Abu Dhabi - The National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD) is pleased to be the first Middle East bank to introduce real time cross border payments on Blockchain technology. The new channel is intended to facilitate regional customers with simple, real time and secure way to process their cross border payments.
Ripple’s Distributed Financial Technology fits within NBAD’s existing infrastructure and offers a secure end-to-end payment flow providing transaction immutability and payment integrity. Integrated to the NBAD’s innovative payments infrastructure, the Ripple solution offers customers end-to-end visibility of transactions and allow for the instant transfer of funds to a beneficiary in a cost-effective manner.
With Ripple connectivity, NBAD aims to significantly progress the way cross border payments are made today by offering clear costs, improved delivery time and visibility into the transaction process – ultimately reducing the investment and resources required by our customers to send payments.
Vineet Varma, Managing Director & Head of Global Transaction Banking, NBAD said: “We’re always exploring new ways to enhance our customers’ experience. With blockchain, we hope that we could address the needs of our customers and drive forward more efficient and flexible service. Embracing technologies like Blockchain is a step in right direction for our customers”
Ramana Kumar, Managing Director & Head of GTB Business and Product Management, added “At NBAD we strive to ensure our offerings are efficient and transparent. Blockchain technology transforms and paves a new way in achieving our goals and better serve our customers, adding value through accessibility and transparency. As an initial adopter and first bank to go live on Ripple, NBAD offers innovative solutions to our clients payments needs”
Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple, added, “Banks and their customers have been hearing about the promise of blockchain technology to enable real-time cross-border payments. Now, some of the most innovative and successful banks like NBAD are making this a reality by offering Ripple-enabled payments to their entire customer base, and in doing so, paving the way to make 2017 the year we see broad commercialization of blockchain take hold globally.”
NBAD is the first bank in the region to provide customers with Ripple’s technology, joining a growing list of premium companies and institutions around the world, including Santander, Standard Chartered, and UniCredit.
According to the 2016 World Bank migration and remittances factbook, the UAE is ranked as the fourth top remittance-sending country in the world, accounting for more than $19 billion (Dh70 billion).
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About NBAD
NBAD has one of the largest networks in the UAE, with 106 branches and cash offices and 527 ATMs across the country. NBAD’s growing international presence consists of 45 branches and offices in 16 countries stretching across five continents from the Far East to the Americas, giving it the largest global network among all UAE banks.
Since 2009, NBAD has been ranked consecutively as one of the World’s 50 Safest Banks by the prestigious Global Finance magazine, which also named NBAD the Safest Bank in the Emerging Markets and the Middle East.
NBAD is rated senior long term/short term AA-/A-1+ by Standard & Poor's (S&P), Aa3/P1 by Moody’s, AA-/F1+ by Fitch, A+ by Rating and Investment Information Inc (R&I) Japan, and AAA by RAM (Malaysia), giving it one of the strongest combined rating of any Global financial institution.
A comprehensive financial institution, NBAD offers a range of banking services including retail, investment and Islamic banking. NBAD grows strategically toward its vision to be recognised as the World’s Best Arab Bank.
For more information please visit: www.nbad.com.
About Ripple
Ripple provides global financial settlement solutions to ultimately enable the world to exchange value like it already exchanges information – giving rise to an Internet of Value (IoV). Ripple solutions lower the total cost of settlement by enabling banks to transact directly without correspondent banks and with real-time certainty, optionally using the digital asset XRP to further reduce liquidity costs. Banks around the world are partnering with Ripple to improve their cross-border payment offerings, and to join its growing, global network of financial institutions and market makers.
Ripple is a venture-backed startup with offices in San Francisco, New York, London and Sydney. As an industry advocate for the Internet of Value, Ripple sits on the Federal Reserve’s Faster Payments Task Force Steering Committee and co-chairs the W3C’s Web Payments Working Group.
NBAD media contacts:
Michael Miller
Head of Investor, Media and Public Relations
+971 (0) 50 619 7116
michael.miller@nbad.com
© Press Release 2017
