Fair Isaac Expands TRIAD in ME
Fair Isaac Corporation has signed an agreement with Arab Financial Services Company (AFS) expanding the global reach of Fair Isaac’s TRIAD adaptive control system in Middle East markets.
As a leading provider of electronic payments and consumer finance outsourcing services in the region, AFS has selected Fair Isaac’s TRIAD system to offer credit card issuers in the Middle East enhanced portfolio management services. Based in Bahrain, AFS will integrate the TRIAD system with its processing platform to help network issuers more effectively manage risk, and design and execute more profitable account-level strategies in credit line management, authorizations, collections, reissue, marketing and pricing.
AFS currently provides payment card processing services to more than 50 banks and financial institutions across the Middle East, North Africa, Europe and South Asia. A leading financial institution in Saudi Arabia will become the first card issuer to process its credit card portfolio through the TRIAD system at AFS in early 2007.
Arab Cellular Rates: Highest & Lowest
A new report from the Arab Advisors Group, “Cellular Rates in the Arab World: A Regional Comparison,” analyzes the cellular tariffs for 42 cellular operators in 19 Arab countries including Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, UAE and Yemen. In order to allow for comparisons, the report focuses on the average cellular rates of these countries’ operational cellular providers.
Sudan and Lebanon have the most expensive average postpaid cellular connection fees in the Arab world while Qatar and Sudan have the highest prepaid average connection fees excluding initial balances built into the purchased lines. Lebanon’s cellular operators charge the highest prepaid average minute rates in the region, while Mauritania’s operators charge the highest postpaid average minute rate. The UAE and Yemen lie on the other extreme, having the region’s most affordable average prepaid minute rate and average postpaid minute rate respectively.
The Arab Advisors Group also conducted an analysis of cellular rates relative to the wealth of the country in a regional context. The Gulf countries of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE have low cost rates, relative to the examined countries’ GDP per capita. Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Palestine and Sudan have high cost cellular rates relative to the examined countries’ GDP per capita. Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Syria, Tunisia and Yemen’s rates are fair relative to their GDP per capita.
Increased competition in Arab cellular markets is driving operators into adopting billing per second or fractions of a minute. As of July 2006, an array of 17 different billing methods were in use by 41 cellular operators in the 19 covered Arab countries. The traditional and most profitable, per minute billing, is the most common billing method. It is utilized in 36 percent of postpaid billing methods and 27 percent of prepaid billing methods. Per second billing, which offers the best value for end users, is the basis for a total of 16 postpaid and prepaid plans in the Arab world.
“Arab Advisors Group’s analysis showed that for postpaid average per minute rates, peak and off peak, Mauritania has the highest tariffs at $0.28 per minute, followed by Libya, Morocco, Lebanon, Palestine and Tunisia, Algeria and Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Qatar, Kuwait and Sudan, Bahrain, Syria, Iraq, Oman and UAE, Egypt, and finally Yemen at $0.04. The regional average postpaid average minute rate was calculated to be $0.11,” said Serene Zawaydeh, an Arab Advisors Group consultant.
She continued, “For prepaid average minute rates, peak and off peak, Lebanon has the highest tariffs at $0.46, followed by Morocco, Mauritania, Egypt, Palestine, Algeria, Syria, Qatar and Libya, Tunisia and Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Jordan, Sudan and Iraq, Bahrain and Yemen, and finally the UAE at $0.08. The regional average prepaid average minute rate was calculated to be $0.18.”
