UAE Banks’ Advisory Council Consider Blockchain Adoption

On Monday, December 17th, Gulf News reported that the advisory council of the United Arab Emirates Banks Federation (UBF) can adopt blockchain use among the member banks. 

At present, the advisory council of UBF consists of 50 member banks in the UAE.  Moreover, the primary use of Blockchain will be to streamline know-your-customer (KYC) processes at banks. 

Leveraging the Blockchain Technology to Enhance Banking Processes

UBF’s chairman, Abdul Aziz Al Ghurair, said that this initiative will help in developing and driving a “thriving banking ecosystem.” The member banks of the advisory council also discussed driving ahead UAE’s digital transformation program. 

Aref Al Ramli, the chairperson of UBF’s Digital Banking Committee, also spoke about other potential benefits of blockchain. Al Ramli talked about how blockchain can help to create industry standards to digitize inter-banking processes among member banks. 

Furthermore, he also described blockchain’s crucial role in cross-border transfers, payments, and compliance reporting, among several others.

Al Ghurair said that blockchain is helping to put banking industry participants “at the forefront of innovations.” Moreover, these emerging technologies continue “to shape customer needs and expectations.”

“The emerging technologies also present new opportunities for banks to create new revenue streams, which will in turn drive sustained business growth,” said Al Ghurair.

UAE Planning a Major Overhaul of Its Banking Sector

Over the last few months, UAE has taken several initiatives towards enhancing its banking sector with the advent of blockchain. The UAE government is in talks with popular blockchain companies like Ripple. It is also testing some of its blockchain solutions like the RippleNet which can facilitate instant cross-border payments at low cost. 

Other remittance services like the UAE Exchange is also considering the integration of RippleNet. As CBW reported, the UAE exchange will start cross-border remittance services using RippleNet by Q1 2019. 

Promoth Manghat, CEO of the UAE Exchange said, “The early adoption of this game-changing technology allows us to offer a competitive service, as it will have an impact on the speed and cost of cross-border transactions. We are proud to deliver the future of payments with Ripple.”

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