Magnati to expand partnerships with around 28 fintechs in 2022

FAB's payments subsidiary has established itself as a market leader in government payments, merchant acquiring and prepaid cards, as well as a growing e-commerce segment.

Magnati, payments subsidiary of First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB), will be expanding partnerships with around 28 fintechs to strengthen and expand its Payment as a Platform strategy, said Ramana Kumar, chief executive officer, Magnati in an exclusive interview to Khaleej Times.

Kumar said: “We are exploring opportunities around new platforms like metaverse, a smart financing solution for SME merchants, a ‘face-pay’ solution which uses facial recognition, enhanced payment options for our e-commerce clients, among other cutting-edge services.We plan to expand geographically within the region, enabling more businesses to benefit from our best-in-class payment solutions.”

Magnati has been recognised by the industry, garnering accolades such as Best New Digital Payments Solutions Provider UAE 2021 by World Economic Magazine and Excellence in Payments at the Finnovex Awards.

Magnati’s vision is to transform ‘payments into possibilities’ for regional and global partners while setting a new standard for innovation and delivery in the payments industry. As a payments company, Magnati provides merchant acquiring, consumer payment solutions, government payment solutions, issuer processing, and acquiring processing services that deliver improved experiences and increased efficiency.

“We are focused on unlocking new growth opportunities for our consumer, government, merchant, and institutional clients. We acknowledge that offering pure-play payments processing alone will not help us achieve our vision. Therefore, complementing Magnati’s payments processing services is our next-generation ‘Payment as a Platform’ that provides a platform built on advanced technology, including AI, machine learning, and APIs, to drive value for our customers. We provide value to our customers on data and a single API integrated platform, thereby enabling us to be the App Store / Play store of payments,” said Kumar.

Magnati combines FAB’s scale, expertise, networks, and tech platforms with a new carve-out structure that allows for faster and more efficient innovation. FAB's payments subsidiary has established itself as a market leader in government payments, merchant acquiring and prepaid cards, as well as a growing e-commerce segment.

“2021 was a very strong year for Magnati. We achieved a total processed volume (TPV) growth of 46 per cent, including 46 per cent growth in a number of transactions. Supported by changing buying behaviours due to Covid-19 driving the adoption of digital payments, coupled with our value proposition and technology leadership, we achieved 39 per cent growth in new clients onboarded,” said Kumar.

Magnati — top player in the UAE for prepaid issuing and government payment solutions — issued more than 1.8 million prepaid cards and its third-party processing volumes grew by around 20 per cent.

Payments as an industry is going through continuous disruption. This disruption has created opportunities for forward-looking companies. The future of payments is all about being frictionless. Payments will no longer be transactional but instead, permeate multiple touchpoints across the customer journey. Frictionless commerce saves time and hassle for customers, creating new levels of convenience that will become an expectation. Instead of approaching this as an additional demand, merchants and corporates will do well to view this as a base for new revenue opportunities.

Using technology to improve the buying experience contributes to increased shopping frequency, repeat customers, and higher revenues. Magnati uses the latest technologies to help transform payment data into new ways of attracting customers and introducing products, thereby increasing sales for our merchant partners. Consumer demand for faster and more convenient payment options is driving interest in new payment options like digital wallets, pay-at-table technology and ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’.

“Magnati’s model allows merchants access to multiple solutions through a single API integration. With Payment as a Platform, changes or additional payment solutions do not require the initial technology project investment from the merchants as these are considered add-ons to the existing platform. The platform’s API functionality also enables fintechs to easily integrate and work with us, making it accessible to all of our merchant partners. The future lies in creating a single platform that can provide many options through custom API integration,” concluded Kumar.

— sandhya@khaleejtimes.com