ADIB Becomes first Islamic Bank to Go Live on the UAE KYC Blockchain Platform

• The initiative was launched in February 2020 by DET in partnership with four founding member banks.
• DET aims to accelerate the expansion of the ecosystem and connect more financial institutions.
• Swedish fintech company, norbloc, is the technology provider, enabling the ecosystem via its Fides Blockchain Platform.

Dubai, UAE, 16 April 2023

Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB) has become the first Islamic bank to go live on the UAE KYC (Know Your Customer) Blockchain Platform, a national ecosystem for the exchange of verified KYC data between licensing authorities and financial institutions.

Dubai’s Department of Economy and Tourism (DET) launched the initiative in 2020 in partnership with a group of four founding member banks: Emirates NBD (ENBD), Commercial Bank of Dubai (CBD), Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB), and HSBC. Today, the platform has expanded, with DIFC, RAKEZ, RAK ICC, Mashreq Bank and WioBank also joining the system. The UAE KYC Blockchain Platform will facilitate a faster, more secure onboarding and exchange of digital customer data and documents through advanced blockchain-powered distributed technologies, a first of its kind in the region.

Ahmad Khalifa AlFalasi, CEO, Dubai Business Licence Corporation, commented: “We are pleased to welcome Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank to our growing blockchain ecosystem. Our strategic partnerships with banks to launch the first KYC blockchain platform in the UAE is an important step towards attracting global investors to this market. Through this advanced mechanism, we aim to further improve the ease of doing business, and overall, further enhance and ensure regulatory compliance in the UAE. As blockchain is a breakthrough technology, we see tremendous potential in streamlining services and operations, saving time, money, and resources for everyone involved – individuals, companies, and government bodies.

“Inspired by our visionary leadership, the blockchain KYC consortium is testament to the positive stance adopted by the government in leveraging blockchain technology to improve business efficiency and transparency. ADIB can now benefit from the KYC data for their customer onboarding and receive data updates for their existing customers,” added AlFalasi.

Samih Awadhalla, Acting Global Head of Retail Banking at ADIB said: “When ADIB joined the UAE KYC Blockchain Consortium, we did so with the clear goal of developing onboarding operations and providing more secure ways of handling and exchanging data. We are proud to support DET and collaborate with fellow banks in this important undertaking. By advancing our ability to protect sensitive data, we hope to provide peace of mind for our customers and enable a seamless user experience.

Astyanax Kanakakis, CEO and Co-Founder of norbloc, said: “The continued expansion of the UAE KYC Blockchain Platform to include key banking institutions, such as ADIB, further strengthens the network which has been live for three years now. ADIB is the third financial institution to join from the emirate of Abu Dhabi, ensuring that norbloc’s Fides platform will continue to provide a significantly better KYC experience for both financial institutions and their clients across the UAE.”

With the launch of the KYC Blockchain Platform, the authenticated and validated KYC data of companies will simultaneously be shared with financial institutions of their preference. This will expedite the opening of bank accounts for newly registered companies and pave the way for a less cumbersome and costly process of managing KYC data for companies that are already registered with the system.