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UAE Exchange and MasterCard Launch ‘Smart’ Payroll Card

The new MasterCard Smart Pay Payroll Card, launched on Monday, will enable employees in the UAE to collect their wages from a cach machine without needing to queue up to be paid at their place of work, said Dr. B. R. Shetty, managing director and chief executive of UAE Exchange, one of the country’s major currency remittance companies.

“Employee salaries can be loaded onto the payroll card by companies that enroll for the Smart Pay service,” he said at an event to announce the new card.

UAE Exchange already provides a so-called Smart Pay service, under which the company acts on behalf of employers and disburses workers’ wages at bureaus it has set up at major centers of labourer housing. Some 150,000 employees of 973 different companies are currently enrolled in the the Smart Pay service.

The Smart Pay Payroll Card card aims to make it easier and more convenient for workers to receive their wage payments, by using their cards in a new network of cash machines. UAE Exchange and MasterCard Worldwide are targeting the country’s approximately three million low-income earners with the card.

“It is a great privilege for us to help thousands of corporates across the UAE to disburse salaries as per the convenience of their employees, enabling 24/7 access to through a wide network of Cash Dispensing Machines,” Dr Shetty said.

UAE Exchange Chairman Abdulla Humaid Ali Al Mazroei said that the new salary payment system “will usher in a new era of convenience for companies and their employees by processing and managing salaries efficiently in compliance with the stipulations of the Wages Protection System and the directives of the UAE Ministry of Labour.”

He said that the Smart Pay Payroll Card is the first of several products his company plans to introduce, including travel, remittance and gift cards.

“Organisations in the UAE are transitioning to payroll cards as they recognise the convenience and security of electronic payment solutions realized by the employer and the employees,” added Denzil Lawson, General Manager for Middle East & Levant of 
MasterCard Worldwide.

UAE Exchange operates in 22 countries and is growing at 50 per cent annually, in spite of global financial turmoil, Dr Shetty said. The firm has 80 branches in the UAE. — issacjohn@khaleejtimes.com