UAE bank Mashreq sells $500m of Tier 2 bonds

United Arab Emirates bank Mashreq sold $500 million in Tier 2 bonds, a bank document showed, after a Saudi lender brought the region back to the international debt markets the previous day. The bonds, which have a maturity of 10-1/4 years and are non-callable for 5-1/4 years, were sold at 7.95%, tightened from initial guidance of about 8.25% after drawing more than $1.4 billion of demand.

The debt sale follows a $700 million bond deal by Banque Saudi Fransi, the first public dollar debt offering in nearly a month out of the oil-rich Gulf, where debt issuance has plummeted this year amid market volatility and as the region rides high on oil prices. They were the first Tier 2 bonds out of the UAE in nearly a decade and the first UAE bonds to meet Basel III international regulatory standards, a source with knowledge of the deal said.

Tier 2 bonds rank below senior debt but above subordinated Tier 1 bonds. Barclays was sole structuring adviser, as well as joint bookrunner alongside Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, Emirates NBD Capital, First Abu Dhabi Bank, Mashreq and Mizuho. Mashreq last tapped international debt markets in July, when it raised $300 million in Tier 1 bonds that attracted less demand than expected. -AFP

Invest Bank, a premier commercial bank in UAE, has selected Temenos to take its digital and core banking to the cloud, in partnership with NdcTech. Invest Bank will adopt an end-to-end retail and wholesale banking solution on the Temenos Banking Cloud, becoming one of the first in the UAE to adopt a full SaaS model for its digital and core banking platform.

The front-to-back capabilities of Infinity and Transact delivered as SaaS on Temenos' open platform for composable banking will enable Invest Bank to modernize legacy platforms, bring new products and services to market faster, as well as deliver more innovative customer experiences. Planned enhancements include instant on-boarding and origination with automated approvals based on AI-based rules. The bank will also use the Temenos platform to improve operational efficiency with increased automation and digitized workflows.

Established in 1975 as a public shareholding company, Invest Bank offers a wide range of financial products and services for corporate as well as retail banking. NdcTech's expertise on Temenos' modern platform on the cloud, accelerators of UAE regulatory and market practices, micro services and open API capabilities will help Invest Bank in its digital transformation.

The Cloud will provide elasticity to Invest Bank to meet growing customer demand, especially Gen-Z and millennials. Invest Bank intends to leverage Temenos' event-driven open-API architecture and extensibility framework to go beyond banking and create a lifestyle services platform.

Ammara Masood, CEO and President, NdcTech, said: "Our Project accelerators such as Country layer and expertise on Temenos Transact and Infinity on the cloud make us the right partner for this transformational engagement.

Temenos SaaS solution on the cloud will allow the bank to enhance its banking services with highly connected and personalized interactions for its existing and prospective customers while fuelling long term growth.

We are proud to be a Temenos implementation partner for the region's pioneering banks and hope to further extend our footprint in the years to come.