.
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