• Collaboration focuses on moving towards advancing financial inclusion and digital transformation enhancing the lives of underserved individuals and MSMEs
• Mint Research expects SMEs in the UAE to reach one million by 2030
• SMEs contribute 63.5% to non-oil GDP
• Mint targets 5.8 million people from the workforce
• Over 10 years, Mint has served over 600,000 customers and partnered with 6,000 telco merchants

Dubai, UAE (May 17, 2024): Mint, one of the leading payment solutions providers with its own distribution channels across the United Arab Emirates, has entered into partnership with S2M as part of its expansion plans.

Mint has embarked on a long-term partnership with S2M to introduce a modular core banking platform that prioritizes API-first architecture, cloud-agnostic capabilities, and high configurability.

Commenting on the partnership, Abdulrazzaq Al Abdullah, Chairman & CEO of Mint Group said, “The company’s focus under this partnership is on moving towards advancing financial inclusion and digital transformation, enhancing the lives of underserved individuals and Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) across the region.”

He said, in collaboration with S2M, the company has taken a significant stride to a mission to establish innovative Digital Banking Services and aims to deliver cutting-edge solutions that reduce the cost of living for individuals and drive economic growth for businesses.

Abdulrazzaq Al Abdullah further mentioned that Mint picked S2M as partner on the basis of shared values of customer-centricity, flexibility, and their result-oriented track record. He said, Mint and S2M are like-minded managements. Under this collaboration, existing financial solution systems will be revamped with the latest cloud-native electronic payment technologies of S2M, having served over 200 financial institutions globally, demonstrating its commitment to innovation and reliability.

Expressing his views, Mohamed Amarti, Executive Vice President at S2M said, “This collaboration aims to provide flexible solutions that instill confidence, trust, and comfort ensuring seamless integration and empowering users with innovative banking experiences.”

According to Ernst & Young (EY), there were 557,000 SMEs in 2022, with approximately 366,000 SMEs in the mainland as per Mint's research and expected to grow to one million SMEs in the UAE by 2030.

As per the CBUAE annual report 2022, SMEs contribute 63.5% to the non-oil GDP and represent 94.4% of companies operating in the UAE, while 85% of the underserved SMEs (mainland) represent the potential addressable market for Mint. EY's study reveals that 62% of SMEs express a need for faster credit, 72% are interested in trusted advisory services, 75% desire swift digital onboarding, and 75% want their providers to excel in the basics.

Similarly, from the retail perspective, the UAE boasts a vibrant population, yet a significant portion struggles to access financial services across a fragmented ecosystem of FIs. With a population of 10 million in 2022, approximately 65% are part of the workforce, of which 5.8 million represent Mint's target market for advancing financial inclusion through hyper-personalized offerings. Of the seven million bank customers, a mere two million have access to credit facilities, with a stark absence of innovative credit models. Mint's research has identified key challenges facing the industry, include fragmented products and services, inconsistent processes, high costs to banks, insufficient advisory services, and limited access to credit facilities. Mint stands poised to address these challenges and reimagine the way it provides services, offering add-on services that meet evolving needs.

With Mint's extensive experience spanning over a decade in payment processing, the company embarked on a transformative journey in 2020, divesting its business to pave the way for a fresh start. Now, as a greenfield company, Mint finds itself at a unique juncture, brimming with opportunities to reimagine the future of financial services. Drawing from its illustrious past, which includes serving over 600,000 customers and partnering with 6,000 telco merchants in the acquiring space, Mint stands ready to innovate and lead the way forward.