M U H A M M A D A M E R M U H A M M A D A K R A M

Phone: +971-50-6166028Email: amer.akram@gmail.com

D I R E C T O R A top-performing director and card management system expert with 14+ years of experience in identifying and presenting innovative solutions for banks and financial organisations. Exceptional technical skill set and ability to manage complex global projects that deliver payment options throughout the UAE. Dedicated leader who builds relationships with key stakeholders in order to deliver the best outcomes.

AREAS OF EXPERTISE

Card Management Systems Authorization & Switching Personalization Systems Acquiring / Issuing

Migrations Projects

Product & Market Strategy Merchant Settlements Product Management Process Improvements mPOS / mWallet

Visa & MasterCard Networks

Acquiring & Issuing Hosts Payment Scheme Certifications Payment Scheme Simulator Diners / Discover , Amex

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

NATIONAL BANK OF ABU DHABI, ABU DHABI, UAE 2012 – PRESENT

ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR - NEW INITIATIVES & SUPPORT SERVICES

Develop and implement the product strategy for the Merchant Acquiring, Issuing and Loyalty product range of the bank. Collaborate efforts with the marketing and sales teams in order to effectively deploy the strategy and enhance existing products to generate more revenue such as Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC), mPOS, Loyalty Management System, and First Data Migration. Direct the ongoing lifecycle management of products, ensuring the continued competitiveness in the market. Introduce new products and extensions on a routine basis. Drive innovative products across business lines. Manage end-to-end business case development, project management, and team coordination. Responsible for customer specific proposition development process within NBAD, as well as establishing new relationships that have the potential to identify new client opportunities. Perform customer segmentation reviews to continually improve the manner in which NBAD products and services are sold. Manage external vendors to ensure formal contracts are in place and the contracts contained detailed SLA.

Select Accomplishments: Realigned the Support & Services unit to enhance processes and procedures to support UAE. Developed and updated an Acquiring “Dashboard” detailing KPI’s and key monthly metrics. Developed a mechanism to review the Interchange paid to payment scheme which benefit in identifying

the best possible rates provided to Merchants Additional achievements:

o Mercury Scheme Acquiring through Network International.o Migration of Loyalty Platform for Debit and Credit Product to First Data Platform.o Migration of ATM to First Data Platform.o Migration of Credit / Debit to First Data Platform as a key team membero Easy Payment Plan on POS o Al Futtiam Project for Issuance and Acquiring ( Co-Brand Card)o DLL Integration for Major NBAD Merchants including ADCOOP , AD Police, ADJDo System Upgrades ( Postilion / TSYS) o EMV Upgrades to be compliant with PCI / Payment Schemes

Muhammad Amer Muhammad Akram Resume, Page 2

THE COMMERCIAL BANK OF QATAR DOHA, QATAR 2004 - 2012SENIOR CARDS SYSTEM ANALYST, Manage business critical real-time cards systems to proactively identify and resolve problems. Interact with payment scheme for upcoming cards project and documentation for the related certification project. Lead Annual Disaster Recovery testing and BCP planning, as well as analyse the technical needs for development and improvement of cards applications. Research, plan, install, configure, troubleshoot, and maintain cards systems and related software interfaces. Analyse POS network and involved systems in order to implement systems for better performance. deliver loyalty system upgrades and enhancements. Maintain compliance with departmental policies (i.e. change management, IT security standards, release management, incident management and PCI DSS).

Select Accomplishments: National Bank of Oman Credit Card Migration from AFS to Commercial bank Certified bank’s acquiring and issuance system with the Payment Scheme to accept and issue NBO Credit

Cards. EMV Card Migration and Issuance with CTL System. Authorization System changes to support EMV Cards. Introduced New Cards products: Prepaid Card, E-Top ups, Contactless Tags, Mobile tags Additional achievements:

• Contactless Visa Card Certification Acquiring Host.• Contactless Visa Card Certification Issuance• Contactless Terminal qADVT Certification.• ISO8583 POS Acquiring implementation.• ADVT / TIP Certification for the new POS terminals such as VeriFone and Ingenico.• Implementation of MegaNAC (Hypercom) Network Controller for the POS Acquiring Business.• E-Commerce Acquiring Certification for the bank.• Integrated Payment Gateway with the bank’s acquiring HOST.• Amex Terminal Certification• Amex Certification for the banks acquiring HOST.• Introduced and implemented a Terminal Management System for the POS terminal• Implemented TCP/IP and GPRS POS terminals• CCD Certification.• EMV acceptance on the POS with Online PIN, Offline PIN and PIN at POS.• EMV Acquiring Certification with Payment Schemes (Visa / MasterCard).

CARDS SYSTEM ANALYST, 2004-2009Worked on certification with payment scheme for compliance and new projects. Deployed and supported complex in-house and third party applications. Developed Business Critical report for monitoring and analysing the acquiring and issuance business. Interacted with various internal IT support functions, Development, Quality Assurance, Operations and external 3rd party vendors to troubleshoot and resolve problems. Worked with all parties to provide services to agreed SLAs.

Select Accomplishments: Led implementation and support for Terminal Management System for Ingenico / VeriFone terminals Developed and executed software test plans and procedures for cards systems and POS interfaces Analysed opportunities to enhance the Cards Application requirement. Supported back office and customer services on any system issues. Maintained Payment Scheme Compliance upgrade on Issuance and Acquiring System. Worked on POS Terminal Application testing and writing test scripts.

TRAINING & QUALIFICATION

Bachelors of Science in ComputersDNIIT Diploma , NIIT Qatar, Qatar

Visa Authorization Skills, Visa International, EgyptSoftware Testing for Better Project Management Certificate

LANGUAGE SKILLS: Urdu (native); English & Hindi (fluent); Arabic (working)