Path Solutions structure

Path Solutions is a global provider of technology solutions, consulting and outsourcing services, with particular focus on the Islamic finance industry. The firm is headquartered in Kuwait and operates research centres in Lebanon and Egypt, as well as in its home market.

Path Solutions is privately owned by investors in the GCC, Lebanon, Jordan and India. The firm’s chairman and chief executive officer, Mohammed Kateeb, joined in 2004 after working for 11 years as an executive at US software giant Microsoft Corporation. The company employs about 500 people worldwide and reported revenues of $30m in 2010.

Path Solutions operations

Path Solutions’ product portfolio includes software analysis, services and expertise for the following business segments: Islamic commercial banking; Islamic investment banking and funds management; Islamic retail consumer financing; conventional investment services and funds management; and consumer financing.

Path Solutions offers a range of Islamic IAS-compliant integrated solutions covering core banking, customer services management, investment banking, funds management, treasury and share trading in GCC and global capital markets.

The firm’s services are targeted mainly at sharia-compliant institutions, an area it perceived to be an underserved market segment, when it was established in the early 1990s.

It designs and develops comprehensive technology solutions to address the needs of banks and financial institutions at both global and regional levels. Path Solutions develops tailor-made systems, based on a modular approach, aiming to ensure full and seamless integration. One of its main product offerings is iMAL, an Islamic banking suite. The platform is based on sharia rules and offers Islamic financial institutions a comprehensive solution that addresses all their operational requirements on a single integrated system.

About 70 per cent of Path Solutions’ business is software licensing and the remaining 30 per cent is accounted for by professional services and consulting.

The company serves markets from Malaysia in the East to the UK in the West. It expects the Islamic finance sector to witness strong growth in Africa, Central Asia and China and it plans to extend its reach to those markets in the future.

Path Solutions’ 72-strong client list includes Ramallah-based Arab Islamic Bank, Bahrain’s Elaf Bank, Pakistan’s Bank Islami, Syria International Islamic Bank and Bahrain’s Gulf Finance House.

Path Solutions ambitions

Path Solutions aims to build on its strong market reputation as a supplier of information technology (IT) solutions to Islamic financial institutions, a market that is showing strong long-term growth.

It will continue to add new modules to its portfolio of solutions in response to strong customer demand. In terms of geographic expansion, the rise of Islamic banking in markets outside the Middle East and North Africa region will provide new avenues for Path Solutions to sell its products.

Some of Path Solutions’ more recent sales confirm a widening geographic reach. In January 2011, it won four new projects in West Africa. Banque Islamique du Senegal, Banque Islamique de Mauritanie, Banque Islamique de Guinee and Banque Islamique du Niger pour le Commerce et l’Investissement – banks owned and managed by Dakar-based Tamweel Africa – opted to align their core banking systems with Path Solutions’ iMAL suite. The system will also be used at the new affiliates that Tamweel Africa is looking to establish in Mali, Benin and Gambia.

Inevitably, as its clients’ sophistication increases, Path Solutions will be forced to extend the range of its offerings, moving more into business intelligence and risk management and peripheral systems.