The Benefit Company's board is recommending a dividend of 25 per cent on its share capital after seeing profit move ahead last year.

The Bahrain-based company, which provides services to financial institutions saw, net profit up 7 per cent from BD1.238 million to BD1.323 million ($3.5 million).

Chairman Abdul Razak Abdulla Al Qassim said that although 2010 was not an easy year the company still managed to proceed and progress successfully.

"The company focused during the year on its current services portfolio performance and quality in addition to new strategic projects," he said

"The company has replaced its network infrastructure with a Multiprotocol Label Switching which is a state-of-the-art technology enhancing Benefit's network reliability and availability.

"The company has been appointed by the Central Bank of Bahrain to take over Bahrain's national project of Bahrain Cheque Truncation System (BCTS) revolutionising the clearing process to be within the same day. Such a project positions us as the clearing house for cheque payments."

He predicted the company success would continue this year with the launch of the BCTS project in the second quarter of the year.

"The corporate credit reference bureau is another strategic service that will be launched this year which will enrich the information available for credit analysis and risk management and accordingly increase the efficiency of the credit risk department in the banks," he added.

"Another major project in 2011 is the enhancement of our Switch infrastructure by upgrading the ATM switch application software," said Al Qassim.

"The company is continuously focusing on added value services that benefit the financial institutions in Bahrain and we are satisfied with these results and are ready to move forward," said chief executive officer Abdulwahid Janahi.-TradeArabia News Service