Dubai, UAE, 25 May 2021: SIMAH, the Saudi Credit Bureau and Qarar, a leading regional credit risk and decision analytics company partner with Banque Saudi Fransi (BSF), a Saudi Arabian Joint Stock Company that offers Retail and Corporate banking services to provide BSF with credit risk management solutions covering data, advanced analytics, and automation, Analytics to design Application Scorecards as well as Advisory on BSF credit policies and customer product eligibility.

Banque Saudi Fransi seeks to utilise a credit scoring and decisioning system to provide credit card and micro finance agency banking products to consumers for their personal finance whitegoods purchases across retailers in the Kingdom with their new service buy now pay later. The aim is to create long-term personalized partnerships and loyalty through quality of service and innovative and customized financial solutions as a priority.

SIMAH, Qarar’s parent company will provide BSF with a hosted Decision Engine service, configured with their Risk Appetite Criteria, an application score designed by Qarar, Dual Matrices for Risk Grades, and a fully automated scoring and decisioning for an optimal customer journey.

BSF’s service buy now pay later is fully digital, supported by instant decisioning through SIMAH’s Hosted DecisionSmart decision engine, without any need for manual intervention.  It is a complete end-to-end cloud solution offered by SIMAH and implemented by Qarar.

The partnership will offer an optimized digital customer journey and low total cost of ownership as the overall proposition is a service hosted in cloud at SIMAH and fully compliant with data security and protection guidelines set by Saudi Central Bank (SAMA). SIMAH provides comprehensive credit information services and added value products in order to sustain and afford the highest level of stakeholder satisfaction. SIMAH and Qarar will make sure consumers get their financing as fast as possible using DecisionSmart.

Swaied Alzahrani, CEO of SIMAH, says: “SIMAH keeps maximizing its contribution to maintain financial system stability, improve credit quality, and initiate credit expansion, by developing services and products that confidently support all sectors. SIMAH also has realized that each sector has certain needs that require services with special attributes. This has led SIMAH to analyze each sector to develop specific added-value services that meet its business needs in order to ensure a sustainable business growth. “With BSF moving forward in the digital lending arena, we are glad to have delivered a robust lending solution covering data, advanced analytics, and automation. Supporting Saudi nationals, as we look ahead to the Kingdom’s 2030 vision, is a key priority and our overall solution provides risk grades, customer product eligibility and alternatives”.

Mohammad Alsheikh, Head of Retail Banking Group at Banque Saudi Fransi, says: “We were looking for a partner to help us go live quickly and support all our digital lending requirements, and SIMAH and Qarar were the perfect choice to provide the technology and expertise.  We have plan to successfully launch our product on the DecisionSmart that is fully developed on home by Saudi companies.”

Zaid Kamhawi, CEO of Qarar, points out: “With SIMAH expertise, we provide BSF with a hosted Decision Engine service which is fully configured with BSF Risk Appetite Criteria and our application score designed by the Qarar team.  What is unique about this project is the development of an optimal digital customer journey and low total cost of ownership as the overall proposition is a service hosted in cloud at SIMAH and fully compliant with data security and protection guidelines by SAMA. We hence provide a fully automated scoring and decisioning end to end for an optimal customer journey.”

The partnership provides analytics to design Application Scorecards (Expert model) and expert advisory services to align BSF’s credit policies with the new application score.

With seamless best practices in place and the strategic partnership between BSF, SIMAH and Qarar, other services like agency banking is introduced where BSF customers can bank with partners and agents of BSF who are conveniently located with easy access to banking services. SIMAH and Qarar will play an instrumental role in setting the data analytics benchmark for future digital lending platforms in the region.

Banque Saudi Fransi

SIMAH