After opening its office at The Gate in the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) in April 2008, SmartStream has achieved notable success with several leading financial institutions in the region including Finance House (Abu Dhabi), National Bank of Kuwait, Bank Muscat and Commercial of Bank Kuwait. The company, which was acquired by DIFC Investments in November 2007, has quickly established itself as a trusted partner to the Middle Eastern financial industry. More than 25 organisations in the GCC banking industry rely on SmartStream's TLM solutions to deliver visibility and control to their operations.

SmartStream offers a competitive advantage to regional banks and financial services providers throughout the Middle East and North Africa region through software solutions that automate middle and back office processes. By implementing SmartStream Transaction Lifecycle Management (TLM) solutions organisations will significantly reduce their operational risks while decreasing processing costs and improving customer service.

To further expand its operations, SmartStream has also appointed two new distribution partners, AMFCO International and Bahwan CyberTek, which will work closely with the Dubai office. AMFCO, an established company with more than 90% of the Pakistani market as customers, will allow SmartStream to expand its footprint within the regional markets. AMFCO will offer full sales, services and support, for SmartStream's reconciliations solutions.

Bahwan CyberTek, which has an established and extensive presence throughout the GCC countries, will support SmartStream by focusing on the company's reconciliations and trade finance solutions. "We are pleased to be working with SmartStream. Given our long and successful record in the payments space for banks and government we believe that our combined forces will deliver greater value and success for our customers", said Raju Ramesh, Chief Operating Officer, Bahwan CyberTek.

"We have quickly established SmartStream successfully in the Middle East and are working with some of the fastest growing and most innovative financial organisations. With new partnerships and new customers within the GCC we are seeing significant interest in our range of TLM solutions such as Cash Management. We are also examining how SmartStream's market leading reconciliations solutions can deliver greater control and visibility to Credit Card and ATM reconciliations, as well as reconciling internet banking and utility bill payments for firms in the region," said Christian Schiebl, Regional Director EMEA, SmartStream Technologies.

Pritesh Kotecha, Sales Director Middle East, SmartStream Technologies, added: "SmartStream has had a remarkable first year with significant interest in our reconciliations, cash management, trade finance and trade process management solutions. We have taken great effort to ensure our solutions match GCC market needs and working with local firms to deliver new types of solutions based on our proven technology. Being based out of Dubai has also proved to be an important differentiator, providing local sales, support and professional services."