Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank Adopts KYC Blockchain Platform

Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB) is the first Islamic bank in the United Arab Emirates to go live on a KYC (Know Your Customer) blockchain platform. Through the platform, which is a national environment for sharing authenticated KYC data between licensing officials and financial institutions, all companies’ authenticated and approved KYC data will be simultaneously shared with the financial institution of their choice.

A press statement said the KYC blockchain platform will speed up the process of opening bank accounts for newly registered businesses and make it easier and cheaper for companies already registered with the system to manage KYC data. It will also make it easier to register and transact digital customer data and documents in a secure and efficient manner. This will be done with the help of blockchain technology and dissemination technology.

The project was launched in February 2020 by the Dubai 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 with the addition of Dubai International Financial Center (DIFC), Ras Al Khaimah Free Zone (RAKEZ), RAK International Corporate Center (RAK ICC), Mashreq Bank and WioBank.

Swedish fintech firm norbloc’s Fides blockchain platform is an important part of the ecosystem technology. Samih Awadhalla, Acting Global Head of Retail Banking at ADIB, said: “ADIB has joined the UAE KYC Blockchain Alliance so that we can improve our onboarding process and provide a more secure way to process and share data.”

Ahmad Khalifa Al Falasi, CEO of Dubai Business Licensing Company, said: “Through this advanced mechanism, we hope to improve the ease of doing business in the UAE and ensure that everyone follows the rules.” is a revolutionary technology, and we see huge potential to simplify service and operations so everyone saves time, money and resources.”

Astyanax Kanakakis, CEO and co-founder of norbloc, said: “With the development of the KYC blockchain platform in the UAE, including major banking institutions such as ADIB, the three-year-old network has grown from strength to strength.”

“ADIB is the third financial institution in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi to join,” said Kanakakis. This means that norbloc’s Fides platform will continue to provide a better KYC experience for financial institutions in the UAE and their clients.