Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank Adopts KYC Blockchain Platform

The first Islamic bank in the UAE to go live on the KYC (Know Your Customer) Blockchain Platform is Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB). Through the platform, which is a national environment for sharing authenticated KYC data between licensed officials and financial institutions, all firms’ authenticated and approved KYC data will be shared simultaneously with their chosen financial institutions.

A news release says the KYC Blockchain Platform will speed up the process of setting up bank accounts for newly registered businesses and make it easier and cheaper for companies already registered in the system to manage KYC data. It will also make it easier to register and trade digital customer data and papers in a secure and efficient way. This will be done using blockchain technology and diffusion technologies.

The project was launched in February 2020 by Dubai’s Department of Economy and Tourism (DET) and four original member banks: Emirates NBD, Commercial Bank of Dubai (CBD), Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB) and HSBC. The KYC Blockchain Platform has grown by adding Dubai International Financial Center (DIFC), Ras Al Khaimah Free Trade Zone (RAKEZ), RAK International Corporate Center (RAK ICC), Mashreq Bank and WioBank.

The Swedish fintech company norbloc Fides Blockchain Platform is a large part of the ecosystem’s technology. Samih Awadhalla, the acting global head of retail banking at ADIB, said: “ADIB joined the UAE KYC Blockchain Consortium so we could improve our onboarding processes and offer more secure ways of handling and sharing data.”

The CEO of the Dubai Business License Corporation, Ahmad Khalifa Al Falasi, said: “Through this advanced mechanism, we want to make it easier to do business in the UAE and ensure that everyone follows the rules.” Al Falasi said: “Because blockchain is a revolutionary technology, we see great potential to streamline services and operations so that everyone saves time, money and resources.”

Astyanax Kanakakis, CEO and co-founder of norbloc, said: “The three-year-old network grows stronger as the UAE KYC Blockchain platform grows to include key banking institutions such as ADIB.”

Kanakakis said: “ADIB is the third financial institution from the emirate of Abu Dhabi to join.” This means that norbloc’s Fides platform will continue to provide financial institutions and their customers in the UAE with a much better KYC experience.