Commercial Bank of Dubai, Thunes partner to offer real-time remittances

By Edil Corneille

The Commercial Bank of Dubai (CBD) and Thunes, a global cross-border payment provider, announced their partnership today. The collaboration entails the facilitation of real-time cross-border transaction flows between the UAE and the rest of the world.

The bank will be able to cater to the corridors of India, Philippines, Pakistan and Bangladesh as customers will be provided with real-time remittances to the bank accounts, mobile wallets and cash pick-up services at various locations.

Dr. Bernd van Linder, Chief Executive Officer, Commercial Bank of Dubai elucidated, “We are delighted to partner with Thunes, enabling us to optimize and streamline our processes with a single API to remit money to many countries. This is firmly in line with CBD’s default digital strategy to provide customers with innovative and technological products and services to enrich their banking experiences and make banking more seamless and convenient.”

The service will be launched with remittances to bank accounts. The remittances to cash-pick up locations and mobile wallets will be added shortly. According to the Central Bank of the UAE in 2019, AED 165 billion was sent back by migrant workers to their home countries from the UAE, with India, Pakistan and the Philippines being the top 3 destinations.

“We are glad to partner with Commercial Bank of Dubai and join them on their innovative path to become a digital-first bank in UAE. Bringing more services for banks and unlocking opportunities for their customers is part of our mission and we are delighted to offer many remittance destinations for CBD,” noted Peter De Caluwe, CEO at Thunes.

CBD customers are enabled to transfer money in real-time to their respective countries in a convenient, quick and secure way through the CBD Mobile App or CBD’s online banking platform.