AFS taps Brankas for new partnership

Singaporean fintech firm, Brankas, has been selected by Arab Financial Services (AFS), the leading fintech enabler and digital payment solutions provider in the Middle East and Africa (MENA) to supply advanced open finance infrastructure in the MENA region.

The API capabilities supplied by Brankas will be used on the AFS platform to empower fintech platforms to offer critical financial services such as payroll disbursement, account-to-account payments, credit scoring and new bank account openings. The partnership is aimed at making financial services more accessible across the region including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Bahrain.

In 2016, Brankas was established as an open finance technology company with a developed network across the Asia-Pacific region. Brankas’ expertise in embedded finance and banking-as-a-service has enabled the company to partner with over 100 enterprise partners, to increase financial inclusion in the region’s top financial institutions. Through the partnership with AFS, Brankas will extend its already established open finance practices to promote more inclusive financial services in the MENA region.

The Central Bank of Bahrain launched the Bahrain Open Banking Framework (Bahrain OBF) in 2020 to ensure the implementation of open banking services. The framework includes operational guidelines, security standards and guidelines, technical open API specifications, customer experience guidelines, and an overall governance framework that protects customer data. Brankas’ partnership with AFS marks its entry into new markets in MENA and positions the company to establish a global open finance network following successful partnerships with Visa, CRIF, among others in 2022.

Todd Schweitzer, the CEO and Co-founder of Brankas, stated that the new partnership presents a chance for the company to refine its open finance proficiency in a fresh market. Financial inclusion underpins the company’s operations and the opportunity to collaborate with AFS to improve the availability and quality of financial services for people in MENA is welcomed.