• Malabar Gold and Diamonds becomes the first global jewelry client to implement Emirates NBD's premier API Banking service, setting a best practice payment benchmark for other gold industry companies to adopt.

Dubai, UAE: Malabar Gold & Diamonds, the sixth largest jewelry retailer in the world with an extensive retail network in eleven countries, has partnered with Emirates NBD, a leading banking group in the MENAT (Middle East, North Africa and Türkiye) region, to automate vendor payments through the use of ‘Emirates NBD API Banking’.

Malabar Gold & Diamonds’ strategic partnership with Emirates NBD has supported the acceleration of its digital transformation strategy while ensuring the highest level of data integrity and security standards. Seamless vendor payments and reconciliation have been among the biggest cash management challenges faced by businesses today and the best solutions have been found in transformative technologies such as Application Programming Interface (APIs). Leveraging bespoke solutions, Emirates NBD has been working closely with the jewelry brand and other clients to streamline and optimize treasury operations.

Using Emirates NBD’s financial APIs, the bank has created an omnichannel vendor management system for Malabar Gold & Diamonds, offering real time transaction processing and status enquiry for all its suppliers. The introduction of Emirates NBD’s APIs has enhanced the efficiency of the brand’s payment process, reducing the overall turnaround time for payments and eliminating the need for time consuming account reconciliation operations. The partnership marks Emirates NBD’s first collaboration with a global jewelry client, creating a best practice payment benchmark for other members of the precious metal industry to adopt.   

Shamlal Ahamed, the International Operations Managing Director of Malabar Gold and Diamonds, said: “Malabar Gold & Diamonds is proud to be the first in our industry to partner with Emirates NBD to implement its state-of-the-art API banking solution. This is in line with our brand’s constant effort to seamlessly blend the latest technological innovations into our operations, thereby improving security and efficiency. We are constantly seeking to improve the efficiency of payments to our associates, who are one of the most important arms of our operations and with Emirates NBD’s new API based payment interface, we are confident of bringing another layer of seamless efficiency into our vendor payments. This will undoubtedly be another milestone in the long-standing association between Malabar Gold & Diamonds and Emirates NBD.”  

Commenting on the announcement, Ahmed Al Qassim, Group Head of Wholesale Banking, Emirates NBD, said: “Through our strategic partnership with Malabar Gold & Diamonds, we are proud to have engineered and delivered an advanced payment solution, powered by Emirates NBD API Banking. The bespoke solution showcases our ability to transform traditional business models through the seamless integration of technology and finance. Our APIs are enabling convenient processing of payments across jurisdictions, empowering organizations to digitalize and expedite their B2B payments and transactions, while accessing real time cash visibility and optimized working capital. As we guide our clients through the evolving business landscape, we remain committed to driving innovation and delivering tailored solutions that optimize efficiency, enhance financial visibility and empower their growth aspirations.

Emirates NBD has been accelerating its introduction of a broad range of digital banking solutions across Cash, Liquidity, Trade and Supply Chain Finance as part of its digital transformation strategy. ‘Emirates NBD API Souq’ was launched last year to provide the Group’s corporate clients, FinTechs and developers an all-in-one ecosystem to rapidly develop innovative financial solutions. It currently hosts more than 30 banking APIs, across the six key categories of account services, payments, collections, real-time notifications, trade services and information services.

About Emirates NBD

Emirates NBD (DFM: Emirates NBD) is a leading banking group in the MENAT (Middle East, North Africa and Türkiye) region with a presence in 13 countries, serving over 20 million customers. As at 30th June 2023, total assets were AED 811 billion, (equivalent to approx. USD 221 billion). The Group has operations in the UAE, Egypt, India, Türkiye, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Singapore, the United Kingdom, Austria, Germany, Russia and Bahrain and representative offices in China and Indonesia with a total of 854 branches and 4,173 ATMs / SDMs. Emirates NBD is the leading financial services brand in the UAE with a Brand value of USD 3.89 billion. 

Emirates NBD Group serves its customers (individuals, businesses, governments, and institutions) and helps them realise their financial objectives through a range of banking products and services including retail banking, corporate and institutional banking, Islamic banking, investment banking, private banking, asset management, global markets and treasury, and brokerage operations. The Group is a key participant in the global digital banking industry with 97% of all financial transactions and requests conducted outside of its branches. The Group also operates Liv, the lifestyle digital bank by Emirates NBD, with close to half a million users, it continues to be the fastest-growing bank in the region.

Emirates NBD contributes to the construction of a sustainable future as an active participant and supporter of the UAE’s main development and sustainability initiatives, including financial wellness and the inclusion of people of determination. Emirates NBD is committed to supporting the UAE’s Year of Sustainability and is an early supporter to the Dubai Can sustainability initiative, a city-wide initiative aimed to reduce use of single-use plastic bottled water.

About Malabar Gold & Diamonds:

Malabar Gold & Diamonds was established in 1993 and is the flagship company of Malabar Group, a leading diversified Indian business conglomerate.

With an annual turnover of $5.2 billion, the company currently ranks as the 6th largest jewellery retailer globally and today has a strong retail network of over 320 outlets spread across 11 countries in addition to multiple offices, design centers, wholesale units and factories spread across India, Middle East, Far East, USA & UK. The group, owned by more than 4,000 shareholders, has more than 19,500 professionals from over 26 countries working towards its continued success. Malabar Gold & Diamonds also features an online store www.malabargoldanddiamonds.com providing customers the opportunity to purchase their favorite jewelry at any time and on any day from the comfort of their homes.

The group also operates MGD – Lifestyle Jewellery, a retail concept offering trendy and light weight jewellery that represents the independent and the modern woman through its designs and collections.

ESG (Environmental, Social & Governance) has been the primary commitment of the group since its inception. The key ESG focus area of Malabar Group are Health, Housing, Hunger Free World, Education, Environment and Women empowerment. Integrating the principles of responsibility and sustainability into its core business, Malabar Group periodically strengthens its ESG goals to remain a socially conscious and responsible organization. The group contributes 5% of its profit to such initiatives in the same country of operation.

For further information on Emirates NBD, please contact:

Ibrahim Sowaidan
Senior Vice President
Head - Group Corporate Affairs
Emirates NBD
e-mail: ibrahims@emiratesnbd.com

Mahmoud Kassem
Director
Brunswick Group
e-mail: mkassem@brunswickgroup.com