Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank joins UAE Trade Connect Fintech Consortium

By Edlyn Cardoza

UAE Trade Connect (UTC) recently announced that Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB) has joined its consortium of leading UAE banks utilising its blockchain platform to help de-risk trade finance.

UTC is the FinTech blockchain platform of e& enterprise from e& (formerly known as Etisalat Group) and is the first commercialised blockchain platform to come out of the UAE. UTC’s platform aspires to be the national trade finance platform and is already enhancing its capabilities to provide in-depth information about suspicious elements of invoices presented for financing.

The signing ceremony was held at the offices of e& enterprise in Dubai and was attended by senior management from both organisations. ADCB, which is among the largest banks in the UAE, becomes the ninth official member bank when UTC celebrates its first anniversary.

Commenting on the ADCB partnership and the consortium’s first anniversary, Zulqarnain Javaid, Chief Executive Officer of UTC, said: “Today is an important milestone that demonstrates how far UTC has come in our vision to co-create the UAE’s first commercialised blockchain platform and move towards a fully digitised trade finance ecosystem. We are indeed very excited to have ADCB join our consortium as we work closely to promote financial stability within the country’s financial system. As more banks join us, we are confident of strengthening our coverage in combating fraud even further as we will be catering to the majority of the trade finance market share.”

“The commitment of our incumbent member banks to reduce the risk of dubious transactions is evident as they have presented AED 28 billion in invoice value through our system during the past 12 months,” he added.

Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank further added: “ADCB has always leveraged technology and innovation as a means of empowering our clients and supporting our delivery of excellent service. As one of the first banks in the UAE to initiate and lead the digitisation of trade finance in the country, we continue to seek out valuable partnerships as we work towards achieving strategic national initiatives.”

“We remain focused on providing our valued clients with comprehensive working capital solutions in a transparent and efficient manner. This partnership will see us working closely with UTC and its member banks to create a digitalized trade finance ecosystem in the UAE,” continued ADCB.

With the advent of the Invoice Factoring law recently published by the Federal Government of the UAE, the UTC blockchain platform will be a key enabler for banks to increase lending to SMEs and allow corporates to borrow against their trade receivables. All consortium member banks play an equal and active role in the steering and governance of the UTC platform.