Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB) has gone live on the UAE national blockchain ecosystem for the exchange of verified KYC data

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Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB), a leading financial institution operating in accordance with Shariah (Islamic law), has become the first Islamic bank that went live on the nationwide?KYC (Know Your Customer) Blockchain Platform.

This tech initiative was launched in February 2020 by Dubai’s Department of Economy and Tourism (DET)?together with its founding partner banks. The Swedish fintech company norbloc’s Fides Blockchain Platform is also a big part of the ecosystem’s technology.

It aims to simplify, speed up and make sharing of accredited KYC data among licensing institutions and authorities safer. Besides, the exchange of verified e-KYC data among financial institutions also improves the?efficiency of customer onboarding.

As for the technical aspects, the platform works as follows: the authenticated and validated KYC data of various companies is simultaneously shared with financial institutions of their preference. It expedites the opening of bank accounts for newly registered companies and enables less cumbersome and more affordable processes of managing KYC data for already registered companies.

According to Ahmad Khalifa AlFalasi, CEO of Dubai Business Licence Corporation, the platform is an important step towards attracting global investors to the UAE market. He believes blockchain has tremendous potential to streamline services and operations, saving time, money, and resources for all parties involved. This way, the introduction of the innovative KYC data-sharing system might help the country improve the ease of doing business, further enhancing and ensuring regulatory compliance.

The UAE KYC Blockchain Platform first engaged the four founding member banks: Emirates NBD (ENBD), Commercial Bank of Dubai (CBD), Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB), and HSBC. Later, the platform expanded with DIFC, RAKEZ, RAK ICC, Mashreq Bank and Wio Bank. ADIB has become the third financial institution to join from the emirate of Abu Dhabi, and the first Islamic financial institution to go live on the platform.

The country is actively exploring not only the blockchain potential but also centralized cryptocurrencies. As we have previously reported, UAE Сentral Bank has selected technology and legal partners for the CBDC project.