Challenge faced by the client

A leading Islamic bank in Kuwait, had strong aspirations to grow its historically low risk but profitable lending portfolio. This bank previously had a prudent approach in both acquisition and portfolio growth. Looking ahead as part of its new growth strategy, the bank wanted to grow the portfolio significantly within its defined risk appetite.

 

Why the client came to Qarar

The bank wished to conduct an assessment of its collection and recovery function in preparation for the expected increase in the portfolio size and the probable increased flow of accounts into collections. In addition, the bank also wanted to identify how well its collection function was performing compared to the industry and how this function benchmarked against regional and global standards for specific collections performance metrics.

 

The solution provided by Qarar

Qarar has developed a comprehensive diagnostic solution that addresses the client’s concern in the form of a Healthcheck. The Healthcheck is a process to assess if a particular function is performing as expected or if there are areas of potential improvement.

The Healthcheck can be conducted on any function and follows the Qarar defined approach which looks at four specific areas: the client’s Operations, Policy, Information and Technology (OPIT). Qarar’s consultants worked through the four areas by meeting with stakeholders within the bank, who were accountable for specific functions or tasks in order to fully understand how specific activities were being managed and conducted. Qarar then made an assessment of the effectiveness of these tasks conducted within each OPIT component, including stating which activities were undertaken correctly. All areas for improvement were documented, justified and presented back to the bank in a comprehensive report that also included Qarar’s assessment of the priority of the recommendation based on the consultants’ view on the benefits and ease of implementation.

 

Benefit to the client

The review gave the bank the assurance that it was looking for in relation to proceeding with  its growth aspirations. The bank also saw improved efficiency in collection with reduction in cost.