bwallet and University of Bahrain collaborate on Fintech initiative

Manama, Kingdom of Bahrain: bwallet, the Kingdom of Bahrain’s leading digital mobile wallet and the first of its kind to provide peer-to-peer money transfer, recently rolled out an exclusive challenge for University of Bahrain students to design a new user interface for Bahrain’s most popular mobile wallet app - bwallet.

Speaking on the collaboration with the University of Bahrain, Mr. Shiraz Ali, Fintech CEO at AFS said: “We are delighted to engage with the bright, young minds at the University of Bahrain, and help them develop their creativity and problem-solving skillsets that will better equip them in future, particularly within the Fintech space. In line with AFS’ mission to foster the Fintech potential within the communities in which we operate, this competition is an exciting opportunity for students to showcase and apply their talent by designing the bwallet app’s new look and feel, and win exciting rewards. We look forward to seeing their ideas and inputs for bwallet’s new user interface.”

Running until 30^th November, the bwallet competition is open to all University of Bahrain students who can participate individually or in groups. The winner will be announced in December 2019.

bwallet, the Kingdom of Bahrain’s leading, consumer-friendly digital mobile wallet and the first of its kind to provide peer-to-peer money transfer, was launched in 2018 by Arab Financial Services (AFS), the region’s foremost Fintech enabler, in partnership with Batelco, Bahrain’s leading digital solutions provider. It has since been rolled out across thousands of leading retail businesses, cinemas, hotels, F&B and entertainment outlets throughout the Kingdom and is being utilised daily by an ever-growing customer base. bwallet users can simply scan a QR code for seamless transactions and enjoy quick, secure and easy cashless payments with exclusive benefits through their mobile phones.

Dr. Lamya Aljasmi, Dean of the College of Information Technology at the University of Bahrain said: “We are very excited to collaborate with AFS to engage University of Bahrain students in a design competition to develop the user interface of bwallet. These types of competitions are important means to expose students to real-life design activities that extend beyond the curriculum. The students will have the chance to engage in brainstorming, problem-solving, analysis, and design activities. The competition will encourage students to work in teams to adopt innovative techniques specifically in FinTech and develop new ideas and skills. The bwallet design competition will play a role in motivating students to excel, succeed and get them ready for the future. We are very passionate to see the new look of bwallet designed by University of Bahrain students.”

The bwallet app offers a host of attractive features. These include: International Money Transfer to Bangladesh, Egypt, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka and the United Kingdom; International Prepaid Mobile Top Up to any international prepaid mobile phone account in over 150 different countries; In-App Batelco Bill Payments enabling customers to buy Batelco Prepaid credit or pay Postpaid and fixed line bills; and Bill Splitting which allows users to divide costs of shared expenses so that everyone can pay their share instantly and accurately.

Further information about bwallet, its growing services portfolio, its offers and exclusive cashback promotions can be found by visiting Batelco.com. Download the free bwallet mobile app at GooglePlay or Apple’s App Store.

About AFS:

Established in 1984, Arab Financial Services (AFS) is the MEA region’s leading payment solutions provider and Fintech enabler.

The company offers innovative and end-to-end payment services and solutions that span card processing, merchant acquiring, Fintech and a state-of-the-art value-added services suite.

Focused on introducing innovative payment products and cutting edge Fintech solutions that support governments on their trajectory towards a digital economy, AFS can empower businesses by exploring and investing in superior technologies that help shape the future of financial experiences and how they are conducted: anytime, anywhere and anyhow.

In 2018, AFS introduced bwallet to the region - the first mobile wallet facilitating peer-to-peer and cashless transactions. Today, bwallet has established itself as the market leader with a significant user and merchant footprint across the Kingdom of Bahrain. EasyPay was another first from AFS - Bahrain’s first NFC payment service allowing payments with a tap of the mobile. Other innovations rolled out by AFS have been electronic KYC, Peer-to-Peer (P2P), Peer-to-Merchant (P2M), QR enabled payments, Tokenization, Remittance, WPS and Digital Banking solutions. 2018 also saw AFS launch merchant acquiring services to banks in both Bahrain and the Sultanate of Oman including end-to-end platform, settlement, eCommerce and integrated POS devices supporting contactless cards, NFC, QR and other forms of payment acceptance.

AFS serves over 75 clients across the financial sector in more than 21 countries. A subsidiary of Bank ABC, it is owned by 37 banks and financial institutions and regulated by the Central Bank of Bahrain.

AFS has offices and data centers in Bahrain, UAE and Oman, and was the first processor in the region to become Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) 3.2 certified.

Recipient of several global awards, AFS has most recently been recognized as of ‘The Most Innovative Fintech Solution Provider 2018’ at the GCC Enterprise Awards 2018 and ‘Best Payment Service Provider – Bahrain 2017’ by Global Banking and Finance Review. 

For further information visit www.afs.com.bh

© Press Release 2019