Kuwait: Zain, the leading digital service provider in Kuwait, signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Boubyan Bank, where both parties agree to collaborate on serving a comprehensive suite of business needs for startups and small and medium enterprises (SME) in the Kuwaiti market by offering Zain’s Z-HUB solutions and advanced financial services from Boubyan Bank’s B2B Marketplace.

The announcement was made during the MoU signing ceremony held at the Zain Innovation Campus (ZINC) at the company’s main headquarters in Shuwaikh, attended by Zain Kuwait’s Chief Enterprise Business Officer Hamad Al Marzouq, Chief Private Banking and Consumer Banking at Boubyan Abdullah Al Mejhem, and both partners’ executive management teams.

Through this MoU, Boubyan Bank will become a partner of Z-HUB, offering Zain SME customers a wide range of financial, banking, and e-payment services. Zain will also become a partner of Boubyan Bank’s all-new Marketplace platform, serving the bank’s SME customers by providing e-commerce, marketing, HR, location & online presence, insurance, tendering, Zain Business solutions, and more.

Commenting on the new partnership, Zain Kuwait’s Chief Enterprise Business Officer Hamad Al Marzouq said: “Today we welcome Boubyan Bank as part of the Z-HUB family to serve the local SME community. Having a leading bank like Boubyan to serve our customers’ financial and banking needs will strengthen our platform’s position as a comprehensive destination for startups and SMEs.”

Al Marzouq continued: “Since its early days, Zain has always enjoyed a solid ecosystem of strategic partnerships with leading companies and institutions, whether on the local, regional, or international levels. This made us the first destination to serve the technical needs of companies of all sizes. Today, we expand this ecosystem by partnering with Boubyan Bank to reinforce the portfolio of financial services we offer our SME customers, which feature the highest quality and security levels.”

Al Marzouq concluded: “Without a doubt, this step reflects our continuous efforts to grow our services portfolio for Kuwait’s SME community. Through this partnership, we are keen on solidifying Z-HUB in line with our digital transformation strategy that aims at empowering a more efficient business sector in the local market.”

Chief Private Banking and Consumer Banking at Boubyan Abdullah Al Mejhem said: “This agreement confirms the Bank's strategic partnership with Zain, which recently included several joint initiatives between the two parties.”

Al Mejhem continued: “The new agreement comes within the Boubyan B2B Marketplace platform, the first of its kind in Kuwait at the banking level, which aims to provide e-commerce services, financial consulting, accounting services, human resources, insurance, Zain Business services, and others to Boubyan customers through the online banking and the Boubyan corporate App, which serves SMEs.”

Al Mejhem asserted that Boubyan always seeks to provide the highest levels of service to customers, whether individuals or corporations, especially startups, from a strategy to facilitate all financial and banking transactions and provide them with the highest security standards, speed, and ease of use.

On the other hand, Al Mejhem asserted that from the outset, Boubyan Bank's management saw a focus on the SME sector as becoming an influential sector in the Kuwaiti economy and a vital supporter of the development and diversification of income sources. The Bank's senior management has decided that it is necessary to support their projects and diversify their opportunities towards greater innovation and creativity, stimulate their growth opportunities and help them start in various sectors and fields.

He noted that Business Banking at the bank is specifically designed to offer smart banking solutions that understand the needs of SMEs and offer them a variety of exceptional advantages that allow smooth and easy managing of many banking transactions with a wide range of easy-to-use and 24/7 banking services.

Al Marzouq and Al Mejhem with Zain and Boubyan officials

Euromoney Institutional awarded Boubyan the Best Kuwait Bank in SME Banking in recognition of its achievements in recent years in supporting SMEs and its outstanding contribution to placing them on the local economy map by providing them with seamless services that meet their business needs.

Boubyan Business Banking allows managing of the company's accounts, submission of applications, access to balances, access to account details, and implementation of many other online services such as transfer of employees' salaries, local and international transfer services, request of cheque books and audit certificates, access to details of all accounts, printing, and uploading of account statements, deposit service, etc.

The service also includes a quick and effortless transfer of employees' salaries and other incentives online, along with POS devices that facilitate the sale process in companies and makes it smoother and safer with all their available privileges. Boubyan also gives SMEs the benefits of a payment gateway designed for companies and retailers that enables them to manage online business transactions.

Z-HUB is an integrated hub where customers can find a variety of services tailored to meet the needs of SMEs in one user-friendly place to ensure the swift expansion of their business. Zain offers special and exclusive offers to its customers, tailored to every customer’s company, customer base, and business partners, ensuring efficiency and flexibility in their everyday operations.

The hub features tools and solutions in over six essential business areas, including e-commerce services and integrated platforms, where customers can manage their products with ease, marketing services, like analysis, strategies and branding customizable for every customer, HR services that aid business owners to manage their employees, location services to help customers get recognized on Google Maps and create an online presence, insurance services to provide consultation and risk assessment, tendering services to facilitate the tendering process across all sectors, as well as a wide range of tech services and tools from Zain Business.

Zain strongly believes in the crucial role played by private sector organizations in supporting social and economic sustainability projects, as well as further pushing the entrepreneurial community’s growth in the country. Springing from its growing commitment towards practicing its social responsibility, the company is committed to printing a positive print through all its activities. This has led Zain to embrace the most influential issues in the community, including the support of entrepreneurship and innovation.