"Establishing an office in the heart of such a strategically important market was always a central part of SmartStream's expansion plans. The Middle East is emerging as an important processing hub in financial markets and is home to some of the fastest growing and most innovative financial organisations, which is driving demand in IT innovation."

"With a local presence we can build on our previous success in the region and support these institutions" plans to deliver scalable and flexible transaction processing environments."

Through the Dubai office, seen as a significant step in SmartStream's ongoing direct investment in the region, the company will be offering its range of market leading Transaction Lifecycle Management (TLM) services, already used by more than 75 of the world's top 100 banks, direct to the Middle Eastern market.

According to the company, its flexible software design ensures it can rapidly deliver solutions that can create more efficient, customer-focused, cost-effective, compliant operations for the region's financial institutions.

Nasser Al Shaali, CEO, DIFC Authority, commented:

"With the ever expanding concentration of financial firms in Dubai and across the region the demand for industry-proven processing software is increasing. As a leading provider of software to the financial services community, SmartStream has a great deal to offer the institutions in the Middle East."

"We are pleased to welcome SmartStream to the world's fastest growing international financial centre and also look forward to working with them on developing the next generation of hosted information and trade processing services."