From being the first Middle Eastern bank to adopt Samsung Pay, the National Bank of Ras Al Khaimah (RAKBANK) now also has the honor of being the first bank in the region to have engaged with a fintech platform targeting specifically the SME segment.
RAKBANK has partnered with Invoice Bazaar, a supply chain finance platform, becoming the fintech start-up’s first bank ‘receivable purchaser’. Invoice Bazaar, about a year old and present in the UAE, India and Singapore, connects large buyers with SME suppliers that enables SME suppliers to avail early payment on their receivables. The liquidity toward early payments is provided by receivable purchasers.
“This partnership is significant to us as we move toward further digitizing our offering to our business clients. This opens up a new channel in SME lending,” commented Peter England, CEO of RAKBANK, which offers Islamic financial services. It is understood that the bank is also seeking to broaden the partnership by exploring other potential synergies to optimize its invoice discounting portfolio.
The collaboration has so far seen the conclusion of one transaction; five supply chain finance programs are currently under implementation in the initial phase.