Vendorcom Middle East Welcomes First Member

Manama - Kingdom of Bahrain, 30 May 2007

Vendorcom, the international cards and payments community, has welcomed Arab Financial Services, AFS, as its first member as it drives forward its plans to set up in the Middle East.

Vendorcom is a membership organisation, originating in the UK, representing key stakeholders in the cards and payments industry. Its primary purpose is to promote communication, knowledge sharing and best practice, thus enabling cards and payments systems and services providers to offer the most effective and secure payment processing solutions to merchants of all types.

The UK membership includes such international organisations as ACI, Ambiron Trustwave, American Express, HSBC, IBM, Hypercom, Postilion, Royal Bank of Scotland and Thales.

Vendorcom Chairman, Mr. Paul Rodgers, has made a strong commitment to the Middle East market; “I am determined to see the good model we have established in the UK extended to other regions. The proposal to launch Vendorcom Middle East has been warmly welcomed across the region and it is anticipated that a majority of the leading organisations involved in providing cards and payment processing solutions will join over the next few months.”

Welcoming Vendorcom in the region, Mr. Rasool Hujair, Chief Executive Officer – AFS, said; “The decision to join Vendorcom Middle East was straightforward; Vendorcom offers the opportunity for all organisations who are committed to best practice and innovation to work together to achieve higher standards and demonstrate that we are credible, well informed, competitive organisations.” Mr. Martin Williamson, Head of Business Development – AFS, added; “We are proud to be the first member of Vendorcom Middle East, AFS is committed to working together with Vendorcom and other service providers to make a positive contribution to the regional cards and payments industry.”

Mr Rodgers, in welcoming AFS as Vendorcom’s first member in the region recalled the launch of Vendorcom in the UK almost 4 years ago, saying; “the first few members were taking a big step of faith and I am grateful to them. Even though the track record of Vendorcom is well established I am no less appreciative of the commitment that AFS is making in joining Vendorcom Middle East. Every new member that joins the community helps shape the community and widens its perspective on the sector and I know that AFS will make a big contribution to the life of Vendorcom.

Vendorcom Middle East was formally launched in Bahrain on the 29th May 2007 with a Cards and Payments Thought Leaders Forum at the Ritz Carlton hotel, bringing together many of the key influencers and decision makers in the region. Vendorcom, which runs quarterly conferences and a wide range of ‘special interest groups’ in the UK plans to hold at least three conferences each year for members in the Middle East, the first of these will be in Bahrain on Monday 25th June 2007.

Commenting about what makes Vendorcom unique, Mr Rodgers emphasised, “It is essential that Vendorcom is not seen as simply another conference company; the essence of Vendorcom Middle East will be that like-minded people and their organisations commit to each other and the cards and payments sector as a whole, working together to bring new initiatives to market more effectively.”

Vendorcom’s activities address all the challenging issues facing the international community involved in cards and payments processing and will enable new initiatives such as EMV card payments and the PCI Data Security Standard to be discussed and applied in an appropriate way in the region.

For more information on the benefits of membership of Vendorcom Middle East please contact Paul Rodgers, Chairman – Vendorcom at paul.rodgers@vendorcom.com