Doha Bank Pioneers Qatar’s Digital SME FinServ

The world’s largest banks are facing growing pressure among regulators to increase their lending to small businesses, but the demand for SME financial services remains unfulfilled. That gap gives some of the smaller banks and alternative finance player a chance to secure a big segment of the market.

FinServ specialists have lately been eyeing Qatar, a financial hub in the Middle East and a rapidly expanding economy in the world. The nation’s Doha Bank, though, is showing the markets that the nation can innovate in the SME FinServ sector from within.

Reports published Wednesday (May 27) said Doha Bank has revealed the success of its innovative platform Tadbeer, a tool the bank says is Qatar’s first integrate cash flow management software service.

Tadbeer is an online platform that allows business customers to gain oversight and control of payment, collections, liquidity and other cash flow matters through a single source. It also offers a product called Doha SecureCash, which provides cash pick-up, as well as Doha SecureDoc, which offers document pick-up serices.

According to Doha Bank Group CEO Dr. R. Seetharaman, the service puts the control back in the hands of businesses.

“By providing customers direct, real-time access to their bank accounts and by centralizing their receivables and payables on one electronic banking system, Tadbeer empowers organizations across the business spectrum with unparalleled control of their cash management operations, allowing them to manage their cash flow faster and more efficiently,” he said in a statement.

Qatar has been a destination for foreign cash flow management solution providers, too. Electronic invoicing platform Tungsten Network, for example, revealed late last year that it has been certified to offer its invoicing services in Qatar, which recognize the invoices as legal documents.

“[Qatar] is one of the world’s fastest growing economies,” said Tungsten Corporation Group CEO Edmund Truell at the time, “and our expansion into Qatar was prompted by requests from a number of our customers who have identified it as an increasingly important market.”