Media Release

Dubai, Apr 18: “Excellence gets recognised, especially when it has a welfare angle to it”, said Y Sudhir Kumar Shetty, COO – Global Operations, UAE Exchange. He was speaking on the awards ceremony of Smart Pay Appreciation Programme, held recently at Madinat Jumeirah, here.

The programme was aimed at awarding corporate entities, which work towards achieving excellence, while aligning with the UAE government’s vision for employee welfare. The programme was an initiative from Smart Pay, the WPS-compliant leading payroll solution from UAE Exchange.

“Congratulations to all awardees! It gives immense happiness to us to see such passion for excellence. We take pride in our relationship with our corporate clients, who share our vision to achieve excellence in every sphere, while ensuring the welfare of their employees. This award programme is a token of our appreciation for the committed efforts of our partners towards excellence, while aligning their objectives
with the Government’s vision”, Shetty said.

Smart Pay initiated the Smart Pay Appreciation Programme in 2010. The first edition, held in 2011, recognised the top 10 achievers with the ‘Best Smart Employer Award’. The committed efforts of the clients, clubbed with their penchant for quality of processes and welfare of their employees, has inspired Smart Pay to add more categories to its repertoire of awards. The result was introduction of ‘Best Free Zone Star Award’ and ‘Relationship Excellence Award’ in 2012.

The award winning corporate entities include IFFCO-Group, Cars Taxi Services Co LLC, Emirates Technical & Thermal Systems Co LLC, Laing O’Rourke Middle East, Larsen & Toubro Limited – ECC Construction Group, Al Ryum Group, Extraco Group, Al Arif Contracting Co LLC and Al Arif Group, Eastern International LLC (Bukhatir Group) and NCC Group of companies under ‘Best Smart Pay Employer’ category; RAK Ceramics PSC, Lamprell Energy Ltd and Inter Ocean Ship Repair Group of Companies under ‘Best Free Zone Star’ category; NICO International, Emirate Techno Casting FZE and Dolphin Group of Companies under ‘Relationship Excellence’ category.

The event also witnessed the launch of the new online customer-centric Smart Pay portal, which enables Smart Pay’s corporate clients to view various Smart Pay payroll reports, online, and know the status of their payroll, with just few clicks. The function also saw more value coming in with the launch of the revamped Smart Pay website, which has now become sleeker and more interactive. These two new
introductions, this year, will bring more convenience to Smart Pay clients, right at their desktops.

Smart Pay, the WPS-compliant industry-leading payroll solution, is an initiative of UAE Exchange, the leading global remittance and foreign exchange brand. Started in 2006, Smart Pay has today emerged into a leader in the segment. As per 2011 WPS statistics, Smart Pay is the No.1 in terms of salary disbursals among exchange houses.

Smart Pay offers quality payroll solutions to tens of thousands of corporate entities and their employees. It not only helps the clients with easy salary disbursals, but also with compliance to Wages Protection System (WPS), an award-winning initiative from UAE Ministry of Labour and UAE Central Bank.

Taking its value addition to a new level, Smart Pay reduced the turnaround time for salary processing to two hours. Now employees of the corporate entities can collect their salaries, within two hours from the time of deposit of funds, from any UAE Exchange branch, across the UAE.

Smart Pay also offers an electronic payroll card, powered by MasterCard, to the employees of its clients. This card enables the employees to withdraw salary from any MasterCard ATM, worldwide; shop at MasterCard-approved merchant locations; withdraw from UAE Exchange Cash Dispensing Machines (CDM); and avail exciting discounts from various loyalty partners. This is apart from the camp site salary disbursal and remittance services offered for the convenience of the employees.

This law-abiding passion to excellence has made Smart Pay a favourite of corporate entities, their employees and the compliance authorities. The appreciation progamme is an extension of this passion.

The function, conducted amidst much fanfare, was graced by dignitaries from the Ministry of Labour, Smart Pay’s corporate clients, senior officials of UAE Exchange and special invitees.