PayTabs, a provider of free online payment solutions for SMEs in the Middle East, has hired Shariyah Review Bureau (SRB) to help run its business in a shari’a compliant way.

PayTabs is aimed at addressing the needs of the smallest entrepreneurs and businesses who sell products and services online. SMEs in the GCC and elsewhere can use PayTabs payment systems even if they do not have a website with the comfort and security of payments being directly transferred into their bank accounts, a statement said.

PayTabs founder and CEO, AbdulAziz Al Jouf said: “Our hassle free offerings to businesses are distinguished by our customized, unique and integrated payment attributes.”

“This has allowed our organization to expand our payment collection services to multiple industries by providing simple solutions that virtually any entrepreneur no matter what the size of his business can participate in without complexity.

“Ensuring our businesses are running in a Shari’a compliant way is vital to an entrepreneur's success. And at PayTabs we want to ensure that all our activities are Shari’a compliant and here they [SRB] bring an extremely strong industry knowledge capability that will allow us to expand our platform and meet the demands of Shari’a conscious customers.

“We are delighted to have them as our Shari’a Advisors to guide us through the Islamic financial requirements and we look forward to playing a key role in developing the first of its kind Islamic online payment solution,” he added.

M Hassan Saduddeen, chief operating officer at PayTabs said: “As a rapidly growing business, we deal with several clients ranging from SMEs to corporate at any given time. And as we look at serving Ethical and Islamic customers of all sizes we saw that there was more to contend with especially in the case of achieving Shari’a Compliance and Certification.

“We decided to assign SRB to help execute our online payment transformation and invoicing solution in a Shari’a compliant manner.

“Our agreement with SRB increases our degree of confidence in meeting our internal Islamic business objectives and provides us greater flexibility to scale up our business as PayTabs grows," he added.

SRB will provide online payment structuring, documentation review, Shari’a Certification, customer query support and periodical Shari’a Audit’s to ensure PayTabs continues to operate in a Shari’a compliant manner.

“The broad-based strength is clear across the entire Middle East SME market, with growth expected almost everywhere we look," said SRB’s founder and CEO Yasser S Dahlawi.

“A typical challenge faced by almost all small businesses in the Middle East is how to scale up their businesses without adding significant overheads in building financial payment gateways. While banks and brokers do offer e-solutions at hefty prices it still remains a pipe-dream for most SME’s to have their own critical infrastructure in place for managing their payment flows. Here PayTabs’ expertise is expected to manage the financial relationship in a smooth and efficient manner without incurring huge setup costs." – TradeArabia News Service