- Oman Arab Bank, BPC Celebrate 10-Year Partnership as Visa Tokenisation Goes Live
Oman Arab Bank and global payment solutions provider BPC are marking 10 years of partnership, celebrating a decade of card and payments modernisation that has strengthened the bank’s issuing and acquiring business in Oman.
The partnership has supported Oman Arab Bank’s transition from local card services to a broader modern card proposition, including contactless payments, instant card issuance and the recent rollout of Visa tokenisation.
The development positions the bank to offer more secure and digital-first payment experiences to customers as banking and commerce continue to shift towards faster, safer and more convenient electronic channels.
Oman Arab Bank said the modernisation has enabled it to connect seamlessly to local and international schemes, support settlement and reconciliation, and launch new debit card propositions faster.
The platform has also strengthened payment acceptance across the bank’s acquiring business, giving it greater scalability for future expansion.
For customers, the most visible benefits include internationally enabled cards, contactless payment options and faster card issuance, renewal and replacement through self-service channels.
With Visa tokenisation now in place, cardholders can make safer digital wallet and online payments because sensitive card details are replaced with protected tokenised credentials.
The bank has also broadened its premium card offering for affluent customers while making modern payment tools more accessible to retail users, improving convenience, flexibility and payment choice across its customer base.
Tariq AlZadjali, Chief Technology Officer of Oman Arab Bank, said the partnership with BPC has played an important role in the evolution of the bank’s cards and payments business.
“Our partnership with BPC has played an important role in the evolution of our cards and payments business over the decade,” he said.
“What started as a need to support international card issuing has become a broader transformation that has strengthened how we serve customers across Oman.”
He added that innovation at Oman Arab Bank remains centred on making banking faster, smarter and more accessible.
“The introduction of tokenisation and instant card issuance is another step in redefining convenience for customers, while reinforcing our vision of accessible banking,” he said.
Over the period, Oman Arab Bank expanded its acquiring capabilities to support Visa, Mastercard and American Express international schemes.
The bank also modernised card issuance and personalisation, introduced contactless cards and Visa Token Service integration, and secured processing across its ATM and point-of-sale networks.
The modernisation has allowed the bank to offer instant issuance through ATMs, enabling customers to issue, renew or replace cards and update PINs through self-service channels.
The service covers multiple card types, including Classic, Advantage, Platinum and Elite cards, as well as the Maal card, Oman’s new local card scheme sponsored by the Central Bank of Oman.
To comply with international and local scheme requirements, the bank also upgraded its Access Control Server environment.
Oman Arab Bank’s ATM and interactive teller machine network now supports a wide range of everyday services, including local and international fund transfers, utility bill payments, donations, cheque book requests, contact detail updates, PIN management, daily spending-limit changes, card payments and access to account statements.
Among the bank’s recent milestones, Visa tokenisation is expected to provide a stronger foundation for secure digital payments, smoother wallet-based payment experiences and readiness for future payment innovations.
The bank is also advancing work on Visa Click to Pay requirements linked to tokenisation, positioning it to expand further into e-commerce, digital-first checkout journeys and online payment experiences.
Usama El Sayed, Managing Director for the Middle East and Africa at BPC, said the company was proud to support Oman Arab Bank’s payments transformation journey.
“We are proud to celebrate the achievements with Oman Arab Bank and support the bank on its payments transformation journey,” he said.
“With SmartVista, OAB has gained a scalable and future-ready platform that continues to help the bank deliver secure, innovative and convenient payment experiences to customers across Oman.”
Looking ahead, the partnership is expected to expand beyond cards and payment modernisation.
Oman Arab Bank is currently working with BPC to extend security capabilities into digital banking, core banking and corporate systems.
The objective is to unify fraud monitoring on one platform instead of relying on multiple distributed systems, a move expected to strengthen risk management and customer protection across the bank’s operations.
The decade-long collaboration reflects the broader transformation of banking in Oman and across the region, where financial institutions are investing heavily in digital payments, tokenisation, self-service banking and fraud prevention.
For Oman Arab Bank, the partnership with BPC has provided the infrastructure to modernise customer payment experiences while supporting future innovation in e-commerce, digital wallets and secure card services.
For BPC, the milestone reinforces its position as a global payments technology provider serving banks, financial institutions and businesses across multiple markets.
Established in 1984, Oman Arab Bank became publicly listed on the Muscat Stock Exchange in July 2020 and operates a national network of branches, ATMs and cash deposit machines across the Sultanate.
BPC serves more than 500 customers in 140 countries, offering its SmartVista suite across digital banking, ATM and switching, payment processing, card and fraud management, financial inclusion, merchant portals, transport and smart city platforms.
The latest milestone signals that the OAB-BPC partnership has moved beyond basic card infrastructure into a more advanced phase focused on secure digital payments, tokenisation, self-service banking and integrated fraud monitoring.
As customer expectations continue to shift towards speed, security and digital convenience, Oman Arab Bank is positioning its payments infrastructure to support the next phase of banking innovation in Oman.
